Hon. J. D. REID moved:

That a message be sent to the Senate to inform Their Honours that this House has appointed Messrs. BSland, Blondin, Borden,Boyer, Broder, Clark (Bruce), Crothers.Doherty, Emmerson, Foster (North Toronto),Laurier (Sir Wilfrid), Lemieux, Lewis,

Meighen, Pardee, Pelletier and Pugsley, a committee to assist His Honour the Speaker in the direction of the Library of Parliament, so far as the interests of the House of Commons are concerned, and to act on behalf of the House of Commons as members of a Joint Committee on the Library.

Hon. J. D. REID moved:

That Messrs. Fripp, Pardee, Ross, and Stanfield be appointed to assist Mr. Speaker in the

direction of the restaurant, as far as the interests of the Commons are concerned, and to act as members of a Joint Committee of both Houses on the restaurant, and that a message be sent to the Senate to acquaint Their Honours therewith.

Hon. CHARLES MURPHY:

Mr. Speaker, I rise to a question of privilege. In the course of his speech yesterday afternoon and during the short time that I happened to be absent from the Chamber, my hon. friend the Postmaster General made refer-17

ence to a recent by-election in the constituency of South Bruce, and in that connection made certain observations with respect to myself which are both misleading and untrue.' For the sake of brevity and accuracy let me refer to 'Hansard.' The hon. gentleman is reported as having said:

The Mildmay Gazette gives a report of what took place at a meeting at Walkerton, and there we find that the Hon. Chas. Murphy was one of the speakers. And what did he say on this point?

His strongest contention on the naval issue was that the Borden policy was a direct insult to Germany and therefore a check to the peace conditions between that country and Great Britain which we are all so anxious to maintain.

In the first place, I did not happen to have the pleasure of speaking at Walker-ton in that election; but if this extract from the Mildmay Gazette purports to give what I said at other places, then 1 characterize it as misleading and untrue. My reference to the insult offered to Germany was directed, not to the policy of this Government, but to the report of a speech mentioned in this House last session, delivered by the Minister of Militia (Mr. Hughes) on the Pacific coast, in which it was stated that the hon. gentleman said that Germany would have to be taught a lesson. My further reference to the naval policy was that when the naval holiday of a year was proposed last fall by the hon. Mr. Churchill, the despatches which came from Germany, and which were published in the Canadian press of October 21, 1913, showed that the three ships which had been under discussion in this House were the ships that stood in the way of Mr. Churchill's offer being accepted by Germany, and in proof of my statement I read this despatch from the Ottawa Citizen, dated Berlin, October 20. 1913:

The naval authorities here consider the proposal that Germany should not build any warships while England is constructing or acquiring at least three cannot be discussed.

So much for that. Further on in his speech the hon. gentleman is reported to have said:

Appeals to prejudices were made in South Bruce. We know that there are a great number of Irish Roman Catholics in South Bruce. The hon. member for Russell (Hon. Charles Murphy) went to South Bruce and told the Irish Catholics that there was no reciprocity in the last election, but that the election was carried by the Conservative party on the Ne Temere question.

Mr. CARVELL:

So say we all.

Mr. PELLETIER:

Ah, these gentlemen will never acknowledge their defeat. Then we had this good Irish Roman Catholic, the hon. member for Russell, going to his co-religionists in

South Bru^o nnr1 teilir**T + f''~n r [DOT] 'onservative party had promised to bring in a Bill to render the marriage law uniform in this country. Who has made that promise?

With respect to these observations, I have only to say that I did not make any appeal to the prejudices of anv class of the community in the county of South Bruce. I made the same statements at each of the meetings I attended. I spoke as a Canadian to Canadians, and I merely said what I have said over and over again in this House. As to the hon. gentleman's question who made the promise, my answer to it at this time and place will be the answer that was suggested to be given to him who would inquire as to the monument of Sir Chr's op' er Wren, ' Circum-spice.' I have only to add that I know nothing about the leaflets or pamphlets that may have been distributed in that election.

Hon. GEO. E. FOSTER: Could the hon. gentleman give us a running interpretation of that foreign phrase?

Mr. MURPHY:

The hon. the Postmaster General will do that.

Mr. PELLETIER:

Speaking to the

question of privilege raised by the hon. member, I hold here the newspaper from whicn I took that report, the Mildmay Gazette, which, as I am told, is an independent newspaper. As a matter of fact I made a very slight mistake, which has no bearing on the point. The heading reads:

R. E. Truax holds meetings in his interest all through county-R. E. Truax at Walkerton.

I took it for granted that the speech was made in Walkerton, but on reading it over I find it was made at Mildmay.

Hon. GEO. P. GRAHAM: It was a mild speech.

Mr. PELLETIER:

What my hon. friend has just quoted is an exact reproduction of what the papers have said. Whether it was well reported or not well reported of course is another question, but I want to let the House know that I have reported the fact as I have found it in the paper.