§ Mr. LANSBURYMay I ask the Lord President of the Council what business it is proposed to take next week, and will he make a statement about the business for the remainder of the Session?
§ Mr. BALDWINNext week the business is as follows:
Monday and Tuesday: Conclusion of Report stage, and Third Reading, Town and Country Planning Bill.
Wednesday and Thursday: Report stage, Finance Bill.
Friday: Third Reading, Finance Bill.
On any day, if there is time, progress will be made with other Orders on the Paper, including the Patents and Designs Bill from another place.
With regard to the Business of the House until the date of the Summer Recess, the Measures with which the Government propose to proceed and to pass into law before the Summer Recess are as follow:
1335 Bills now before Parliament: remaining stages of the
Bills to be introduced: The Business of Supply must be completed. Ten further Allotted Days remain to be disposed of; the usual Supplementary Estimate for repayments to the Civil Contingencies Fund will be required, as well as Resolutions relating to Surpluses and Deficits on Navy, Army and Air Estimates, and, on the conclusion of Supply, the Appropriation Bill must be passed through all its stages.
- Coal Mines Bill;
- Finance Bill;
- Hire Purchase and Small Debt (Scotland) Bill;
- National Health Insurance and Contributory Pensions Bill;
- Sunday Entertainments Bill;
- Town and Country Planning Bill.
There is a number of Bills, mainly of a non-contentious nature, which the Government hope it will be possible to pass into law, namely: Patents and Designs Bill (Lords); Marriages (Naval, Military and Air Force Chapels) Bill (Lords); to come from another place, Agricultural Credits (Mortgages) Bill; British Museum Bill; Carriage by Air Bill; Solicitors (Consolidation) Bill.
It will be necessary to consider Lords Amendments, if any are made in another place, to the Children and Young Persons Bill, which has already passed this House, and to other Bills.
The House is aware that the meeting at Ottawa in July of the Imperial Economic Conference will require the presence of several of His Majesty's principal Ministers. The Government accordingly desire to conclude the necessary Business as early as practicable in July, in order that Ministers required at Ottawa may be released from their duties in Parliament.
As has already been announced, it is the Government's intention to introduce legislation to amend the Rent Retrictions Acts, designed generally to give effect to the recommendations of the Departmental Committee on the subject, but, in view of the amount of essential business 1336 already before Parliament which must be completed, the time now remaining renders it impossible for the Government to pass the Bill before July. For similar reasons it will be impossible to deal with the London Passenger Transport Bill until after the Recess. Any other Business will be brought forward which it is found necessary to dispose of before July.
§ Mr. LANSBURYI notice that the right hon. Gentleman has not mentioned any date in July. I suppose he is not in a position to do so this afternoon. The list of business read out by the right hon. Gentleman sounds rather formidable, and I think it will take a very considerable amount of time. As to the Rent Restrictions Acts (Amendment) Bill and the London Passenger Transport Bill, the right hon. Gentleman is aware that there is very great public interest and urgency and that both those matters ought to be settled very soon. Seeing that the Ministers concerned with those Bills will not be going to Ottawa, I ask him whether it would not be possible for the House to sit two or three weeks longer in order to dispose of these two extremely urgent Measures? I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether the Government will not reconsider this decision in regard to these two Bills.
§ Mr. BALDWINI agree with part of what the right hon. Gentleman has said, but not with all. I quite agree that these two Bills are very important. With regard to the question of time, I am afraid that it would be impossible to do as he desires. Ottawa is not the only conference. We cannot tell now how long the Lausanne Conference will take, nor can we tell how the Disarmament Conference at Geneva will proceed, or whether that is likely to come to an end at an early date or not. It is quite possible that we may have the three conferences almost coinciding, or parts of them, and in connection with one or another of them nearly every member of the Cabinet may be out of this country.
§ Mr. LANSBURYI should like to say that we are extremely anxious, whatever our disagreements may be, that these conferences, especially those dealing with the matters that will be raised at Lausanne, should go forward, and we would not do anything consciously to 1337 hinder them. But we wish to press the Government to reconsider the two Bills to which I have referred. If they cannot reconsider both of them, we would press them to reconsider the Rent Restriction Acts (Amendment) Bill, because that question is of urgent importance to masses of the people throughout the country.
§ Mr. LAMBERTIs it proposed to go on with the London Passenger Transport Bill as it is now before the House, or are Amendments to be made in it?
§ Mr. BALDWINThere have been, and I am not quite certain that there are not now proceeding, negotiations on many points connected with that Bill. That is the reason why I say that it could not possibly be considered this summer.
§ Mr. MAXTONI do not want to ask any questions about the business for the Session, because I imagine that the right hon. Gentleman will be amending it on several occasions before we reach the Recess. I want to ask him about the business for next week. Does he think it an adequate arrangement to take the Third Reading of the Finance Bill on Friday? It is only a half-day, and this Finance Bill is an important one. I also wish to ask him if he anticipates that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be able to be in his place on Friday when the Third Reading of the Finance Bill is taken.
§ Mr. BALDWINWith regard to the first part of the question, I think the hon. Member will find on reference that it has been no unusual thing in past years to have the, Third Reading of the Finance Bill on a Friday. I hope and expect that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be in his place before the Report stage of the Finance Bill.
§ Mr. O'CONNORCan the right hon. Gentleman give the House an assurance that before Ministers go to Ottawa there will be an opportunity for discussing the situation arising out of the repudiation of the Treaty by the Irish Free State?
§ Mr. BALDWINI cannot at the moment give that assurance.
§ Mr. O'CONNORMay I press my right hon. Friend with the assurance that many of us in the House would be most un- 1338 desirous to allow the Session to wind up with the situation in Ireland as it is and without full discussion in the House of Commons?
§ Mr. BALDWINThere is no reason for my hon. and learned Friend to press me at all. The situation is quite clear. I said some time ago in the House that there was almost certain to be a discussion when the appropriate moment arrived. By that I meant when the matters that are in dispute between us are no longer in either of the Houses of the Irish Free State Parliament. That situation will, I imagine, arise before we go to Ottawa. We do not burke discussion, but I cannot pledge myself at this moment when I do not know what the dates will be, by which the procedure will be governed.
§ Sir A. CHAMBERLAINCan the right hon. Gentleman say whether it is the intention of the Government when the moment of Recess comes to adjourn the House or to prorogue it?
§ Mr. BALDWINThat matter is at the moment under consideration. I hope it may be settled when the Prime Minister returns.
§ Sir A. CHAMBERLAINMay I assume that the Prime Minister or my right hon. Friend will make an announcement to the House on the subject as soon as any decision has been reached.
§ Mr. BALDWINAs soon as a decision has been arrived at.
§ Lord E. PERCYWill the right hon. Gentleman consider the possibility of arranging, through the usual channels, with the Opposition that a general Debate on national expenditure should be taken on one of the Supply days.
§ Mr. LANSBURYBefore the right hon. Gentleman answers that question, may I say that we shall certainly endeavour to do as the Noble Lord suggests. We are a little uncertain as to the Vote for which we should ask, but we will take steps to make the necessary arrangements through the usual channels.
§ Mr. MAXTONFix it up between yourselves.
§ Mr. DENMANIf the London Passenger Transport Bill cannot be taken this Session, will arrangements be made to carry it over to the next Session?
§ Mr. BALDWINIf the House is adjourned and not prorogued, there will be no necessity to do so.
§ Colonel GRETTONAre we to understand that the Government contemplate a situation in which the principal Members of the Government may all be absent at conferences outside this country; and, if so, will they reconsider the grave constitutional position which would arise from such an arrangement.
§ Mr. BALDWINI trust that, in any circumstances, a nucleus satisfactory to my right hon. and gallant Friend will be here.
§
Ordered,
That the Proceedings on the Coal Mines Bill have precedence this day of the Business of Supply, and be exempted, at this day's Sitting, from the provisions of the Standing Order (Sittings of the House)."—[Mr. Baldwin.]