§ 23. Sir Leonard Lyleasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can now state the decision of the Government on the question of double summer time for this year.
§ Mr. H. MorrisonThe Government have decided to make no change in the existing Defence (Summer Time) Regulations which have been in operation in 1942 and 1943. These Regulations provide that double summer time shall run from the night following the first Saturday in April to the night following the second Saturday in August. Accordingly, the period this year will be from Sunday, the 2nd April, to Sunday, the 13th August. There are, of course, many arguments on both sides, but in reaching this decision, the Government have been influenced by the advantages of double summer time in accelerating production and transport and in saving fuel, as proved in the last three years. The Government feel that it is impossible to forgo these advantages in this crucial year. Indeed, but for agricultural considerations, which the Government has had very much in mind, there would have been a case for extending the period of double summer time to a later date than the middle of August.
§ Lieut.-Colonel Sir Assheton PownallAs we have already advanced the clock two hours in a relatively few years, how long will it be before we advance it a further 10 hours, so that all our watches will point out the right time?