§ Colonel WEDGWOODI beg to move to leave out the Clause.
I would ask the President of the Board of Trade to consider this Amendment seriously. During the Committee stage it was on Clause 7 that he made the most important concession to the Opposition which he made during the passage of the Bill, namely, the publication in the Board of Trade Journal of the Registration of Films. Instead of the exhibitors having on all occasions to go and search the Register of the Board of Trade, they were told that week after week in the Board of Trade Journal there would be publication of the names, titles and descriptions of every film registered. That makes the treatment of registration much simpler. It is easy for an exhibitor in the Orkney Islands or elsewhere to know whether or not a film has been registered by seeing it in the Board of Trade Journal. In the Board of Trade Journal the Board of Trade has evidence of registration, and that being so, we can leave out Clause 7, which deals with the inspection of the Register. The inspection of the Register is no longer necessary. What is necessary is the inspection of the Board of Trade Journal. Even in the Law Courts the Board of Trade Journal or an extract from it is considered sufficient evidence. Why then must we have any inspection of the register?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERCannot the right hon. and gallant Member see that the only effect of carrying his Amendment would be to prevent a number of exhibitors or renters being able to inspect the register? It does not follow that anyone will inspect the register. It only says that the register must be kept open by the Board of Trade and be available for inspection by anyone.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODThe President of the Board of Trade has not read the whole of the Clause. If the register was purely nominal well and good; but it is not. The right hon. Gentleman might be able to make an alteration in Sub-section (3) which will meet my case. It says:
The production of the Board of Trade Journal containing the notification or a certificate of registration and a copy of any entry purporting to be certified as a true copy by such officer as aforesaid shall in all legal proceedings be evidence of the matters stated therein.776 If the Board of Trade Journal alone was taken in all legal proceedings as evidence of the matters stated therein it would meet my point of view. In that case inspection . of the register would be purely voluntary.
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERI think I can meet the right hon. and gallant Member. I agree that this Clause is not in the best drafting form, and what we meant in Committee to say in Subsection (3) was that the Board of Trade Journal, or the certificate of registration, or a certified copy of the entry in the register, should be complete evidence of anything stated therein. That, I think, is the proper form in which Sub-section (3) should take. I have had drafted an Amendment to Sub-section (3) in this form:
The registration of a film may be proved by the production of a copy of the Board of Trade Journal containing a notification of the registration of the film, or of the certificate of the registration, or of a certified copy of the entry in the register relating to the film.If the right hon. and gallant Gentleman, instead of moving the deletion of the Clause, would move an Amendment to this effect or permit me to move it to Sub-section (3) in this form, I shall be giving him exactly what he now suggests.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODThat is exactly what I want, and, in the circumstances, I beg leave to withdraw my Amendment.
§ Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERI beg to move, in page 5, to leave out lines 5 and 6, and to insert instead thereof the words:
(3) The registration of a film may be proved by the production of a copy of the Board of Trade Journal containing a notification of the registration of the film, or, of a certificate of the registration, or of a certified copy of the entry in the register relating to the film.
§ Mr. SPEAKERWhat becomes of the rest of Sub-section (3)?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERWe shall have to keep in the words:
and a copy of any entry purporting to be-certified as a true copy by such officer as aforesaid shall in all legal proceedings be evidence of the matters stated therein without proof of the signature or authority of the person signing it.777 We shall want that. If there is an extract signed by the Board of Trade, you do not want the signature of the person signing it to be formally proved.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODIt is a little difficult to follow the reading of this manuscript Amendment. What I want to know is whether it will be sufficient, in legal proceedings, to prove the registration of a film by producing a copy of the Board of Trade Journal showing that registration. I was rather afraid, from what the President of the Board of Trade said, that something more would be necessary. I want to avoid the necessity of producing anything more than a copy of the Board of Trade Journal showing the registration. I know the passion of all these officials for certified copies, in order to give them work. I want to get rid of that sort of thing. The right hon. Gentleman, while wishing to get rid of all that flummery and to get back to the Board of Trade Journal, I fear, is tying himself up, and what I suggest is that instead of merely leaving out lines 5 and 6, the whole of the rest of the Subsection be left out and that the production of the Board of Trade Journal shall be sufficient in a Court of law.
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERI am quite satisfied that what I have suggested is correct. The Board of Trade Journal is evidence by itself. You can produce a certificate of registration or a certified copy of the entry in the register.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODAll three?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERAny of them, whichever you like. The remaining words of the Clause are still necessary, because if you produce a certified copy you want that to carry its authenticity on the face of it; otherwise you would have to produce the gentleman who certified.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODCan the right hon. Gentleman explain why anyone should want to get a certified copy when he can get the Board of Trade Journal for a shilling?
§ Amendment agreed to.