Mr. DUFF:

No, but I looked inside and

found whom they were from.

Mr. BENNETT:

It is an offence under

the law to open a letter that is not addressed to you.

Mr. DUFF:

Wait till I get through, and

then my hon. friend will see that I did what was correct.

Mr. BENNETT:

Nothing will make correct the opening of a letter addressed to somebody else. We cannot have a question of privilege, Mr. Speaker, involving the opening of a letter addressed to somebody else. Surely this house has not fallen that low.

Mr. DUFF:

Somebody has fallen low when he deliberately used my frank and forged my initials on these two envelopes, and under my frank and under my initials sent out Tory literature in my name. I say that I am perfectly justified in bringing this matter to the attention of the house.

Mr. BENNETT:

As to the frank, yes.

Mr. SPEAKER:

Having stated that, I

would suggest to the hon. gentleman that his question of privilege is covered. But as to reading what is contained in the envelope-

Mr. DUFF:

I did not intend to read the

contents, Mr. Speaker, but I thought somebody asked me to. All I wish to say, Mr. Speaker, is that this letter is signed by my good friend the hon. member for Vancouver North (Mr. McRae), the chief whip of the Conservative party. I do not believe that he either had anything to do with sending out this literature under my frank, but I do say, in view of the fact that the people of Nova Scotia have received letters of this kind evidently, because if two have come back certainly more than two were sent out, that it is not fair to me as a Liberal member of the House of Commons from the province of Nova Scotia to have these letters sent out under my frank, and I want to protest against it

Mr. SPEAKER:

Nobody has the right to use the hon. gentleman's frank, but I am sure after what he has just stated that his electors will know that he never said what is in those letters.

Mr. BENNETT:

It is now a question of the privileges of this house, not the privilege of any particular member. I trust that the hon. gentleman will lay the envelopes on the table. Having laid the envelopes upon the table, they should be kept in the custody of the clerk. It may well be that initials which purport to be the hon. gentleman's are somebody else's. That is for the clerk of the house. In the second place, the opening of a letter not addressed to him by any member and a statement of the contents is an offence against the law.

Mr. DUNNING:

The frank and the initials purported to be his own.

Mr. BENNETT:

He had no right to open the letters knowing they were not addressed to him.

Mr. DUNNING:

How could he know until he opened them?

Mr. BENNETT:

He said that there was a direction on the envelope where it should be sent if not delivered. His statement was predicated upon the assumption that he had not sent out those letters, and then to open them certainly puts this house in a very, very difficult position. I desire to dissociate myself and those with whom I am associated on this side from becoming parties to the opening of a letter that may be placed in my box or that of any other hon. member simply because the post office clerk assures me that it was my letter originally.

Mr. J. C. BRADY (Skeena):

Apropos of what has just taken place, and to show exactly what is being done, let me mention that a few weeks ago a letter was addressed to the house of Olaf Hanson, the Liberal candidate in Skeena. He was not at home at the time, being either in Montreal or in the United States, and that letter was delivered to me by the post office. I retained it and made sure that Mr. Hanson got it even though I knew, Mr. Speaker, that the substance of that letter would not be a bit helpful to me.

Mr. BROWN:

How did you know?

Mr. BRADY:

I will tell you why. I know this for a fact, that when Olaf Hanson returned to Prince Rupert, every step that I advanced to better conditions in my constituency

(Mr. Duff.]

Supply-Railways-Hudson Bay

he took the credit for; and I say to you, Mr. Speaker, that any man who opens a letter that is not addressed to him is doing something that is contrary to the law.

Mr. DUNNING:

Is a question of privilege involved here, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. I. D. MACDOUGALL (Inverness):

This matter should not be lightly passed over by the House of Commons. I have here in my hand the envelope to which my hon. friend from Antigonish-Guysborough (Mr. Duff) referred, and I am prepared to go on my oath and testify that this frank is the frank of Mr. Finlay MacDonald who represents Cape Breton South.

Mr. BENNETT:

Certainly, it is as clear as anything in the world. All you have to do is to look at it and see.