§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill."
§ Mr. O'CONNORI should like to ask what is the meaning of this Clause. If I appreciate it rightly, it is this. The Treasury is to be given power to issue regulations in respect to the Isle of Man. But it is the last four or five words that puzzle me, because that right of the Treasury is deemed to have extended to 329 all time. Does that mean that the Treasury have been acting illegally in making these regulations ever since 1915? If that is so, the House ought to be told.
§ Sir S. CRIPPSMay I raise another question. Is this some device by which the right hon. Gentleman, through the medium of the Post Office, is going to lay his hands upon the savings of the people and, if so, will he give an undertaking now that that money will not be used for improper purposes, such as investment in the Unemployment Insurance Fund and matters of that kind? I feel, in view of what he and his party said at the last election, that, unless the people in the Isle of Man are given some very definite assurance that this is not a means of nationalising their savings and of abstracting a few loose pennies from the poor widows, they will expect him to do something upon this Clause and to explain whether in his view savings can safely be made through the Post Office or whether he has made any alteration in the way those savings are to be dealt with.
§ Major ELLIOTI can sympathise with and fully appreciate the zeal of the hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for East Bristol (Sir S. Cripps) that nothing derogatory to Post Office savings might be carried out. We know that his party have great feelings about it, but there is no danger of that kind in the present proposals. In answer to my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Central Nottingham (Mr. O'Connor), the reason of the Clause is to restore a provision which was repealed in error by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1927. He asks if we have been acting illegally since that time? We have not been acting illegally since no one has taken advantage of those provisions, but in order to observe the most stringent financial purity we are taking steps to repair the error unless at any time one of those little ones should be offended. We are putting in regulations to extend to the Isle of Man. By inadvertence the application of the whole of the War Loan Supplemental Provisions were repealed in the Statute Law Revision Act, 1927. Although we put it right as far as the Post Office was concerned by the Savings Bank Act, 1929, we 330 need the present Clause to repair the mistake with regard to regulations. It is for the convenience of the inhabitants of the island that they should be able to make use of those regulations. It is possible that a difficulty might arise in the future, and the Clause is in order to put the matter right.
§ Motion made, and Question, "That the Chairman do report Progress, and ask leave to sit again," put, and agreed to.— [Captain Margesson.]
§ Committee report Progress; to sit again To-morrow.