In the House of Commons the entire staff of its secretariat is appointed by the Clerk of the House and not even by the Speaker. Only as a matter of courtesy the Clerk of the House of Commons informs the Speaker that he is appointing so and so and the Speaker says it is all right. That is the practice. In May’s Parliamentary Practice you will see that it distinctly lays down that the Clerk makes the appointment of the entire staff of the House of Commons. I therefore hope that a similar provision will be made by Parliament to that effect. I want to make it clear that, while we do not want the executive to interfere with the appointment of the staff of the Legislatures, it should not be understood that that power should go to the Parliament. It would be negativing the very object of this amendment if Parliament takes upon itself to make appointments. Once a fit Secretary is appointed in the interest of discipline we must see that he makes all other appointments subject of course to the approval of the Speaker. The Speaker should have a voice because we are in the initial stage and I therefore desire, unlike in the House of Commons, that the Speaker should have voice in the initial stage in the appointment of the staff. I do maintain, as I have already stated, that unless we have the proper type of staff of the kind I have mentioned we shall not be doing justice to Parliament and it will not serve the purpose of the article that we are providing in the Constitution. With these words I heartily support the amendment moved.
