15 JULY 1938, Page 3

There was comparatively - little comment on the report itself. Nevertheless,

as was pointed out from the Liberal benches and stressed by Mr. Churchill, it is a document of considerable Parliamentary importance. Ever since 1704 it has been recognised that neither House can create any new privilege. But the Committee of Privileges have now shown that, in their view, the law of privilege is not so inelastic that it cannot be applied to novel circumstances. In other words, the lex et consuetudo Parliamenti does not consist merely in a few precedents established in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but is capable of fresh interpreta- tions which enable it to serve the purposes of a modern legislature. * * * *