ABSTRACT
The Committee might be as useful to the Foreign Secretary as to the House of Commons. If public attention is to be diverted into the consideration of these very comprehensive constitutional changes which affect the whole business of Parliament, the specific point of parliamentary control of foreign affairs will be completely lost sight of. The Committee would serve, not so much to control foreign policy as to inform the House, guide criticism, give Members an opportunity of closer contact with the Foreign Secretary and the Foreign Secretary occasion for keeping in touch with public opinion. The Senate may discuss foreign affairs in what is called “executive session.” A full report of the treatment of international questions by foreign Parliaments is given in Appendix II, but it may be well to refer briefly to the existence in some countries of Foreign Affairs Committees.
