Right Hon. ARTHUR MEIGHEN (Prime Minister) moved:

That Messrs. Anderson, Douglas (Strath-cona), Stewart (Hamilton), Armstrong (Lamb-ton), Whidden, Nesbitt, Tobin, Lapointe and Maharg be appointed to assist Mr. Speaker in the direction of the restaurant, so 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.

Right Hon. ARTHUR MEIGHEN (Prime Minister) moved:

That the name of Mr. Gordon be added to the Select Standing Committees on Miscellaneous Private Bills, and Banking and Commerce.

Right Hon. ARTHUR MEIGHEN (Prime Minister) :

I move to proceed to Bill No.

2, to amend The Dominion Elections Act.

The CHAIRMAN:

When this Bill was

before the committee yesterday, clause I was read, and an amendment thereto had been moved by the Hon. Acting Solicitor General (Mr. Guthrie). The amendment will be found printed, au long, at page 277 of Unrevised Hansard. Shall the amendment carry?

Mr. BUREAU:

I see by the Bill that

it is brought down to amend Dominion Elections Act.

For the purpose of the vote on a question submitted under the Canada Temperance Act directed by His Majesty's Proclamation dated the fourth day of June, 1920, to be taken in the province of Ontario on the eighteenth day of April, 1921.

Now the Prime Minister (Mr. Meighen), in his explanation the other day, said (Unrevised Hansard, p. 253) :

I thought I had made it very clear when I first moved the motion that the reason the motion intervenes and that this Bill is necessary is not because the previous Act was insufficient in the circumstances, but that until at the very eve of the passing of the Act or just afterwards it had not been called to the attention of the Government that were a plebiscite to be held in the year 1920 there would be this extensive disfranchisement of the soldiers.

I understood that when the Franchise Act was passed, provision was made to cover the case of a vote being taken in Ontario, and that the lists of 1919 were to be used. The Franchise Act was assented to on July 1, 1920. By the present Bill I see that the proclamation was dated June 4, 1920, and that it fixed April 18, 1921, as the date for taking the referendum. Therefore, the Government were fully aware on July 1, 1920, that this referendum was to be taken on April 18, 1921.

Mr. MEIGHEN:

There must be some

mistake.

Mr. BUREAU:

There is a mistake in

the printing or somewhere else. Evidently something is wrong, and I should like to have that point cleared up before I vote on the amendment.

Mr. GUTHRIE:

I think I can explain

the apparent discrepency. The matter was in the Department of the Secretary of State, and the proclamation was dated back to June 4, to coincide with the date of the Order in Council, though, as a matter of fact, is was issued much later.

Mr. BUREAU:

If I understand aright,

the proclamation simply recites what the

Order in Council contains, and if an Order in Council was passed providing for a referendum in the province of Ontario, it must have set the date, and if the* date was set, it was the 18th day of April, 1921.