§ It shall be the duty of the local registration authority, in accordance with instructions issued by the Local Government Board, to compile and maintain the register so far as it relates to their area, to tabulate the contents thereof, and to make them available for such purposes as may be prescribed, and to furnish to the central registration authority and to other Government Departments such returns there from as may be required.
§ Mr. KINGI beg to move to leave out the words, "to tabulate the contents thereof, and to make them available for such purposes as may be prescribed." I think it is really putting too much on the local authority to ask them to tabulate these returns. It is admitted that they are working under great difficulties with depleted staffs, and this would throw heavy work of a totally new character upon them. I believe the proposal to simply ask them to furnish to the central registration authority and to other Government Departments such returns therefrom as may be required, is quite sufficient. I hope this Amendment will be accepted, because it is put forward merely with the object of stating quite clearly the duties of the local authorities, and rendering them as simple as possible.
§ Mr. LONGI can assure my hon. Friend it really is undesirable to press this Amendment. I have had communication with local authorities all over the country, both personally and by correspondence, and in not one single case has any objection been raised to this part of their task. They see their way to give all the assistance required, and I believe it will be found that the work will be done with all the accuracy that is required. We are not 465 proposing a register to be used for statistical purposes in the same way that the Census is used. We want one with certain information which the local authorities can reasonably be asked to tabulate.
§ Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
§ Question proposed, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill."
§ Mr. DENMANI want to ask the right hon. Gentleman a question on a point to which I referred earlier in the evening, and that is as to the method by which the local authority is to maintain the register. We are assured there is to be no staff of inspectors to maintain it, and it seems to me, therefore, there is a very serious possibility of the Bill failing to do that which we have been assured is one of the chief objects aimed at, namely, to enable the Government to keep its eye on slackers. Without some vigorous form of inspection the slacker will be able to escape with the utmost ease from the operation of the register. Suppose he registers originally in the borough of Shoreditch, and then wants to slack and escape notice. All he has to do is to go a few yards away into Whitechapel. How on earth is he to be discovered there unless there is some form of inspection? All traces of him will have been lost. It is true, as the right hon. Gentleman told us, that an obligation is laid on the man to register himself afresh, but we are talking of just precisely the sort of man who wants to escape that obligation and has a perfectly easy means of doing it. It would be of interest to the House if the right hon. Gentleman would tell us how he proposes to deal with such cases.
§ Mr. LONGI am afraid the only answer I can give to the hon. Gentleman is this. If a man is determined at all costs to evade serving his country, no law in the world will force him to do it.
§ Question put, and agreed to.