PUBLIC NOTARIES (WAR SERVICE OF ARTICLED CLERKS) BILL [Lords] (Hansard, 25 October 1946)

§ The Solicitor-General (Major Sir Frank Soskice)
I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."
This Bill is designed to enable young men who desire to qualify as public notaries, to count the period, of time which they have spent in war service, for the purposes of their articles to qualify them for that position. There are some 550 public notaries practising in England and Wales, and about 100 are at the moment under articles. Hon. Members will know that the office of the public notary is a very ancient one. It is concerned with formally authenticating certain documents, particularly transactions overseas, in relation to foreign trade, voyages of ships, and so on. The Bill is designed to reproduce what was done in very similar wording after the last war. After the last war, it was found right and proper that clerks who were articled to notaries should be entitled to count towards the period of their articles the time they had expended on war service, and this Bill is designed to do precisely the same thing as was done then. A similar provision has been made by the Solicitors (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1940, in the case of solicitors. The definition of "war service" follows the definition in that Act, but the wording is slightly different in the Act of 1919. Hon. Members will notice that Clause 2 of the Bill enables the Master of the Faculties to dispense with certain requirements in relation to certificates for aspirants to the office of public notary. The Master of the Faculties presides over the Court of Faculties. From 1534 faculties have been issued to public notaries to practise, and, therefore, the power of dispensing with the requirements in particular cases, is vested by the Bill in the Master of the Faculties.
Clause 3 is a definition Clause, and the only comment I would make is that the emergency period is defined differently from the wording in the Act of 1919. In 1919, the expression used was "the period of the war". Hon. Members will see that the emergency period in the present Bill is from the beginning of 1st September, 1939, and ends at,— 187 such date as His Majesty may by Order in Council appoint. Therefore, it can end at a period much more approximate to the actual circumstances of this Bill. I ask hon. Members to say that it is right and proper that young men who have given up time to fight for their country, or have served their country in some other capacity during the emergency, should be allowed, as articled clerks to solicitors are allowed under the terms of the Act of 1940, to count that period towards their articles. It is only right and proper that they should be able to do so, and in my submission, there cannot be any objection to it. It is consistent with the view taken as to the rightness and fairness of these matters, and with those remarks, I ask the House to accord the Bill a Second Reading.

§ Sir David Maxwell Fyfe (Liverpool, West Derby)
We on these benches entirely agree that articled clerks who have been on war service should not suffer therefrom. We are prepared to give the Bill a Second Reading, and to assist in providing that this matter shall be rectified.

§ Mr. Turner-Samuels (Gloucester)
There is a very important matter in connection with this Bill that I should like to raise. The Solicitor-General has said that the object of the Bill is to provide that young men who have had war service, either in the Forces or on work of national service, shall not suffer as a result of the time occupied in that service. There is a flaw in this Bill which prevents that intention being carried out. I should like the Solicitor-General to look at the Bill again, and to consider what is happening now in regard to the call up of these young men to see, whether, in fact, the Bill achieves what he wants.
The articled clerk to a public notary is in exactly the same position as the articled clerk under the Solicitors (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1940. The provisions in this Bill are in almost identical terms, and the interpretation of "war service" in this Bill is exactly the same as the interpretation of "national service" used in the Solicitor's Act. A young man, who has just left school, may not be old enough to register, let alone to join the Army. It may so happen that the service which he wants to perform in 188 the meantime, to be useful to his country, is a reserved occupation, and if he wants to join up he is prevented from doing so because of that reserved occupation. He is in the national service or war service for say six years. At the end of that time, or when the war is over, he takes articles, either as an apprentice to a notary or to a solicitor. Having taken his articles he then receives a call-up notice. Although the statute in the case of the Solicitors' Act and in the case of this Bill is said to be specially designed in order that this young man may be exempt by reason of his national service, he is not exempt at all—and for this reason. Any articled clerk, whose period of service of articles is reduced by the Registrar of the Law Society, or by the Master of the Faculties in the case of a notary, has to serve two years with the solicitor or notary. That is to say, he has to he in the practice and in the office.
Therefore, what is the good of saying that the young man can have the period of his service reduced to two years? He is called up, and those two years are reduced to a nullity, and the Bill becomes ludicrous. The two years which he serves in the Army prevent him from geting the benefit of the two years to which his articles have been reduced. In other words, if he wants to qualify he has to come back and do another two years. I do not think this aspect of the matter has been seen; it certainly was not seen in another place. The whole basis of this Bill will go unless it applies to someone who has been in the Armed Forces, or someone within the age of calling-up, and it does not include a large body of young men who, as the Solicitor-General pointed out, ought not to be prejudiced because of their national service. I ask the learned Solicitor-General to put this flaw right, and to ensure that the purpose for which this Bill stands will not be frustrated by the defect to which I have referred.

§ Mr. Boyd-Carpenter (Kingston-upon-Thames)
I rise to ask the learned Solicitor-General if he will be good enough, before the Committee stage, to look at two points. First, with reference to the definition of "emergency period." In the Bill, as it stands, that is defined as from 1st September, 1939. The learned Solicitor-General will recollect that prior to that date, during the anticipated emer- 189 gency of the summer of 1939, a considerable number of young men of the Territorial Army were embodied for whole-time service in connection with the antiaircraft defences. I am certain that the principle of this Bill should be extended to cover that appreciable number of young men. The other point arises on the definition of "war service." I appreciate that the Master of the Faculties has a right to include forms of service not specified otherwise in the Bill, but it would seem desirable that certain of the more conspicuous forms of war service, such as service in the Mercantile Marine, and, possibly, the service of young men directed to the pits, should be put in the Bill and not left to the discretion of the Master of the Faculties. I am certain that the learned Solicitor-General is sympathetic to these considerations, and I should be very grateful if, before the Committee stage, he would consider the possibility of dealing with both those matters, possibly by way of minor Amendments.