Mr. Speaker:

It does not seem to concern the responsibility of any minister in the house.

Mr. Fleming:

Why does the hon. member ask the question if he knows? He is wasting more time.

Mr. Pearson:

The leader of the house knows I am always anxious to co-operate with him and assist him. Will he permit me to inform him that the Prime Minister has left by Department of Transport Viscount aeroplane for Quebec, and will he therefore inform the house when he is likely to return?

Mr. Green:

I am surprised at this curiosity exhibited by the Leader of the Opposition and by the hon. member for Winnipeg North Centre. They really have a very bad case of nerves. I gave an answer to the hon. member for Winnipeg North Centre a few moments ago.

Mr. Sinclair:

You gave no answer.

Mr. Pickersgill:

It was quite obvious who had the case of nerves at five o'clock yesterday.

Mr. Knowles (Winnipeg Norlh Centre):

Will the minister permit a question? Does he not realize that our effort to obtain information is on behalf of his own, backbenchers, who would like to know what is happening?

Mr. Green:

I am sure that the Conservative backbenchers greatly appreciate the solicitude of the hon. member for Winnipeg North Centre.

Mr. H. J. Robichaud (Gloucester):

Mr. Speaker, I should like to direct a question to the Minister of National Revenue. Will the minister advise the house what leading citizens he had in mind, and what professions he was referring to, when he made the following statement in an address to the Canadian Institute of Surveying at its annual luncheon on Thursday last, as reported in the Ottawa Journal of yesterday:

I have been shocked at the number of selfemployed who do attempt evasion, many of them known as leading citizens. Why, we get doctors, with huge incomes, reporting less than is shown by the receipts received from their patients. And I can't say that doctors are worse offenders than members of other professions.

Hon. G. C. Nowlan (Minister of National Revenue):

I appreciate very much the

hon. member giving further publicity to the statement I made the other day, and I can assure him I did not have him in mind when I made it.

Mr. Robichaud:

A supplementary question. Was the minister aware of his oath of office as a minister of the crown when he took advantage of his position to launch such a blasting attack on the honesty of professional people in this country?

Mr. Speaker:

I am sure the hon. member does not appreciate the position, or he would not have asked a question which reflects on an hon. member of the house.

Mr. Solon E. Low (Peace River):

I should like to direct a question to the Minister of National Revenue arising out of his answer to the question asked by the hon. member for Kenora-Rainy River. In his reply the minister indicated that various contradictory reports had come out of the United States concerning the action or possible action in Washington by the United States tax department.

I should like to ask the minister this question. If he discovers that the United States tax department is determined to go ahead with the appeal in the Premium case, will he then ask his colleagues in the government to join him in making a stronger protest to the United States government against their action? Because it would indicate, in my judgment, that the aide-memoire which had been sent previously and which this government merely reiterated in its recent note was not strong enough medicine.

Mr. Nowlan:

That is one of those suppositious questions to which you have referred from time to time, Mr. Speaker. At the moment I am not in a position to say what this government would do in the event that the American government pursued an appeal. That, of course, is within their legal rights should they see fit to do so. We have 96698-263

Inquiries of the Ministry very strong opinions as to why it should not be done, but it is a matter for the United States government. If the appeal should result in the imposition of tax we would then be in the position where we would be obliged to register the strongest possible protest, because we would feel that the convention had been violated.