§ Order for Committee read.
§
The following Notices of Motion appeared upon the Order Paper:
That it be an Instruction to the Committee that they have power to divide the Bill into two Bills, one to authorise the setting up of clearing offices for collecting and dealing with certain debts and the other to authorise the imposition of restrictions on imports from certain foreign countries.—[Mr. Attlee.]
That it be an Instruction to the Committee that they have power to divide the Bill into two parts, one relating to the power of the. Treasury to set up clearing offices and the other to the imposition of restrictions on imports from foreign countries."—[Sir A. Sinclair.]
§ Mr. SPEAKERThere are on the Paper two Instructions, one in the name of the hon. Member for Limehouse (Mr. Attlee) and other Members and the other in the name of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Caithness (Sir A. Sinclair). I am afraid I shall have to rule them out of Order, because it would be impossible to carry them out. It is true that there is in the Bill a distinction 978 between Clause 1 and Clause 2, but the two subjects raised in those Clauses are so intermixed in the remainder of the Bill that it would he quite impossible to divide it into two Bills.
§ Mr. ATTLEEWould it not be possible for the Committee, in dividing the Bill, to repeat those parts of it which are common to Clauses 1 and 2? The whole procedure by which one can seek to prevent the Government tackling two incongruous proposals in one Bill is defeated, merely by a process of intermingling two Clauses. If you cannot do it because there happens to be one not very important Clause which relates both to the subject matter of one Clause and that of another, it would be quite possible for the Committee to insert an additional Clause in order to divide the Bill.
§ Mr. SPEAKERIn that case, the Bill would be almost unrecognisable.
§ Mr. ATTLEEI submit that the Clauses that are common to both parts of the Bill are only common form. It is a mere repetition of something that appears in almost any Bill of this kind.
§ Mr. SPEAKEROf course, the Committee are quite at liberty to do what they like with the Bill provided they do not alter it altogether. They can do what they please in its different Clauses, but I do not think an Instruction to make two Bills of it would be in order. After all, the House of Commons passed the Second Reading unanimously yesterday.
§ Bill considered in Committee.
§ [Sir DENNIS HEBBEKT in the Chair.]
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cc978-1050
- CLAUSE 1.—(Power of Treasury in certain circumstances to set up Clearing Offices.) 28,608 words, 1 division cc1050-72
- CLAUSE 2.—(Power of Board of Trade in certain circumstances to restrict imports from a foreign country.) 9,122 words, 1 division cc1073-6
- CLAUSE 4.—(Orders to be laid before Parliament.) 1,358 words cc1076-7
- CLAUSE 7.—(Short title.) 479 words cc1077-89
- SCHEDULE.—(Particular Provisions which may be included in an Order made under this Act.) 4,398 words cc1089-100
- CLAUSE 1.—(Power of Treasury in certain circumstances to set up Clearing Offices.) 4,538 words