§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ Mr. MUNROI beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a second time."
6.0 P.M.
I can explain in a very few sentences the intention of this very modest measure which has passed through its 6.0 P.M. various stages in another place. The object of the Bill is to overcome a certain difficulty which has been found to operate in connection with the working of the Regimental Debts Act of 1893. Under Section 21 of that Act a soldier's will, under special circumstances which I need not detail, has to be deposited in the Commissary Court at Edinburgh, and under that Act there are certain duties for the preservation and care which devolve upon that Court in connection with the document. It sometimes happens, however, that while the document is deposited with the Commissary Court it is required for the purpose of completing title to the hereditable, or, what is called on this side of the water the real, estate, with which the will deals. The terms of the Section to which I have referred prevent the Commissary Clerk parting with the original document, and therefore it becomes impossible in many cases to complete the title to the hereditable property in which the soldier may have been interested and in which his relatives are now interested. The present Bill therefore authorised, under due safeguards, the surrender of the document by the Commissary Clerk for the purpose of completing the title to the hereditable estate or securing confirmation—what is known on this side of the water as probate— to moveable estate. That is done under suitable safeguards under Clause I which is the operative Clause of the Bill. The need for this Bill is urgent. At the present time, I am informed, the completion of title to real property, hereditable property, is being held up in a number of cases by reason of this disability which is imposed by the old Act upon the Commissary Clerk parting with the original document, and it is anticipated, unless legislative effect be given at an early date to these proposals, that litigation will ensue at the instance of the relatives of a soldier concerned in order to have his estate made available to them. It is very desirable to avoid that contingency, and in these cir- 958 cumstances I suggest that this Bill, the object of which, I am sure, will commend itself to any hon. Member who has interested himself in it, might not only be given its Second Reading, but might be allowed to pass through all its stages.
§ Bill accordingly read a second time.
§ Resolved, "That this House will immediately resolve itself into the Committee on the Bill.—[Mr. Munro.]
§ Bill accordingly considered in Committee, and reported, without Amendment; read the third time, and passed, without Amendment.