§ Mr. ATTLEEMay I ask the Prime Minister what business it is proposed to take next week?
§ The PRIME MINISTERThe business for next week will be as follows:
§ Monday: Second Reading of the Debts Clearing Offices and Import Restrictions Reprisals Bill, and Committee stage of the necessary Money Resolution; Report stage of the Milk Bill, and the Committee stage of the British Sugar (Subsidy) Bill.
§ Tuesday: Report stage of the Debts Clearing Offices and Import Restrictions Reprisals Money Resolution, and remaining stages of the Bill and consideration of Lords Amendments to the Unemployment Bill, and to the Cotton Manufacturing Industry (Temporary Provisions) Bill; further progress will be made with the Milk Bill and with the British Sugar (Subsidy) Bill.
§ Wednesday: Second Reading of the Betting and Lotteries Bill (Lords).
§ Thursday: Report and Third Reading of the Road Traffic Bill.
§ Friday: The business for Friday will be announced later.
§ On any day, if there is time, other Orders may be taken.
§ Mr. ATTLEEIs it not possible to have some re-arrangement, in order that the Milk Bill and the British Sugar (Subsidy) Bill may come on at an earlier hour in our proceedings? Every day for which they have been put down they have come at the end, and very often not till very late in the evening. They involve a large sum of public money, and they ought to be adequately discussed. Is it not possible that they could be made the first Order?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI am sorry, but I have had no notice of this question. If my memory serves me, certainly the early stages of the Milk Bill were put down for an early hour—I think so. If the hon. Member for Limehouse (Mr. Attlee) had given me notice, I should have been very glad to give him a more detailed answer. So far as next week is concerned, we shall do our best to try and get these things advanced. We shall do it in the same way as hitherto, without unduly pressing the House, so far as lateness of sitting is concerned.
§ Mr. T. WILLIAMSOn both the occasions when the Milk Bill was discussed in Committee, the discussion started at 9 p.m. on one evening and 10 p.m. on the 556 second evening. Now the right hon. Gentleman states that the Report stage shall be at a very late hour on Monday and Tuesday, and it is to be the last Order of all on Tuesday. Does the right hon. Gentleman not think, as £5,000,000 of Government subsidy and the purity of the milk supply are concerned, that we ought to be permitted to discuss this very important Measure before 10 p.m., 11 p.m. or 12 p.m.?
§ The PRIME MINISTERRegarding Monday, I do not see why the Milk Bill, which is the second Order, should be reached only at a late hour. I think it would be quite easy for it to be reached at a moderate hour, so as to enable proper discussion.
§ Mr. ATTLEENo doubt the right hon. Gentleman will remember that last week we had this same trouble, because when the Bill was put down it was thought that earlier Orders would be passed comparatively quickly, but hon. Members on the Government side became more loquacious than was expected and the Order did not come on until 9 o'Clock. The same may happen on this Debt Clearing Offices Bill.