Chiswickite - formerly The Croydonian

This, from 1960. 

Dr. A. Thompson asked the Minister of Health if he will examine the possibility of providing separate wards in hospitals for non-smokers in order to protect bronchitic and asthmatic patients.

Mr. Walker-Smith It is within the discretion of individual hospital authorities to decide what arrangements should be made regarding smoking and I am sure they will be vigilant to protect patients who find tobacco smoke objectionable. One must however bear in mind that many bronchitic patients are confirmed smokers.

The 'guid doctor' from Dunfermline is still among us apparently.  Perhaps he is a non-smoker.

And so back to 1910:

Mr. BYLES asked the Prime Minister whether the salary of the President of the Board of Trade has been increased, and to what amount; how long has the increase been paid; was it provided in the Act of last year that the amount of the salary should be fixed by Parliament; and why has that not been done?

The PRIME MINISTER The salary of the President of the Board of Trade was raised to £5,000 per annum from the date of the appointment of the present holder of that office, and that sum has been provided in the estimate for the Board of Trade for the current year. Should the House decline to vote the increased salary, the amount overpaid will be recovered.

If the rather nifty historic inflation calculator at Thisismoney.co.uk is to be believed - and why not? - five large then equates to 437 and a half large now.  Not a bad scratch. 


Matters Somali:

Mr. J. D. REES  I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has any intelligence to communicate to the House regarding the Somali Mullah?

Just the one?

The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Colonel Seely) No, Sir, we have no confirmation of the rumours appearing in the public Press as to the death of the Mullah. I will communicate to the House any information I receive.

Taking being the policeman's friend just a little too far, by my reckoning:

Captain JESSEL  asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, seeing that in celebration of His Majesty's Accession, remission of sentences and condonation of certain offences has been granted to the Navy, Army, Mercantile Marine, and to prisoners both in the United Kingdom and in India, he could see his way to advise the grant of similar remissions to the police forces and to the Metropolitan Police, such as a reduction of the period of disqualification for a clean sheet and other measures suitable to the occasion?

The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Churchill) To commemorate His Majesty's Accession I have approved the proposal that men of the Metropolitan Police Force who on 23rd May were undergoing punishment by fine or by suffering a decrease, for a period, in their rate of pay shall have the amount of any fine or balance of a fine outstanding on above date remitted, or a curtailment made in the unexpired period of decreased pay up to a limit of three months. Notice of this remission appeared in the newspapers yesterday.

Meanwhile, nice words from Persia vis a vis his late maj:

Mr. SPEAKER I have to report to the House that I have received from the President of the Medjlis of Persia a telegram, of which the following is a translation:— "Teheran, 12th May, 1910." "At the moment when the British nation mourns its terrible loss, the Medjlis, imbued with a deep feeling of profound sympathy, directs me to transmit to the House of Commons an expression of its own great affliction at the loss of a man who, quite apart from the greatness of his reign as a Sovereign, is entitled to the gratitude of humanity." "President of the Medjlis," "MOSTECHAREDOOLET."

Laying it on with a trowel, wasn't he?  My republican tendencies nothwithstanding.....

Intriguing:

Mr GIBSON BOWLES asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether there is any record in the Foreign Office of any overtures either in 1899 or in 1901 between Great Britain and Germany for the accession of Great Britain to the Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy, or are there any papers relating thereto; were any overtures begun in January, 1901, and broken off in March, 1901, for any understanding with Germany, or any joint action with Germany; and is there any correspondence that he can lay upon the Table for the information of Parliament?

Sir E. GREY I cannot answer questions of this kind about relations between Great Britain and other Powers ten years ago.

A very brief dig has not disclosed anything informing me one way or another.

Labels: 1910, Parliament

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