Commoners Bid Farewell to Mr. Speaker

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 384, 19 June 1928, Page 9

Commoners Bid Farewell to Mr. Speaker

Interesting Ceremony Enacted In House

APPOINTING A SUCCESSOR British Official Wireless RUGBY, Sunday. The change of Speakers in the House of Commons, which is to occur this week, will be accompanied by an interesting ceremony. After question-time to-morrow the present Speaker, Mr. J. H. Whitley, will officially notify the House of his intention to retire at the end of Tuesday night’s sitting. The Prime Minister, Mr. Baldwin, will thereupon give notice to move resolutions expressing the appreciation of the House of Mr. Whitley’s services and asking the King to confer some signal mark of his Royal favour on him. These resolutions will be moved after question time on Tuesday and at the close of that day’s sitting the members of the House, headed by the Prime Minister and the principal officials, will file past the Chair and bid farewell to the Speaker. On Wednesday Captain E. A. Fitzroy, the present deputy-chairman of committee, will be elected Speaker. The motion for his election will be proposed by Sir Robert Sanders, Conservative member for Somerset, who was at one time considered to be a likely candidate, and seconded by Mr. C. W. Bowerman, Labour member for Deptford. The vote will probably be unanimous. The House will then adjourn and immediately afterwards will be summoned to the House of Lords by Black Rod for • the King’s approval of the appointment of Captain Fitzroy to be signified.

“ABLE AND IMPARTIAL”

RESOLUTION OF THANKS

ADDRESS TO THE KING British Official Wireless Reed. Noon. RUGBY, Monday. In announcing his intention to retire from the Speakership of the House of Commons after to-morrow’s session, Mr. J. H. Whitley, who has occupied the chair since 1921, said its duties had of late become progressively heavier. The legislation had become more complicated, and affected more intimately the life of the individual citizen, and in each new Parliament there were new members who wished to take an active part in the proceedings by questions or in the debates. As Speaker, he often felt an acute sense of the loss of undelivered speeches. The" Prime Minister and the Opposition Leaders paid brief tributes to Mr. Whitley’s conduct in the chair, reserving mere formal expressions of regret at his resignation until to-mor-row, when Mr. Baldwin will propose a resolution thanking him for his services, and expressing appreciation of the high ability and impartiality with which the duties of Speaker have been discharged during a period of unusual labour, difficulty and anxiety. The resolution pays tribute to the judgment and firmness with which the privileges and the dignity of the House have been maintained by Mr. Whitley, and recommends that an address be presented to the King, praying for' the conferment on him of some signal mark of Royal favour.