HC Deb 29 June 1910 vol 18 cc929-31
Sir J. D. REES

asked the Home Secretary whether the Government rejected the recommendations of the Commissioner appointed by his Department, Judge Ruegg, that permission should be given to work after 8 p.m. and provision should be made for annual, whole, or half-holidays to different employés on different days, in the case of florists to whom the Factory Act had, contrary to their wishes, been made applicable; and, if so, whether he was aware that florists would be driven to substitute thousands of foreign men for English women, to the aggravation of unemployment and the encouragement of a foreign preference in a trade hitherto in British hands?

Mr. CHURCHILL

My predecessor did not see his way at the time to act on the recommendations which are referred to in the question, but it would not be correct to say that those recommendations have been finally rejected. I have reason to believe that Lord Gladstone hoped that a solution of the question might eventually be found on the lines indicated by Judge Ruegg in his Report, and I shall be quite prepared to consider any representations on the subject that may be submitted to me.

Sir J. D. REES

Am I to understand from that that the exemptions previously obtained are still in effect?

Mr. CHURCHILL

No; I have informed the hon. Member that two were given and two were not.

Sir J. D. REES

Are these premises not factories in a merely technical and legal sense and must the Act be applied in an unrelenting manner?

Mr. CHURCHILL

I cannot agree with my hon. Friend's description of the circumstances at all. I should be quite prepared to consider generally the question of paying attention to any representations which are made.

Mr. RAMSAY MACDONALD

Are we to understand that the Home Office accepts the extraordinary statements in the question?

Mr. CHURCHILL

I am not responsible for the question. I am responsible for the answer, and I take the fullest responsibility for that.

Sir J. D. REES

Does the right hon. Gentleman doubt that this will have the effect of replacing English women by foreign men?

Mr. CHURCHILL

I have no information to prove it.

Sir CHARLES DILKE

Is the Secretary of State aware that in a report which was laid by him before Parliament there is a good deal of evidence disproving the assumption that there is an impossibility of these women working after eight at the present moment?