§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill."
Captain CROOKSHANKI do not want to raise the same point, but the definition in the Memorandum is:
This Clause is mere consolidation.I put it to the hon. Gentleman that again it seems to be very slipshod, whether consolidation or not—I have not had time to consider it while sitting here —that we in this House should put in a Clause of this kind, because I should have thought that when the Bill becomes an Act of Parliament the Amendments ipso facto are in force without our having to say so in the Clause. Apart from that, I should have thought that the power which is given to the Clerk of the Parliaments —of all people—to re-number and rearrange and do, in fact, all the editing, is a job which ought to be done by this House. I am sorry that we should be putting any labour on the Clerk of the Parliaments, who has other work to do, instead of doing it ourselves, but as our not doing it ourselves may help to get the Bill through, perhaps we may congratulate ourselves on the kindness of the War Office.
§ Question, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill," put, and agreed to.