CLAUSE 13.—(Short Title, Commencement, Construction, and Repeal.) (Hansard, 22 July 1918)

Mr. ROBERTS
I beg to move, in Subsection (4), after the word "Act" ["repealed by this Act"], to insert in the Bill the words "and being obligatory at the commencement of this Act."
This is purely a formal Amendment, and I propose it to prevent any confusion between the proviso to Sub-section (4) of this Clause and the proviso to Sub-section (5) of Clause 4.

Mr. RUNCIMAN
I should not like to allow this occasion to pass without congratulating my right hon. Friend, first of all on his conduct of the Bill through Committee and the Report stage, and also on the fact that no measure which is likely to be fraught with good to large numbers of workpeople has met with a greater degree of general support than this Bill. I hope my right hon. Friend will not be deterred by any of the procedure which is rendered necessary in this Bill from pressing on with with his Orders as rapidly as possible. There are now a large number of trades which can come immediately under the operation, as soon as it receives the Royal Assent, of the trade boards legislation. My right hon. Friend is well aware, I think, of some twelve or fourteen trades which might be the subject of Orders immediately, but as time develops, and there are changes in the production of munitions and the discharge of large numbers of men and particularly of women from our munitions works, the need for some sort of immediate Regulation would be so great that I trust my right hon. Friend and his Department will press on with the drawing and the issue of the Orders, even in preparation for the time when these men and girls will be less assiduously employed. If he does that I am quite sure be is not likely to meet with the difficulties which, in the course of the Committee discussions, have been adumbrated. I hope he will administer the Act with boldness and not be deterred from enforcing the procedure which he has himself inserted in the Act. There is one direction in which I trust he may count on the general support of all those who take an interest in these trades and that is in the endeavour to preserve harmony between those who are employed and those who direct. In times past trade boards have been largely dependent on the degree of general assent given to them, and, at the present time, when that amount of assent is likely to be more general than ever before, I think it gives another reason for the right hon. Gentleman drafting and issuing these Orders.

Mr. ROBERTS
I am obliged to the right hon. Gentleman for the kindly allusions he has made to myself, and I wish to assure him that I shall endeavour, as 1535 far as my responsibility allows, to expedite the bringing in of these Orders. I should like to take this opportunity to convey to all the members of the Committee my appreciation of the spirit they have displayed during the progress of the Bill through Committee. I well know that if hon. Members choose to lay themselves out they can cause the Minister in charge of a Bill a great deal of trouble. I am glad to admit at once that in our discussions there has not been any semblance of obstruction, and that the objections taken by hon. Members have been urged with scrupulous fairness. I know full well I could not thus have got the Bill through had I not received the hearty co-operation of the members of the Committee irrespective of party. I agree with my right hon. Friend that in the present doubtful state of public opinion we ought to seek to anticipate difficulties, and that is the point of view I have endeavoured to take. I agree also that the operation of trade boards in organised industries, and in joint industrial councils, should do a great deal to improve the relationship between employer and employed. They have indeed gone a long way to soften the asperities of those relationships, and as I have said, both inside and outside this House, I feel that according to the way in which we are able to deal with these problems the relationship of employers and employed, and, indeed, the whole future of our country, may be determined. It is our desire that that relationship shall be well ordered, and therefore we will do what we can to anticipate grievances and remove injustices, bearing in mind that justice denied, after all, is injustice done. I thank the House for the reception it has given to this Bill.