Right Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Leader of the Opposition):

Mr. Speaker,

may I draw attention to a mistake which appears in Hansard. Although I imagine it is a typographical error I should like, if possible, to have it corrected. In answering a question yesterday regarding travelling and living expenses of persons attending meetings of the League of Nations, the Prime Minister in the statement given is reported to have indicated the expenses of myself and other members of the Prime Minister's office as follows:

League of Nations

1928-29, Fiftieth Council meeting, $9,317.37.

May I say I did not attend the fiftieth council meeting a.t all, so that obviously in that particular there is an error. However, a little farther down mention is made of the fifty-first and fifty-second council meetings and of the ninth assembly. The names following that item are, I believe, of persons who did not attend either the fifty-first or fifty-second council meetings. Personally I did attend both, and I also attended the ninth assembly. Therefore I believe the words "ninth assembly, fifty-first and fifty-second council meeting" ought to precede the statement relating to the expenses charged to my office. I may say those expenses include also some expenditures which were incidental to business connected with the Prime Minister's office as I was Prime Minister at the time.

Right Hon. R. B. BENNETT (Prime Minister):

Mr. Speaker, the information

which I laid upon the table of the house in answer to the questions which had been asked, was furnished to me by the continuing official who has been in charge of these matters in the Department of External Affairs for many years, and it is just possible in indicating the council meetings, in brackets-as I noticed it was on the return-that the Hansard printers have made a mistake in putting in "fiftieth" where it should have been "fifty-first" or vice versa. That may be so. But, so far as the figures are concerned I only inquired if they had been checked over and if they were accurate, and I was informed they were. The information was filed as I received it.

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

I am not taking, exception to the figures, so long as they are properly allocated to the fifty-first and fifty-second council meetings and to the ninth assembly of the League of Nations, and not put down simply as expenses arising out of the fiftieth council meeting, which I did not attend.

Miss A. C. MACPHAIL (Southeast Grey):

Mr. Speaker, I beg leave to present a petition

signed by 6,696 farmers in the different counties of Ontario asking for government action which will result in the raising of the prices of farm produce.

Right Hon. R. B. BENNETT (Prime Minister):

Mr. Speaker, I suppose the

petition will be referred to the proper committee, but it is obvious from the prayer of the document that it seeks relief which only provincial legislatures can grant.

Mr. McINTOSH:

Out of court!

Mr. SPEAKER:

I direct the Hansard reporter not to report the reading of the petition; I did not realize at the time what was being read. This petition must receive the same treatment as other petitions filed in the house and be referred to the clerk of petitions. Therefore Hansard will not report the reading of it.

Right Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Leader of the Opposition):

What is meant

exactly by the expression "commonwealth forces"?

Mr. BENNETT:

That will be explained

by the bill itself. The British commonwealth of nations-it means the forces belonging to the nations of the commonwealth.

Motion agreed to and bill read the first time.