§ 45. Colonel RUGGLES-BRISEasked the Prime Minister if he will consider the setting up of a Royal Commission to inquire into the whole question of tithe, in view of the grave situation which obtains in many parts of the country?
§ The LORD PRESIDENT of the COUNCIL (Mr. Baldwin)I cannot accede to my hon. and gallant Friend's suggestion. I am aware that many owners of agricultural land are unfortunately experiencing difficulties in meeting their legal obligations, including the payment of tithe rentcharge, and I understand that Queen Anne's Bounty, who own about two-thirds of the tithe rent- 1101 charge in the country, are prepared to consider sympathetically individual cases in depressed areas where financial hardship is involved. I cannot condemn too strongly the acts of violence in some parts of the country on the part of tithe payers in resisting the operation of the law, which have in some cases been directed against officers of the County Court. Such conduct offers no reason in my opinion for the setting up of a Royal Commission to inquire into the whole question of tithe rentcharge. In any case, the Government can hold out no prospect of legislation on this question.
§ Colonel RUGGLES-BRISEIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that in some instances where county court judges feel themselves compelled to make orders for distraint, they do so with the knowledge that those orders cannot be enforced, and even indicate so, in giving judgment; and is such a situation not likely to bring the law of the land into contempt and also create a very unfortunate position between willing and would-be tithe payers and tithe owners?
§ Mr. LANSBURYIs the right hon. Gentleman aware of the fact that multitudes of very poor people who are unable to pay the rent charged for their dwelling-places are being put out because of their inability to pay? If they refuse to go out, they are put out by the strong arm of the law. Why should these gentlemen be treated differently?
§ Mr. MACQUISTENIs it not the case that the transformation—
§ Mr. SPEAKERMr. Baldwin.
§ Mr. MACQUISTENCan I not put a supplementary question? I know something about this subject.
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe right hon. Gentleman cannot answer more than one question at a time.
§ Mr. BALDWINIn answer to my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Maldon (Colonel Ruggles-Brise), I quite realise that in the payment of tithe, as in the payment of many other legal dues, there are grave difficulties to-day owing to the financial situation of the country. It is the object of the Government to do what they can to enable the country to make those payments with greater facility, and I hope we shall succeed. I would remind my hon. and gal- 1102 lant Friend that the legislation of 1918 and of 1925 particularly,, which was to be a final settlement of the tithe question, has saved the tithe-payers, since it was put into law, including the amount that they have to pay in Sinking Fund, no less than £14,000,000. It is impossible to do anything more for them at the present moment.
§ Mr. MACQUISTENIs it not the case that the transformation made by the very Acts which the right hon. Gentleman has mentioned, of payment in kind into payment in cash, made the tithe receiver into a debenture holder from a shareholder and that that is what has caused the difficulty? If he had been retained as a receiver in kind,, the difficulty would not have arisen.