HC Deb 18 December 1916 vol 88 cc1133-5
Mr. McKENNA

What will be the business for the rest of the week?

Mr. BONAR LAW

I have now been able to get the time table of the work which the Government think has to be done during this Session. I think that it will be possible to prorogue on Friday of this week. It will not be easy and can only be done if it is the general desire of the House that that course should be taken. In addi- tion to the business which is down on the Order Paper there are the following items which have to be dealt with:

These last two are concerned with the finances of the country. They were prepared by my right hon. Friend who preceded me in my present office. He thought it was necessary to have them, and I take the same view. One, the Corporations Bill, is to enable corporations, if they think fit, to borrow money elsewhere than in the United Kingdom. The War Loans Bill will be in exactly the same terms as the previous Bill. Its object will be to enable the Treasury, if they think the time opportune, to issue a Loan even if the House is not sitting. That does not, of course, mean that there is any intention at present of taking that course, but it has been thought that it might happen that it would be wise to do so, and I hope that the House will give us the facilities to make it possible for us to adopt this course if considered desirable. If this is to be done the Bill will have to be treated as a non-controversial Bill on which there can be no discussion. To-morrow it will be put down as a purely formal stage on the Resolution, and its subsequent stages will have to be gone through by special Resolution enabling more than one stage of the Bill to be taken on the same day. That has been done more than once, and if it is the general desire of the House to rise on Friday I do not think that there will be any objection to that course.

Mr. McKENNA

Am I right in assuming that the Bill will be a Bill authorising the issue of the Loan, but without at the present time specifying the particular terms?

Mr. BONAR LAW

The Bill will be in precisely the same form as that in which it was arranged by my right hon. Friend.

Colonel LOCKWOOD

What is the alternative if we are not able to rise on Friday?

Mr. BONAR LAW

Then we must sit next week.

Sir C. HENRY

If the House passes the Bill authorising the issue of a Loan, and if a Loan be issued under it, will there be no opportunity for the House to discuss the terms of the Loan?

Mr. BONAR LAW

That would necessarily follow, but there is no intention at the present time, in taking this Bill, to issue a Loan at once, and I am sure that my predecessor will agree that when a Loan is being carried through it is not generally advisable to discuss its terms before it is issued.

Sir F. BANBURY

Unless my memory fails me, it has generally been the custom, when a Loan is being issued, to communicate its terms as soon as the Loan is being issued, and to receive the authority of the House. Now, as I understand, what might take place might be that the House might not meet for three or four weeks after the issue of the Loan, and therefore the money might be obtained without the authority of the House; but I quite see, of course, that it would not do to give the House the terms of the Loan some few days before it is issued; but it has generally been done on the same day, unless I am mistaken.

Mr. BONAR LAW

I quite agree with what has been said by my right hon. Friend. Of course the formal authority of the House will be given in the Bill to which I refer. I agree also that it is very undesirable that a Loan of this kind should be issued when the House is not sitting, and that course will only be adopted if the Government, the Treasury, and those who advise us think that there is some disadvantage in postponing it until the House meets again.