Right Hon. L. S. ST. LAURENT (Minister of Justice): Mr. Speaker, may I crave your indulgence and the indulgence of the house for a moment to make a word of personal explanation with regard to a story concerning my personal plans which is being carried in many newspapers and which I am told was also the subject of comment last night over the radio. For instance, in the Montreal Gazette the story appears under this title: St. Laurent to retire soon from public life. Ottawa, May 21 (CP) - I take that to mean the Canadian Press. Justice Minister St. Laurent said to-day in an interview he plans to retire from public life shortly and return to the law practice he left in Quebec in 1941 to take the justice department portfolio for the war period. I must say that I gave no such interview to the Canadian Press. The night before last I did have a conversation with a newspaper man and there is a paragraph in this which I certainly did authorize. The last paragraph reads: He termed as "ridiculous" a newspaper report which said speculation among back-bench Liberals was to the effect that Prime Minister Mackenzie King would retire within a year, appoint Mr. St. Laurent to succeed him, and continue to sit as Liberal member for Glengarry until the next election, when he would retire. Labour Conditions

I said that that was ridiculous and that I had no objection to being quoted as saying that. As to the preceding paragraphs about plans of mine to retire shortly from public life, I have given no interview about that, nor have I authorized the publication of any such statement. There are many newspaper men who have known ever since my first meeting with the press when I came to Ottawa as Minister of Justice in 1941 that I retained the hope of getting back at a convenient time to my law practice, but I have no definite plans that would warrant any announcement. I would not say anything about this except that the language used would appear to convey the impression that I had made a declaration about it for publication. Whenever these plans are sufficiently definite to warrant an announcement, that announcement probably will be made in a more formal manner than in the course of casual conversation with a friendly newspaper man. PRESS REPORT OP MEETING WITH LABOUR DELEGATION . Hon. HUMPHREY MITCHELfr (Minister of Labour): I should like to say a word about a meeting that I had yesterday with a labour delegation. The press said that this was a stormy meeting,' but I think those who know me best know that I do not take part in stormy meetings. .

Bill No. 128, for the relief of Edith May Hort Search.-Mr. Maybank. Bill No. 129, for the relief of Alexander Thompson Powell Scott.-Mr. Maybank. Bill No. 130, for the relief of Frances Eleanor Miller Foster-Mr. Casselman. Bill No. 131, for the relief of Mary Kathleen Maloney Rassie.-Mr. Maybank. Bill No. 132, for the relief of Mildred Florence Rooke Cochrane.-Mr. Maybank. Bill No. 133, for the relief of Eileene Ruby Aspell Stinson.-Mr. Maybank. Bill No. 134, for the relief of Edna Book-ala m Howick.-Mr. Casselman. Bill No. 135, for the relief of Berthe Alice Cardinal Reid.-Mr. Maybank. Bill No. 136, for the relief of Elizabeth Jean Warden Leupold.-Mr. Casselman.

(Questions answered orally are indicated by an asterisk)