CLAUSE 5.—(The Executives.)

HC Deb 23 July 1947 vol 440 cc1253-346

Mr. Deputy-Speaker (Major Milner)

I should point out, in accordance with the agreement arrived at, that there are a number of allied Amendments, all dealing with the question of the appointment of Executives. It may be for the convenience of the House if I give particulars. They are: In page 7, line 36; in page 7, line 37; in page 9, line 13; in page 106, line 23; in page 107, line 37; and there are 13 Amendments on pages 129 and 130.

Colonel J. R. H. Hutchison

Do any of these Amendments which you have read out, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, contain misprints?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

We will deal with that question as it arises on a particular Amendment.

Sir D. Maxwell Fyfe

Are we keeping the question of the Scottish Executive clear of this one?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

Yes.

Sir D. Maxwell Fyfe

Thank you very much.

Lords Amendment: In page 7, line 36, leave out from "be" to "but" in line 37 and insert "decided by the Commission."

5.15 p.m.

Mr. Barnes

I beg to move, "That this House doth disagree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

This Amendment and the series of Amendments which you, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, have just indicated, transfer to the Commission the power of the Minister to appoint Executives. Hon. and right hon. Members will recall that this subject was debated at great length both in Standing Committee and on the Report stage. Here we see evidence of the acknowledgment which the hon. Member for Monmouth (Mr. P. Thorneycroft) made in the discussion on a previous Amendment, that is, that in carrying this type of Amendment the other place was, in fact, carrying out the Conservative Opposition's attitude. The hon. Member referred to the previous Amendment as "our Amendment," indicating clearly that it represented an Opposition attitude to the Bill. In this Amendment that emerges even more clearly. The Government have considered this, and we advise the House to disagree with this Amendment. A good deal of confusion and misunderstanding has surrounded this question of the Minister appointing the Executives, and reference has been made, in the discussions, to other appointments It is essential that we should recognise the structure, both for policy and management, which this Bill embodies—the division of the two. In this case the Executives are not area or regional bodies; they are national and functional bodies, and the Commission, by an instrument, delegates to the Railway Executive, if I may use that as an example, the running and the conduct of the whole of the railways of this country.

Therefore, if one considers the importance of the Executives, the extent to which their functions will affect the whole community, both in their capacity as traders and as the travelling public, I cannot for a moment conceive that Parliament would not, in the larger aspects of administration, wish to be able to examine, or to put to the Minister from time to time their requests or observations or opinions on, certain aspects of the administration of these Executives. Therefore, from the point of view of Parliamentary control, there is a lot to be said for the Executives being appointed by the Minister, rather than that he should delegate that duty to the Commission. Further, in matters of this description it is far better, in the public interest, that they, should know clearly where the responsibility rests. If the Commission had the responsibility of appointing these Executives, it is inconceivable that they would proceed to do so without consultation with the Minister. If, in these consultations, there developed a divergence of opinion, at the commencement of the establishment of bodies of this character, I do not think it would make for a good ultimate result. On the other hand, if the Minister is charged with the responsibility of appointment, there is no question of the Minister riding off on the assumption that another body has appointed persons of this importance.

The next aspect of this problem to which I wish to refer is that I have noticed in another place, and in speeches by Members of Parliament, that the question of patronage has been introduced. HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."] I gather that that has some support. I want to deal with the question of patronage fairly and frankly. I find that usually it is raised when persons of the wage-earning or working classes are appointed to positions of importance. We are dealing with those who are going to run the railways of this country in their capacity as a Railway Executive, and with the appointment of a limited number of persons who are to run the ports, and so on.

Since the fall of the last Government, a number of right lion Members sitting on the other side of the House have been appointed as railway directors In the ordinary way, I would not raise a matter of that kind, but is that patronage or is it not? If the Minister did a similar thing to what the existing railway boards have done, and if he appointed a person of that character, would hon. Members then allege that patronage had been applied? I have sat in this House for many years and I have witnessed many appointments by Governments. Usually they were drawn from a very limited circle in the community, and I have never heard the question of patronage raised by hon. Members opposite. It is only when some individual who, as a rule, has fought his way up against many adverse circumstances and won through by character and determination, normally over great odds, is appointed to a post of this description, that we hear this question of patronage raised. I hold the view that when we come to the executive positions in industry, commerce and administration, the personnel have been drawn from a far too limited circle in the community. During the Committee stage of this Bill I made no secret and caused no doubt about the position.

In an industry like the transport industry, where there will be over one million persons employed possessing a very wide range of experience and knowledge of their industry, I would not accept the position that those who are to run the industry should be drawn from a very limited class in the community. I think it is essential when Parliament is establishing and carrying out a great change of this kind, which springs from new ideas moving in the community, that the Minister should see that in the executive administration all walks of life and all experiences are reflected in the public administration. When a Minister makes appointments of that description, he should be prepared to have his appointments examined publicly on the Floor of the House, in the Press, or anywhere else. The Minister should accept responsibility for the appointments he has made. I have made it quite clear through all our discussions, both here and elsewhere, that the appointment of the Commission and the Executives is primarily a job which the Minister must do. He must see that this administration starts off with a personnel capable of doing the task, the very onerous task, placed upon them, namely, to co-ordinate the whole of the transport system of this country and to run it in the interests of trade and of the community generally.

Therefore, I state that the Government have considered this issue, which has run through all the stages of this Bill, on more than one occasion. We have examined all the views that have been put forward, both in this House and in another place, and we have come to the considered decision that we intend to adhere to the position of the Minister appointing not only the Commission but the Executives. We think it is essential and, in the long run, desirable that, if we are to have criticism of that kind in our public life at this stage, the best thing is that it should not be in the form of an underground type of campaign of criticism, but that the Minister should make the appointments and should be able to stand on the Floor of the House and defend those appointments

Sir D. Maxwell Fyfe

I should like to deal with the points which the right hon. Gentleman has made in proposing this disagreement, in the order in which he has put them before the House. Like him, I cannot but remember that we have discussed this matter before. I think it is important that we should give a little time to it today because this is one of a number of Amendments which show how carefully the improvement of the structure proposed in the nationalisation of transport has been examined in another place. From the point of view of the right hon. Gentleman's own words on structure and policy, I put my first considerations before the House. The Executives are to be the agents of the Commission with delegated powers. Once again, I base my argument on the conception of the public corporation that has been put forward. It is essential, if such a public corporation is to have any chance of success, that it must have full powers and be able to carry on its business undertaking. That is the essence of the Socialist approach, and so far, and within the severe limits of our general objections, that is common sense

5.30 p.m.

Our point all along has been, How can your structure succeed, how can your set-up work, if it has this sag in the middle? You have the Minister with great powers, you have the Executives carrying on the day-to-day work, and between them you have a body so hamstrung that it has not even got the power to appoint its own agents.' That is my answer to the right hon. Gentleman's point—that we are not giving sufficient consideration to the structure and policy of this Commission. It seems a very long time ago, but I gather that it is only some seven months, since I moved the rejection of this Bill on Second Reading, when I said that one of the dangers to which we had to have regard was whether we would get on the Commission "yes-men" and sycophants. That will be a danger if we give the Commission such limited powers that, on the one side, it is subject at every turn to the directions of the Minister, and, on the other, has not even the power to appoint the agents by which it works.

There is another practical point on which the right hon. Gentleman did not touch, and, therefore, I venture once again to bring it to his attention. That is the point that we do not know when the Executives will be appointed. We know that there is a contemplated delay in appointing the Hotels Executive, and others may or may not come, but the body which will be there, and which it is planned to have from the start, is the Commission. The Commission will be working, and that seems to me an additional point for leaving it to this body, which is tackling the problem, to appoint those who are going to work under it.

I want now to deal, with equal frankness to that of the right hon. Gentleman, with the question of patronage. As he knows, I have, probably more often than anyone else, raised this point in the House and in speeches outside it, and I want to deal today with his argument and to give what I conceive to be the counter argument to it. The right hon. Gentleman has referred to those of my colleagues on these benches who have been made directors of railway companies. Those are appointments made by the companies for reasons which seemed good to them and in the expectation that useful members of the board would be obtained, but, whatever disadvantages there may be, the right hon. Gentleman, who has been in this House longer than I have—and I have been here for a good many years—must agree with me that one of the points on which we have all been primed is the complete frankness with which interests have been declared in this House. It was referred to the other day when we were discussing Privilege. It does not matter whether they were railway directorships or anything else, such interests have always been disclosed with complete frankness, so that hon. Members could attach such importance to, or make such discounts from, what somebody said as they thought was right. What we are worried about in the set-up of these nationalisation schemes is the largely increased political patronage which is placed in the hands of Ministers. The right hon. Gentleman has considered this subject, and he will know that, over the centuries, and especially in the 18th century, the fact that Ministers had well-paid jobs at their disposal was used as a method of attracting votes and getting men of a certain political line. I am not making any personal reflections, but just raising the general point.

It is, I submit, putting too big a strain on the Minister, and putting too big a strain on Members of Parliament, to have in front of them as they come along, an ever-growing number of jobs which they can get from one or other of their political leaders on the Front Bench. I say that, by making a large and ever-growing number of jobs open to political patronage, we are doing a dangerous thing. The right hon. Gentleman has had some regard to that matter, and he has said "Well, the answer to that is that, although the jobs are in my hands, I am subject to Parliamentary control, and people can blame rue if they do not like it." I am trying to make a general point, and there is no personal edge in this in any way. Parliamentary control, in the last resort, however, is control by the party that has the majority in the House. The party that has the majority in the House is in this matter ex hypothesi, the party that is to be affected by the Ministerial appointments, and the Parliamentary control which will operate in the last resort can be decided by the majority of those who are potential beneficiaries. That again is dangerous. I seriously put this point to the Minister, because it is a danger and a difficulty in the way not only of the working of nationalisation schemes, but in the working of the democracy which is so dear to us all.

I want only to say very few words on the other aspect of the right hon. Gentleman's remarks, namely, the category of people from whom the appointments are made. I am sure that I speak for everyone of my colleagues on these benches when I say that the background or the past of the appointees does not matter at all to me or to anyone who co-operates with me in this matter. We are only too anxious that if they have had the requisite experience, they shall come from whatever section of the community will provide that experience, and the right hon. Gentleman may take that as being a firm view, but here we are dealing—and the right hon. Gentleman will realise it—with highly-paid jobs, and it is a case of the first consideration which I have endeavoured to develop, that of the political background. We consider that there is a danger in its application, and not from the other point of view. Therefore, from the point of view of the set-up and its workability, from the point of view of making it work in time, and from the point of view of avoiding this patronage, in which we see some dangers, we believe that the Commission is the proper body to make these appointments, and I shall advise my hon. and right hon. Friends to vote in that sense.

Major Haughton (Antrim)

The Minister, in suggesting that this Amendment should be rejected by the House, dealt particularly with three aspects. The first was responsibility to Parliament in the appointments, the second was patronage, and the third the selection of personnel. But there is another aspect connected with this Amendment, and I think win other Amendments, and that is the commercial aspect. We are now approaching tremendous economic difficulties. We are being exhorted by Members of the Government, and by all people of good will to do everything possible to increase production. Production is completely interlocked with transport. In this question of the appointment of the Executive, the commercial aspect must be taken into consideration. I cannot conceive that the Commission, which will be selected from the ablest men that the Minister can induce to accept appointment, will thank him for taking on the job of appointing the Executive. After all, it is not the kind of thing that would be done in a commercial concern. If the board of directors of a commercial concern was responsible for the operation of branches throughout the country, that board would not thank some ordinary shareholder who had a controlling interest in the company for making the appointments of branch managers.

In Committee upstairs—I do not know whether I am in Order in referring to what happened there—it was said, over and over again, that the Bill having been given a Second Reading, it was the duty of everyone concerned to make it work properly. Amendment after Amendment was introduced for the purpose of making the. Bill work properly. The Minister has an immense responsibility to make transport in this country efficient and successful. If we go back over the history of the Bill since it was first introduced, and consider the various Amendments to it, it will be found that they have been very helpful. Personally, I deplore and deprecate the feeling that seems to have arisen that these Amendments from another place are in the nature of obstruction, and that they should. ipso facto. be rejected. I know that these things were argued out in Committee, but we have had more time since then to consider many of the Clauses and others which were not debated there at all. I think that, from a commercial point of view, as well as from many other points of view, this is a good Amendment, and I propose to support it.

Mr. O. Poole

The right hon. Gentleman urged the House to reject this Amendment on three grounds. The first was that it had come down from another place, and that, therefore, it was an obstructionist Conservative Amendment and, ipso facto, should be rejected. The second reason he gave was that the possibility of patronage had already been considered. He then referred to some of my hon. Friends who may or may not have been directors of railway companies, and virtually said that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. His third reason was that he, himself, would be personally responsible for the appointments. I suggest that every one of those reasons is bad. He said that the matter had been argued at very great length on every stage of the Bill, and that he and Parliament had taken careful note of what had been said about it. I should have thought that he would have put forward a better argument than he has done for the rejection of this Amendment.

It is quite obvious that there is no substance in the argument that the Amendment ought to be rejected. What most concerns me is how is this really going to work. Is the Minister going to say to the Commission, "I am going to make you responsible for this enormous task"—and no one can lay down a complete blueprint of how the Commission will work—"but I do not consider that you are capable of choosing the Executives who are to put your policy into practice"? How can the right hon. Gentleman have so little confidence in his choice of people that he should believe that they will not choose the right people to put their policy into effect? He says that he must be responsible to this House for the appointment of the Executive. He is responsible for the Commission, and, therefore, is responsible for all their actions. But why does he limit his responsibility to appointing the Executive? Why does he not say that he is going to appoint everyone, all the way down?

5.45 P.m.

The reason why we have fought for this Amendment throughout the whole proceedings of this Bill is because experience has shown that, where there is divided responsibility at the top, the thing must automatically fail. That has happened over and over again in every walk of life. It happened in Government departments during the war, in the Services, and in business. To any of us who have had the least experience of these things that is the one salient feature. We are starting this vast organisation—far greater than anything hitherto—with no idea of how it is going to work. This Bill is really the broad outline of what the Commission is going to do, and yet the first thing we do is to put divided responsibility at the top. It is absolutely indefensible. If I needed any further proof that it was indefensible, I would listen to the ridiculous argument put for- ward by the right hon. Gentleman for the rejection of this Amendment. I hope that, even at this last stage, the Government will reconsider the matter. I shall vote against it again unless they are able to do that.

Mr. Beverley Baxter (Wood Green)

I listened with great interest to the opening remarks of the Minister as to why this Amendment should be rejected. It seemed to me that he was less logical than usual, and certainly less clear headed. He spoke about patronage as though it were something new, and objected to it as such. The fact is that patronage is inescapable with any Government. After all, the Government Chief Whip is officially the Patronage Secretary, and what we on this side of the House have objected to, with growing anxiety, is the unchecked development of that patronage beyond all possibility of control until it creates and spreads corruption.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker (Mr. Hubert Beaumont)

The hon. Member seems to be getting rather wide of the Amendment.

Mr. Baxter

With respect, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, you were not in the Chamber when the Minister spoke on this Amendment. He criticised the attitude of hon. Members on this side of the House because we said that patronage was a bad thing, and he accused us, as a party, of blaming the Government only when it appointed a wage-earner to a job, whereas, he said, had it been some mysterious member of the upper classes, we would, for some reason, not object to it. The point was very strongly made by the Minister, and I do submit to you, Sir, that I am not out of Order in dealing with it.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I did not rule that the hon. Member was out of Order; I merely said that his remarks were somewhat wide of the Amendment.

Mr. P. Thornycroft

I think it is only right to point out that the Minister devoted pretty well two-thirds of his speech to the question of patronage, a question which, I understand, has been raised and debated at length in another place. I am not going into all the arguments that he advanced, but I earnestly submit that those arguments were admitted as being in Order at the time, and that, therefore, it is surely in Order for us to answer them.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I repeat that I did not rule the hon. Member out of Order; I merely pointed out that he was getting somewhat wide of the Amendment. May I express the view that we should keep to the Amendment. Any widening of the Debate is undesirable.

Mr. Baxter

I shall endeavour not to go beyond your Ruling, Mr. Deputy-Speaker. At the same time, I must say this about patronage, because the subject was brought up before us, and I think we must discuss it. What we are doing here is to try to protect the Minister. [Laughter.] We are becoming very accustomed in this House, every time a serious point is made, to hear this cackling laughter from the other side. A famous dramatic critic once described the laughter of a certain comedian as being like the falling of February sleet upon the roof of an empty coffin. That is what the laughter of hon. Members opposite is like. The development of patronage will be carried another stage further, unless this Amendment is accepted. It does not involve the personal honour of the Minister, because none of us doubts his honesty; but it is the approaches to him which become fouled—those who advise him, right down the line. If the Socialist Party think they will escape the inevitable corollary of this increasing patronage, they are wrong, and sometimes I begin to wonder if the Government want to escape it, and whether they have got these unlimited perquisites to hand out.

I would have liked to discuss the appointment of the Governor of the B.B.C., but I think that might be a little "off the line." I wish to ask this question of the Parliamentary Secretary, in the absence of his chief. Nowadays we do not expect Ministers to speak with the same voice. They are a very discordant choir. The Minister of Fuel and Power said that he would not appoint to the Electricity Board any man who said he did not believe in nationalisation. May we ask whether the Minister of Transport is going to take that same attitude? If a capable man in the transport business honestly opposes this Bill, is he now to be excluded from these new appointments, or is his ability to count? We have a right to know where we are, and whether Tammany Hall is being established here or not. This growing patronage is a very great menace to the country and to its future. We have a right to know whether it is the Minister of Fuel and Power or the Minister of Transport who speaks for the Government, and we want an answer. The other House has done good service, and we in this House should be very grateful for the wise counsel they have given. They have brought to this subject vast experience and impartiality. For that reason, I hope this House will reject the Minister's advice and will accept this Amendment as the first check which the Government will ever have made to the growing and inevitable corruption.

Sir Patrick Hannon (Birmingham, Moseley)

My objection to the Minister's attitude to this Amendment arises from the tendency of His Majesty's Government to concentrate power in the hands of Ministers, in the whole of the legislation which they are now promoting. I rise particularly to say to the Minister that I think his suggestion that the administration of the railways by past railway directors has not been on as high a level as the administration in any other part of the world, should not have been expressed. I served on both the Committees of this House in 1921, and we all know the men who were railway directors then. Think of the contributions they made to the problems concerning the railways at that time. Think of the contribution which Lord Banbury made. He was, perhaps, rather a peculiar character in this House, but he was also a very competent authority on railway administration. Think of the contribution made by Lord Horne. These gentlemen were directors of railways in this country, and they administered the railways on the very highest level. Think of what the late Lord Stamp did for railway administration.

Mr. McAdam (Salford, North)

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that one of the first things the late Lord Stamp did when he became chairman of the L.M.S. was to appoint his son to a department newly created in the L.M.S.?

Sir P. Hannon

He was a very efficient man, and he did a first-class job. Unfortunately, he was killed during the raids on this city. In spite of the good intentions of the Government Front Bench, political influence will play a big part in these appointments if this Amendment is rejected. The Parliamentary Secretary will receive letters from his constituents saying that Mr. Smith or Mr. Jones is a fit and proper person to serve on the Executive. All the Members of the Front Bench will be subjected to the same kind of attack from their constituents; and if this Amendment is rejected, applicants for these appointments will, no doubt, receive favourable consideration from the Minister when this Bill becomes law, provided they have strong Socialist convictions. It is a very strange situation that the Minister, in spite of the consideration extended to him in Standing Committee upstairs, has arrogated to himself the power to appoint the members of the Executive to carry out the management of the railways. No doubt hon. Members opposite will go into the Lobby in support of their Front Bench, no matter what happens. No matter how much wisdom or what authority we may quote, or how much we may plead for the exercise of sound judgment, they will still support their Front Bench.

Mr. David Kirkwood (Dumbarton Burghs)

It is a good Front Bench, too.

Sir P. Hannon

I have no doubt that while the hon. Member for Dumbarton Burghs (Mr. Kirkwood) remains where he is, the Government Front Bench will feel perfectly safe. The hon. Member may have in mind somebody whom he wishes to propose for one of the executive appointments, and, no doubt, the Parliamentary Secretary will listen to any application that he makes. I do not wish to pursue these arguments, but I sincerely hope the Minister will have the wisdom to accept this Amendment.

6.0 p.m.

Mr. H. Strauss

The speeches made on both sides have dealt with two particular questions. One is whether this Amendment is right or resistance to it is right, having regard to the structure of the Bill. The other question is the question of patronage. These two questions are related to this extent. If we find that the Government's proposal is entirely bad, having regard to the structure of the Bill, that will very much strengthen our suspicion that the object of the bad pro- vision is patronage. Let me deal straight away with the question of the structure of the Bill. Here let me remind the House that, while my party has taken this line on the appointment of the executives from the beginning, critics of the Government's proposal are by no means confined to the Conservative Party on this issue. On this particular issue of the structure of the Bill an intelligent Socialist is as much entitled to object to the Government's proposal as a good Conservative.

Let us deal with one of the things that the right hon. Gentleman the Minister quite rightly said was important, namely, the responsibility. Let us consider the question of the responsibility of the Commission. How on earth can the Commission be held responsible if it is not even entitled to choose its own servants and agents? Whatever else the effect of the Government's proposal is, it must be to diminish and to make vain any idea of the responsibility of the Commission. Let me remind the House of the relevant phrases in the Bill itself. If hon. Members will look at Clause 3 (4) they will find that: Each Executive shall, as agents for the Commission, exercise their functions, etc. If it had been said that these Executives were to be agents of the Minister, then, of course, the Minister would be quite right to appoint them. What is so utterly wrong in the structure is for the Minister to appoint them and then to say they are not his agents but those of somebody else. If hon. and right hon. Gentlemen will look at Clause 5 (6) they will see the words: Every Executive shall, in the exercise of their functions, give effect to any directions which may from time to time be given to them by the Commission. Throughout the structure of the Bill they are made the servants and agents of the Commission and not of the Minister. For the Minister, in the circumstances, to take upon himself their appointment can have one main effect only, which is to diminish the responsibility and the effectiveness of the Commission. Now that is not good sense. It is not even good Socialism. If the Government are going to nationalise an industry at all and set up a statutory body for that purpose, and if they are good Socialists, they want to make that statutory body a good and effective body. That is not done by the structure of the Bill as it stands.

Let me pass to the question of patronage. The right hon. Gentleman said, "What about the case of an ex-Minister or a former politician, either inside or outside this House, being appointed to a railway board?" Let me say at once that any such appointment, it seems to me, may be good or may be bad: it depends on the circumstances. But the responsibility of the board is to its shareholders, and those appointments can be called in question. Whether it is good or bad, there is no doubt at all as to the effect of the appointment. The patronage here in question is a patronage about which the House of Commons is always right to concern itself. These enormous powers of patronage in the hands of the executive Government constitute a matter which is rightly of concern to the House and to lovers of our constitutional machinery in whatever quarter of the House they may sit. The power of the Executive through patronage is a matter of great importance which had, in the past, legislative and other checks, and- in which this House has always been rightly concerned.

At this part of the right hon. Gentleman's case he made it quite clear that what he desired was patronage. That was why he welcomed this Clause. That was why he was so loudly cheered in getting up to move disagreement with the Lords Amendment before he had even addressed a word to the House. It is frankly welcomed on the benches opposite, not in spite of making patronage possible, but precisely because it makes it possible. [Interruption.] These words and cries, whether they are in some cases of assent or in some cases of misunderstanding of what is taking place in the House, very much confirm the view I have just expressed. There is no doubt that these powers of patronage which the Government are taking by this provision, as I have pointed out, are entirely wrong even on the principles of good Socialism. These powers the Government are taking are welcomed precisely because they make patronage possible. One of the things that I wonder is this: whether the Government not only say, "We shall not accept this Amendment," but have already put it out of their own power to accept this Amendment by the promises they have already made for filling these positions. It is, I think daily the expectation of reward, the expectation of reward for political—

Mr. Barnes

I was not quite clear whether the hon. and learned Member was talking generally or in relation to these specific appointments. It is drawn to my attention that his remarks could be applied to these specific appointments. I want to know if that is so or not?

Mr. Strauss

Certainly.

Mr. Barnes

What justification has the hon. and learned Member?

Mr. Strauss

I have pointed out that the provision which the right hon. Gentleman is defending—let me put the argument—is utterly wrong from the point of view of the structure of the Bill.

Mr. Barnes

rose—

Mr. Strauss

I am not going to give way for the moment. If the right hon. Gentleman thinks, when I have finished my reply, that I have evaded him I shall give' way again. Secondly, I say that the fact that this is utterly wrong from the point of view of the structure of the Bill strengthens my own suspicion that its object is to secure what it undoubtedly does secure—the increased power of patronage. Now let me get on to the specific question the right hon. Gentleman has put. I promise I shall yield to him if he is not satisfied with my answer. I say that it is an open secret how he has already filled—or plans to fill—some of the positions on the Commission. It is an open secret already.

Mr. Barnes

What I want to put directly to the hon. and learned Member is that he should submit evidence of that, or else withdraw.

Hon. Members

Withdraw.

Mr. Strauss

I am going to give the grounds of my suspicion. I shall give them clearly, and I shall be interested to know whether anyone is going to get up on behalf of the Government to deny them

Mr. Gallaeher (Fife, West)

On a point of Order. The hon. and learned Member has made a definite statement that it is an open secret that the Minister has already appointed members of the Commission—

Hon. Members

No.

Mr. Alpass (Thornburg)

That he has made promises.

Mr. Gallacher

—that he has made promises, that it is an open secret that the Minister has made promises. I ask, in view of the reputation of the Minister, if the hon. and learned Member is in Order?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I have no power, of course, to instruct or to insist upon an hon. Member making any particular statement. That is left to the good sense and good taste of hon. Members and the House will judge accordingly

The Minister of Health (Mr. Aneurin Bevan)

rose—

Mr. Strauss

I should like to deal with that point before giving way. The last speaker, the hon. Member for West Fife (Mr. Gallacher), mentioned refutation by the Minister. So far there has been no refutation whatsoever by the Minister, and I say—

Mr. Bevan

rose—

Mr. Strauss

I will yield to the right hon. Gentleman in one minute. I say that the post of chairmanship on the Commission is going to be obtained by Lord Latham. I also say that I am highly suspicious of why this Amendment has been resisted, and my belief is that a good many indications have been given to people who are likely to fill some of the positions on the Boards.

Mr. Barnes

I have taken particular care to avoid this situation—[Laughter.] It is all very well for hon. Members opposite to laugh. There is not an atom of truth in what has been stated by the hon. and learned Member—no truth whatsoever—and I demand his withdrawal of the statement. No hon. Member is entitled to get up in a Debate of this kind and make insinuations of that nature, which affect the standing and integrity of the Minister, unless they are substantiated. I say, without any hesitation, that the person referred to has never had any contact with me, that I have never made any statement to any person, and have never considered that individual. Now I ask the hon. and learned Member to withdraw.

Mr. Strauss

The right hon. Gentleman has combined two demands. On one, of course, I at once defer. If the right hon. Gentleman says there is no foundation for the statement that the right hon. Gentleman to whom I have referred is going to be a member of the—[HON. MEMBERS: "Withdraw."] I am going to make—

Mr. Gallacher

Does not the hon. and learned Member know the meaning of decency?

Mr. Strauss

The Communist Party had better endeavour to behave itself. I have no particular eagerness to withdraw these things. I am going to withdraw, but I am also going to make quite clear what I am withdrawing and what I am not withdrawing. And, in case that can be used either for or against me, I wish to be clear. I say that until the right hon. Gentleman assures the House that he has no intention of appointing this right hon Gentleman—

Hon. Members

Withdraw.

Mr. Barnes

rose—

Mr. Strauss

I really am not going to yield until I have made my statement. Surely hon. and right hon. Members opposite know me well enough to do me the honour of agreeing that I do yield—

Mr. Keenan (Liverpool, Kirkdale)

On a point of Order. Is it in Order for the hon. and learned Member—[Interruption.]

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

Unless hon. Members are quiet I cannot hear what the hon. Gentleman says.

Mr. Kirkwood

Keep those fellows opposite in Order.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I am not concerned with any one side of the House. I am concerned with the House as a whole.

Mr. Keenan

Is it in Order for the hon. and learned Member, in his attempt to defend what he says he did not say before, to attribute to the Minister a statement which the Minister did not make, as the hon. and learned Member did a few moments ago?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I understood that the hon. and learned Member was about to make a certain withdrawal, the nature of which I was waiting to hear. If that withdrawal is not satisfactory, then it will be quite open to the Minister himself to say so.

6.15 p.m.

Mr. Strauss

I confess, I do not remember the exact terms the Minister used, but I intend to make clear the nature of my withdrawal, what it is I withdraw and what it is I do not withdraw. Whatever attacks may be made, it is much better for them to made on accurate knowledge. [HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."] Certainly. I say at once, if the Minister assures me that he has no intention, and has never intimated such intention, that the Government have no intention, and that the Government have never intimated such intention, of appointing the right hon. Gentleman to whom I have referred, then, of course, I accept that from the Minister. I would not doubt it for one moment but—

Mr. Barnes

rose—

Mr. Strauss

One moment.

Mr. Gallacher

What a twister.

Mr. Strauss

Do not be so nervous. I promise that I will sit down if the right hon. Gentleman likes, but do let me get my own statement right. The Minister then goes on to say that I have made some frightful charge against the Government. I have not made one single charge against the Government which is not explicit or implicit in this Clause which we are discussing. And in the Minister's defence here he, in so many words, claimed the right—he did not object—

Mr. Barnes

On a point of Order. I really cannot allow this to go on any longer. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh!"] Hon. Gentlemen opposite will not get away with it like that. As I understood it, the hon. and learned Member stated that it is well known that promises have been made by the Minister. I now ask that he substantiates that or withdraws it.

Mr. Strauss

If the Minister says to me that no promises have been made, of course I will withdraw. I say, though—and still my main point seems to me to remain quite unaffected—that these great powers have been given to Ministers, and they have made it clear that they think it is quite in order for them to fill these appointments with their political supporters. I say that there is very strong rumour—with which I have acquainted the House, and which I certainly believed to have some foundation; the right hon. Gentleman says to me that it has none, and I accept his word—as to how one particular appointment is to be filled. Now, I say in the case of these Executives—

Mr. Bevan

May I put a point to the hon. and learned Member? My right hon. Friend did not hear the end of the statement which the hon. and learned Member made, and I directed the attention of my right hon. Friend to it. What I want from the hon. and learned Member is either a substantiation or a withdrawal of the original statement. [HON. MEMBERS: "He has withdrawn."] What the hon. and learned Member said was that my right hon. Friend had put it out of his power—

Mr. Strauss

No.

Hon. Members

You did.

Mr. Bevan

I am within the recollection of the House, and the OFFICIAL REPORT will show me to be correct. The hon. and learned Member said that my right hon. Friend had put it out of his power to accept this Amendment because of promises that had been made about this appointment. That is what the hon. and learned Member said; it is a very serious charge to make, and any gentleman of honour would either substantiate it or withdraw it.

Mr. Strauss

I am obliged to the right hon. Gentleman for making clear what his point was. The OFFICIAL REPORT will, as he says, make clear what were the exact words, and I shall take the precaution of not going up and making any amendment to my speech—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."]—certainly of grammar. I rely on my recollection, and I think the right hon. Gentleman will find—

Mr. Gallacher

The hon. and learned Member had better give it up.

Mr. Strauss

I am quite aware of the Communist Party's desire that nobody—

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I think this is a quite deplorable turn which the Debate is taking, and I hope the House will come back to the Amendment.

Mr. Strauss

I yielded to the Minister of Health, and always shall yield, because his interventions always provide useful contributions to the Debate. I think he will find that what I said was: Having regard to the way this Amendment is being resisted, I wonder whether the Minister not only says "I won't withdraw the Amendment," but has put it out of his power to withdraw it, having regard to the expectations that have been aroused with regard to this appointment. I think it will be found that that is what I said. If the Government do take this alleged step—and I am saying quite directly in this House what is becoming to be suspected increasingly, I think on reasonable grounds, outside—not only that reward for political services can be expected in the way of appointment, but that fairly early rewards can be expected merely for joining the Socialist Party—I say that this is the first—

Mr. Frank McLeavy (Bradford, East)

On a point of Order. I rise to ask whether the hon. Member is now making an apology to the House, and whether the House is entitled to ask him to make an apology for a most offensive statement against the Minister?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

The Chair has no power to ask for any apology to be made, nor has it power to ask an hon. Member to withdraw. In all seriousness, I would ask the House, and those who are addressing the House, if they will address themselves to the Amendment.

Mr. Gallacher

On a point of Order. Is it conceivable that the hon. Member for Dumbarton Burghs (Mr. Kirkwood) or myself would have been allowed to behave in this way?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

The only thing is for the hon. Member for Dumbarton Burghs and the hon. Member for West Fife to try and see how far they can do it.

Mr. Kirkwood

I have tried and failed.

Mr. Strauss

I am making no apology of any kind. I am not under the illusion that I am making a speech which is popular with hon. Members opposite. I am making— [Interruption.]

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I do hope that the House will allow the hon. and learned Member to conclude his speech.

Mr. Strauss

I am stating, on the first Amendment when it has been possible, what I believe to be a public issue of the very first importance. In these Bills, and especially—[Interruption.] I am anxious to conclude my speech, but I assure hon. Members opposite that I shall continue until I have made my point absolutely clear.

Mr. Gallacher

Mr. Deputy-Speaker has said that the hon. Member is to conclude his speech.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I did not say that he had to conclude it, but simply expressed a wish.

Mr. Strauss

I can assure you, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, that my desire to conclude my speech is no less than that of any other Member in the House, but I mean to go on until this point is absolutely clear, and every characteristic attempt from hon. Members opposite to try to prevent me from saying what I believe it is my duty to my constituents to say—[Interruption.]

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

We cannot have a speech carried on with these persistent interruptions.

Major Cecil Poole (Lichfield)

On a point of Order. It is certainly a very ancient Rule that any hon. Member has a right to address the House, but surely the House is at liberty to decide whether or not it will listen?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

Yes, but it is within the discretion of the Chair that the speech be listened to.

Mr. McKinlay (Dumbartonshire)

Is it out of Order for a Member to show his appreciation of the efforts of any hon. Member in addressing the House?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

There are other forms of appreciation, and silence is one of them.

Mr. Strauss

On nationalisation Bills, and particularly with this one, it is of the utmost importance that the House shall watch what opportunities are being given of patronage by the Executive, particularly when these opportunities are wholly unnecessary and can be avoided by an Amendment which positively improves the structure of the Bill. That criticism has been made, not only by Conservatives, but by commentators on this Bill from the time it was introduced, and in papers so divergent as the "Manchester Guardian" and the "Economist." There is no doubt whatever that the structure of this Bill will be improved by accepting this Amendment, which will also have the effect of diminishing the Government's opportunity of patronage. On both these grounds I commend the Amendment, which has been made in another place, to the good sense of the House.

6.15 p.m.

Mr. York (Ripon)

I, too, wish to voice my opinion upon the question of political patronage. Up and down the country, I have accused the Socialist Government of seeking to introduce more and more political patronage, and I consider it is therefore right and proper that I should make the same accusation in this House.

Mr. Kirkwood

Does that mean the hon. Member is challenging us all on that this evening?

Mr. York

I would tell the hon. Member that patience is a virtue. It seems to me that the Minister tried to justify his case on the grounds that "Because you boys have done it in the past, we are going to do it in the future."

Mr. Gallacher

What is wrong with that?

Mr. York

The Minister pointed in the general direction of this side of the House, inferring that the Conservative Party had had the right in the past—goodness knows where they got it from—to appoint railway directors. That is certainly an argument which none of my hon. Friends has been able to discover before; it is the most wonderful invention of the Minister. I will not ask the Minister to withdraw it. If he likes to make that sort of point, the intelligent public can give it the weight it deserves. If the railway directorships in the past were given to Conservative Members because they were Conservative Members, then I think that it is a thoroughly disreputable thing, and so do most of my hon. Friends. If that had been the case in the past, the right hon. Gentleman and I would have joined hands in condemning it, and I have no doubt that hon. Members opposite know that I am speaking the truth. The point is that there happened to be many Conservative Members of Parliament who were in business before they came into the House. If they had been appointed to railway boards on the grounds that they were competent administrators that is not my affair, because they were appointed on their merits.

If the Minister will appoint members of the executives purely on their merits, then there will not be a great deal of complaint in any part of the House. The Minister implied that the provisions of this Bill were to make it possible to put working men on the Executives. I beg leave to doubt whether any single working man will be put on one of these Executives. Do right hon. Gentlemen on the opposite Front Bench think that they are working men? Some, but very few, may have been working men 20 or 30 years ago.

6.30 p.m.

Mr. Alpass

On a point of Order. What has this to do with the Amendment?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

Perhaps the hon. Member will allow me to conduct the proceedings of the House.

Mr. York

Right hon. and hon. Members opposite are not working-class men today in the sense that many men who started work in industry, who saved money and put it back into their businesses, and who rose to high places, are working men. The men who are appointed, if they are appointed on merit, will not be working men.

Mr. Stubbs (Cambridgeshire)

Can the hon. Member define a working man "?

Mr. York

Perhaps the hon. Member will think about it, and then he will find out. I will give him his due; he is a good type of working man and proud of it, but he will never be on the Government Front Bench.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I fail to see what this has to do with the Amendment.

Mr. York

I apologise to you, Sir, and to the hon. Member for that digression. What we on this side of the House are trying to do is to prevent the worst features of political patronage becoming a reality. The Minister is an honest man, but we cannot guarantee that future Ministers of Transport, of any party—I want to be perfectly fair in this matter—will be as honest and straightforward as the right hon. Gentleman. We know that there are far too many men with political ambitions to give carte blanche to all future Ministers of Transport. There can be no doubt that resistance to this Amendment will put power into the hands of all future Ministers of Transport to distribute political patronage far and wide. It is on those grounds that my right hon. and hon. Friends and I will oppose the Government on this issue.

Mr. Turton (Thirsk and Malton)

The Minister and the party opposite seem to be nervous of this Amendment, and I think they have good reason to be. There arise the questions: How far will there be incompetence through red tape, and how far will there be incentive towards corruption and graft? Taking the former question first I am surprised that we have not had a speech from the Government side in support of this Amendment. In the past, I have heard the hon. Member for East Middlesbrough (Mr. A. Edwards) speak on this very point of the danger of incompetence through red tape. He has said that there must not be over-centralisation in nationalisation proposals, that a certain amount of freedom must be given to a Commission. This Amendment raises that very point. Here, the Government are to appoint to the Commission men who have shown capacity in transport, industrial, commercial, or financial matters, or in administration or in the organisation of workers. Those men, I should have thought, could be trusted to choose the Executives. The Government have done that under the Civil Aviation Act. There they appointed three corporations, and gave them the job of choosing the Executives. The Hotel Executive was chosen, not by the Minister of Civil Aviation, but by the corporation. Now the Government are doing something entirely different which, I believe, the Labour Party will rue afterwards.

The Minister, in opposing this Amendment, asked whether it would make for a good ultimate result if there was divergence of opinion. The man the Commission chose might be a man who was disagreeable to the Minister. Why should the Minister impose on the Commission a man who is not fit for the job? If he does not intend to do this, there is no point in the right hon. Gentleman trying to reject this Amendment. I cannot see that transport in this country will be run competently if, at any time, the Minister can appoint to the Executive a man who has not the confidence of the Commission. My hon. and learned Friend the Member for the Combined English Universities (Mr. H. Strauss) pointed out that the Executives were the agents of the Commission. In that case, the Commission should be entitled to choose their own agents. I am an opponent of the Government in this business of the nationalisation of transport, but I feel strongly that if we are to have nationalisation we must make it work efficiently. It will not be efficient if it is bound up with red tape. It is a facile but dangerous argument for the Minister to say, "It is all right. Parliament will be able to 'vet' everything we do." If the Government continue to prosecute their present programme this House will be cluttered up with Questions, which will make the work of the Transport Commission unwieldy.

A great deal has been said about patronage. This country, since the time of Lord Liverpool, has had a great reputation for honesty in public life, and for absence of inducements towards graft. I am afraid that these nationalisation Measures are being regarded in the country as giving opportunities for graft. The rumours that go about, which Ministers have to contradict, show that danger. The wisest way of dealing with this problem is to remove the opportunity for those rumours. In other countries, there are jobs that are given by the parties in power—

Mr. Alpass

Where did that originate?

Mr. Turton

I have lately been in a country where the allocation of the oil ration was handed out to the Communist Party. I am sorry that the hon. Member for West Fife (Mr. Gallacher) has left the Chamber. That went on for about six months until there was such an uproar that all the Communist Ministers were dismissed from the Government. That happened two months ago, in South America. That is the kind of thing which everybody wants to avoid happening in this country. At present, there is general dissatisfaction here with the way things are run. People believe that there is too much red tape, and there are rumours of blackmail and corruption. I hope that the House will not disagree with this Amendment.

The Lord President of the Council (Mt. Herbert Morrison)

I am sorry that I did not hear the whole of this Debate, but I was at a Cabinet meeting. On the point of the merit of the Amendment to which the hon. Gentleman has just referred, I would put the following considerations to the House. These Executives are to be bodies of very great importance. They are not merely departmental bodies within the transport organisation of a domestic character. The Railway Executive will be in the executive sense responsible. I agree, under the Transport Commission, for running the whole of the railway system of this country. The Road Transport Executive will be similarly responsible for the whole of the road transport system, and so on. I think that in these cases where there are bodies which are running great undertakings as distinct elements of the British transport' system, nevertheless being coordinated by the British Transport Commission, it would be wrong from the Parliamentary point of view if there was no Ministerial accountancy for the appointment of these important executives.

I think that the House would not be much older before it complained if the Minister said, "I have no responsibility for the appointment of these Executives," and the House would complain if he said he had no responsibility for their salaries or conditions of service. In these cases, where they are, from time to time, discharging big functions and running vast economic units, it is right that there should be Parliamentary responsibility for the appointment of these executive bodies. It is proposed, and the Bill provides, that the Minister appoints the Executives after consultation with the British Transport Commission; therefore, the Commission will have a good opportunity of discussing with the Minister the appointments that are to be made. Personally, I think, as does my right hon. Friend, that that is the happiest way out of this problem, having regard to the very important nature of these bodies.

I would remind hon. Members opposite that they have repeatedly pursued my right hon. Friend the Minister of Fuel and Power with regard to the appoint- ment of the divisional boards under the Coal Industry Act. They have complained most vigorously—we had a discussion on the Adjournment only last week—that the Minister has refused to accept responsibility for the appointments of the divisional boards or to give the House information as to their salaries and conditions of service. The reason he does not do so is that in the case of the Coal Industry Act, the same provision was made in respect of the divisional boards—not quite the same—nevertheless, the provision was made or implied that the appointment of the divisional boards under the National Coal Board was the responsibility of the National Coal Board.

I really think that the Opposition ought to make up their minds. If they accept the view that within the Coal Board the appointment of boards for its geographical organisation, much less important than the appointment of these bodies, which are really conducting vast industries within the wider industry—if they accept the view that the divisional coal boards should be the responsibility of appointment by the National Coal Board, they ought not to follow that up by Parliamentary questions and agitations wanting to know why the Minister of Fuel and Power will not give the House information or, in fact, take responsibility for the appointment of the divisional boards.

On this occasion, they are taking the line that the Minister should not appoint. Do they appreciate that if the Minister is not responsible, it will be utterly useless to come along hereafter and question my right hon. Friend as to why he has appointed Mr. So-and-so to an executive? It will be quite impossible. The question of their salaries would, I submit, be ruled out of Order on the ground that the Minister has not the responsibility. The fact is that the Opposition have got themselves into a thorough muddle as to their point of view and philosophy on this matter. They must make up their minds whether they want Parliamentary responsibility or whether they do not. I admit that all these things are a matter of fair argument —I do not complain that there should be argument. We thought in the case of the Coal Board that as these were domestic geographical units within the Coal Board organisation, it was right that they should be a domestic matter for the Coal Board itself. We equally thought in the case of these Executives which have very big direct executive powers, in one case over the whole of the railway field, and in another case over the whole of the road transport field—we thought it was right that the Minister should be in a position of taking responsibility for the appointment, and that this House should have the right to shoot at the Minister for the appointments which he made to these executives. I think that the Opposition ought to make up their minds as to what they want.

6.45 P.m.

I am told that the hon. and learned Member for the English Universities (Mr. H. Strauss) made an allegation which I am a little surprised should come from a university Member of this House; but we live and learn about university Members as we go along. I understand that he made an allegation that my right hon. Friend was not free to accept this Amendment because he had already committed himself to certain appointments. That followed on a rather low-down speech, if I may say so, that was made in the country by the right hon. Member for Bromley (Mr. H. Macmillan) in which allegations of corruption and jobbery were made against this Government. I do not feel that I need to stand up to defend the Labour Party about jobbery and corruption. Our record is open—it is public—and I am prepared to defend it and my own.

Lieut.-Colonel Dower

This is out of Order.

Mr. Morrison

The hon. and gallant Gentleman says that I am out of Order. I thought that Mr. Speaker was in the Chair, but I will be careful in view of the hon. and gallant Gentleman's great knowledge of procedure. I do not want to argue back and to say that the Conservative Party has been guilty of irregularities in public appointments. I dare say that I could make something like a case if I wanted to. But it is not going to help to hurl these cases across the House, nor will it help the hon. and learned Member for the English Universities if he makes a serious allegation of that kind against my right hon. Friend. I have known my right hon. Friend for a great many years and, with great respect, I do not believe that he is the kind of man who has engaged in or ever will engage in irregular practices. If the hon. and learned Gentleman says it, he ought to prove it. He should produce some evidence, or he should withdraw it, one of the two. If he is going to make accusations across the Floor of the House that my right hon. Friend has already made appointments without the authority of Parliament or without telling Parliament—

Mr. H. Strauss

I am sorry that the right hon. Gentleman was not in the Chamber when I spoke, because, if he had been, he would have been in a better position to reply. Let me make it quite clear that whatever accusations I made—and the right hon. Member will be able to see it in HANSARD—

Mr. Morrison

You mentioned a name.

Mr. Strauss

—certainly applies to the whole of the Government and not to the right hon. Gentleman the Minister. That is absolutely clear.

Mr. Kirkwood

It was not in the plural. You singled him out.

Mr. Strauss

My second point is that I did not say that he had made these appointments, I said that he had indicated, as I think the Government had indicated in certain cases, how the executive appointments were to be filled, and I gave that one example.

Mr. Morrison

It does not much matter whether the allegations were made against my right hon. Friend or against the Government. I should have thought that if he made these allegations, and it is perfectly clear that he did, he ought not to make them irresponsibly or out of malice or in a vicious way, because he is doing that if he does not produce evidence. The hon. and learned Gentleman should produce the evidence upon which he bases his allegations and if he is in a position to produce that evidence, I will willingly give way and then deal with it.

Mr. Baxter

Since the Leader of the House is dealing at the moment with a matter of courtesy and perhaps procedure, might I ask him quite seriously whether he thinks it right that in two important Debates such as that on newsprint and that on this Amendment we should have Ministers coming in at the last minute and endeavouring to reply without having heard any of the speeches? The Minister of Health did not take a note of any of the speeches on the newsprint Debate and then he attempted to reply to that Debate. The same thing is occurring now in regard to the Lord President of the Council. Is that right?

Mr. Morrison

The hon. Gentleman is a little thin-skinned. He sees that the Opposition are getting the worst of the argument, and he wants to find some way out of it for them. I said that the hon. and learned Gentleman for the Combined English Universities had made an accusation and that the onus was upon him to produce the evidence. I am willing to, give way if he will produce that evidence

Mr. H. Strauss

I do not desire that there should be any misunderstanding in the mind of the right hon. Gentleman. who did not hear my speech. The grounds on which I said what I did, I explained in that speech, but the main ground for my suspicion—let me repeat the words "main ground" — is the treatment of our case on this Amendment. As long as the Government persist in not answering any of the points we on this side of the House have made on this issue my suspicion will remain.

Mr. Morrison

With great respect, the Amendment has been argued on the merits. I only want to add that it is perfectly clear the hon. and learned Gentleman has no evidence whatever, and if I may say so with respect, it is not fitting for hon. Members of this House, and in particular an hon. Member who is elected to represent cultured university life, to make these allegations against my right hon. Friend or against the Government as a whole without apparently possessing the slightest evidence that that is so. I understand that the hon. and learned Member for the Combined English Universities made some reference to the leader of the London County Council. This is a free country and if the leader of the London County Council wishes to cease to be leader of that body I suppose he may be permitted to do so, but what kind of mind is it that reads suspicion into that?

Mr. Strauss

I did not.

Mr. Morrison

I understand so. That was what I was told. What was the point of mentioning it? The fact is—and I can assure the House that this comes from my own knowledge—my right hon. Friend has not approached or sounded anybody for any of these appointments. If he had done so, and if he had made provision for appointments as was done in the case of coal or of the organising committee in the case of electricity, his right course would be to tell the House. He has not done so. I can assure the hon. and learned Gentleman and the House that he has made no such provision at all, and, therefore, in those circumstances I say again that if these allegations, which come particularly ill from the so-called gentlemanly party, are made, if these smear tactics are to he indulged in, and if this mud-slinging is to be gone in for, then I say to hon. Gentlemen opposite if they have the courage to sling the mud, let them have the courage to produce the evidence.

Mr. P. Thorneyeroft

I rise only for a, few moments in order to say how glad we were to see the Lord President of the Council come in to assist us at a rather late hour in our discussion.

Mr. Kirkwood

Listen now to the bright young Tory.

Mr. Thorneyeroft

I will get through my arguments much quicker if I do not have too much interruption. As a matter of fact, this Debate has been rather one-sided, and I regret it. I thought I saw many hon. Gentlemen opposite, who could have contributed to this discussion, showing signs of deep emotion, but at no time did they translate it into any form of coherent utterance. Now, at last, we have had the Lord President's speech. The Lord President dealt quite a lot with the question of patronage, and he that we on this side of the House were very thin-skinned. I must say that I think the Government are being a little thin-skinned. We have spent a lot of time talking about what was said to be a fearful allegation that had been made against the party opposite. That allegation was that some approach had been made to Lord Latham with the possibility of his serving on the executive.

Hon. Members

No.

Mr. Kirkwood

On a point of Order, Mr. Speaker. All that the hon. Gentleman is doing is to erect a man of straw in order to knock it down.

Mr. Speaker

My recommendation to hon. Members is that they should not generate more heat than they can contain.

Mr. Thorneyeroft

I am ready to accept your Ruling, Sir. I was en-deavouring to introduce a soothing note into the Debate. I think a great deal of heat has been generated about very little. It did not seem to me that the suggestion that Lord Latham was going to be invited to be a member of the executive—[HON. MEMBERS: "No."] —that he had been invited by the Minister to act on the executive should have been treated as a charge of gross indecency. The broad charge on patronage, if I might put it to the Lord President, was raised not by this side of the House at all, but by the right hon. Gentleman the Minister of Transport, who devoted two-thirds of his opening speech to this question of patronage and the allegations about manipulations with regard to railway directors and the Conservative Party. That was why the matter was raised in the form that it was. I mention it only because the Lord President was not in the House, and I think he should know the way the discussion generally developed. The main point about the question of patronage was largely this: without making an allegation against the Minister of Transport, the Government or anybody else, if we go on in Act after Act putting more and more jobs at the disposal of the people who are the political leaders of the country today, it makes for a bad system. All history has shown it to be so.

If I may leave this, following your advice, Mr. Speaker, not to generate any more heat than is necessary, may I say one word on the merits of this Amendment, because merits have been neglected in this discussion. I am not sure that the Minister, in devoting two-thirds of his speech to the question of patronage, did not hope that the merits would be somewhat neglected; but the merits are important. They have nothing to do with the principle of whether transport is nationalised or not. It is simply a question of efficiency. Therefore, I take the case which the Lord President has put forward. He said that these are very big Executives; but what has that got to do with it? The point is that somebody is responsible for the policy of the Commission, and the Minister is responsible for laying down the main points, just as a board of directors of a company are responsible for laying down the broad policy of the company. Surely, in those circumstances the Commission who are responsible for laying down policy should have the power to appoint the executives. What board of directors of any company, however vast, could ever tolerate the managers of the departments —however big those departments—being appointed by someone else? It seemed to me that the Lord President's point about the size of the executives was utterly irrelevant.

7.0 p.m.

Then the right hon. Gentleman comes along and says, "Well, supposing the Commission do in fact appoint these Executives; then the House of Commons cannot ask about them." The right hon. Gentleman says this, but personally I have never quite understood why, and I think that it is a very nice point. Whether the Executives are appointed by the Commission of the Minister, I really cannot understand why the Minister should not disclose the details of the appointments and salaries, not of the smaller people, but of the main officials. That would be a fair, courteous and sensible way of dealing with the House. It does not appear to me that the question and answer is dependent upon this particular decision.

Why does the Minister want this power? He said that he wanted to see

Division No. 320.]	AYES.	[7.4 p.m.
Adams, Richard (Balham)	Braddock, T. (Mitcham)	Daggar, G
Allen, A C (Bosworth)	Brook, D. (Halifax)	Daines, P.
Alpass, J. H.	Brooks, T. J. (Rothwell)	Davies, Edward (Burslem;
Anderson, F (Whitehaven)	Brown, George (Belper)	Davies, Ernest (Enfield)
Attewell, H. C	Brown, T. J. (Inee)	Davies, Harold (Leek)
Austin, H. Lewis	Bruce, Maj D W. T.	Davies, Hadyn (St. Pancras, S. W)
Awbery, S. S.	Buchanan, G	Davies, R J. (Westhoughton)
Ayles, W. H.	Burden, T W.	Deer, G.
Ayrton Gould, Mrs B	Burke, W. A	de Freitas, Geoffrey
Balfour, A.	Chamberlain, R. A	Delargy, H. J
Barnes, Rt Hon A. J	Champion, A. J	Dobbie, W
Barstow, P G.	Chater, D.	Dodds, N. N.
Battley, J. R.	Chelwynd, G. R.	Driberg, T. E. N.
Bechervaise, A. E	Cluse, W. S.	Dugdale, J. (W. Bromwich)
Belcher, J W	Cobb, F. A.	Dumpleton, C. W.
Benson, G.	Cocks, F. S.	Durbin, E. F. M
Beswick, F.	Coldrick, W.	Dye, S.
Bevan, Rt. Hon. A. (Ebbw Vale)	Collick, P.	Ede, Rt. Hon. J. C.
Bing, G. H. C.	Collins, V. J.	Edwards, Rt. Hon. Sir C. (Bedwellty)
Binns, J.	Colman, Miss G. M.	Edwards, N. (Caerphilly)
Blenkinsop, A	Comyns, Dr. L.	Edwards, W. J. (Whitechapel)
Blyton, W. R.	Cooper, Wing-Comdr. G	Evans, John (Ogmore)
Bowden, Flg.-Offr. H. W	Cove, W. G	Evans, S. N. (Wednesbury)
Bowles, F. G (Nuneaton)	Crawley, A	Ewart, R.
Braddock Mrs E. M. (L pl Exch'ge)	Crossman, R. H S.	Fairhurst, F.

men of all classes appointed to the Executives, and I am sure that everybody would like to see that, but why should not the Commission appoint to those bodies men from all walks of life: Surely, the test of whether a man is suit able for the Executives is whether he knows about transport, and not whether he went to Eton or somewhere else: [Interruption.] My remark was inspired by the sight of an old Etonian on the benches opposite. As I say, it is question of whether a person knows about transport. The Minister appoints this Commission, and surely the Commission itself is as good a judge as he is? The worst solution of all, which is thaadopted by the Government, is not really to make up their minds who is responsible, but to have someone doing some thing after consultation with someone else so that no one will, in fact, be responsible for the appointments.

Mr. H. Morrison

The Minister will be

Mr. Thorneycroft

It seems that while we have spent a good deal of time talk ing about patronage, which is, I admit, important, we have not had any satis factory answer from the Government on the merits of this Amendment, and in those circumstances I hope that we shall express our views in a Division.

Question put, "That this House cloth disagree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

The Houses divided: Ayes 304; Noes, 143.

Farthing, W. J.	McGhee, H. G.	Silverman, J. (Erdington)
Fernyhough, E.	Mack, J. D.	Simmons, C. J.
Field, Capt W J.	McKay, J. (Wallsend)	Skeffingion. A. M
Fletcher, E G. M. (Islington, E.)	McKinlay, A. S	Skinnard, F W.
Follick, M.	Maclean, N (Govan)	Smith, C. (Colchester)
Foot, M. M.	McLeavy, F.	Smith, H. N. (Nottingham, S.)
Forman, J. C.	MacMillan, M. K. (Western Isles)	Smith, S. H. (Hull, S.W)
Foster, W. (Wigan)	Macpherson, T. (Romford)	Snow, Capt. J. W.
Fraser, T. (Hamilton)	Mainwaring, W. H.	Solley, L. J.
Freeman, Peter (Newport)	Mallalieu, J. P. W	Sorensen, R. W.
Gallacher, W.	Mann, Mrs. J.	Soskice, Maj. Sir F.
Ganley, Mrs. C. S.	Manning, C. (Camberwell, N.)	Sparks, J. A.
Gibbins, J.	Manning, Mrs. L. (Epping)	Stamford, W.
Gibson, C. W	Marshall, F. (Brightside)	Steele, T.
Gilzean, A.	Martin, J. H.	Stephen, C.
Glanville, J. E. (Consett)	Mathers, G.	Stewart, Michael (Fulham, E.)
Goodrich, H. E.
Gordon-Walker, P. C.	Mayhew, C. P	Strauss, G. R. (Lambeth, N.)
Greenwood, Rt Hon. A. (Wakefield)	Medland, H M	Stross, Dr. B.
Greenwood, A. W. J. (Heywood)	Mellish, R J	Stubbs, A. E.
Grenfell, D R.	Mikardo, Ian	Summerskill, Dr. Edith
Grey, C. F	Millington, Wing-Comdr E. R	Swingler, S
Grierson, E	Mitchison, G. R	Sylvester, G. 0
Griffiths, D. (Rother Valley)	Monstow, W.	Symonds, A. L.
Griffiths, Rt. Hon J. (Llanelly)	Moody, A. S.	Taylor, H. B. (Mansfield)
Griffiths, W. D. (Moss Side)	Morgan, Dr H. B.	Taylor, R. J. (Morpeth)
Gunter, R J.	Morley, R.	Taylor, Dr. S. (Barnet)
Guy, W. H	Morris, P (Swansea, W.)	Thomas, D. E. (Aberdare)
Hale, Leslie	Morrison, Rt. Hon. H. (Lewisham, E.)	Thomas, I. O. (Wrekin)
Hall, W. G.	Moyle, A.	Thomas, George (Cardiff)
Hamilton, Lieut.-Col. R.	Murray, J. D.	Thomson, Rt. Hn. G. R. (Ed'b'gh, E.)
Hardman, D. R.	Nally, W.	Thorneycroft, Harry (Clayton)
Hardy, E. A.	Naylor, T. E.	Tiffany, S.
Harrison, J.	Neal, H. (Claycross)	Timmons, J.
Haworth, J.	Nicholls, H. R (Stratford)	Titterington, M. F.
Henderson, A. (Kingswinford)	Noel-Baker, Capt. F. E. (Brentford)	Tolley, L.
Herbison, Miss M.	Noel-Baker, Rt. Hon. P. J. (Derby)	Tomlinson, Rt. Hon. G
Hewitson, Capt. M.	Noel-Buxton, Lady	Turner-Samuels, M.
Hobson, C. R.	Oldfield, W. H.	Ungoed-Thomas, L.
Holman, P.	Oliver, G. H.	Vernon, Maj. W. F
Holmes, H. E. (Hemsworth)	Orbach, M.	Viant, S. P.
House, G	Paget, R. T.	Walkden, E.
Hubbard, T.	Paling, Will T. (Dewsbury)	Walker, G. H.
Hudson, J H. (Ealing, W.)	Pargiter, G. A.	Wallace, G. D. (Chislehurst)
Hughes, Hector (Aberdeen, N.)	Parker, J.	Wallace, H. W. (Walthamstow, E.)
Hughes, H. D. (Wolverhampton, W.)	Parkin, B T.	Watkins, T. E.
Hutchinson, H. L. (Rusholme)	Paton, J. (Norwich)	Watson, W. M.
Hynd, H. (Hackney, C.)	Pearson, A.	Webb, M. (Bradford, C.)
Hynd, J. B. (Attercliffe)	Peart, T. F.	Weitzman, D.
Irving, W. J	Poole, Major Cecil (Lichfield)	Wells, P. L. (Faversham)
Janner, B	Popplewell, E.	West, D. G.
Jay, D. P T	Porter E. (Warrington)	Westwood, Rl. Hon. J.
Jeger, G (Winchester)	Porter, G. (Leeds)	White, H. (Derbyshire, N.E.)
Jones, D. T. (Hartlepools)	Price, M. Philips	Whiteley, Rt. Hon. W.
Jones, Elwyn (Plaistow)	Proctor, W. T.	Wigg, Col. G. E
Jones, P. Asterley (Hitchin)	Pryde, D. J.	Wilkes, L.
Keenan, W.	Randall, H. E.	Wilkins, W. A.
Kenyon, C.	Ranger, J.	Willey, F. T. (Sunderland)
Key, C. W.	Rankin, J	Willey, O. G. (Cleveland)
King, E. M	Reeves, J.	Williams, D. J. (Neath)
Kinley, J.	Reid, T. (Swindon)	Williams, J. L. (Kelvingrove)
Kirkwood, D	Rhodes, H.	Williams, Rt. Hon T (Don Valley)
Lang, G.	Richards, R.	Williams, W R (Heston)
Lavers, S.	Ridealgh, Mrs. M.	Williamson, T.
Lawson, Rt. Hon. J. J.	Robens, A.	Willis, E.
Lee, F. (Hulme)	Roberts, Goronwy (Caernarvonshire)	Wills, Mrs. E. A.
Lee, Miss J. (Cannook)	Robertson, J. J. (Berwick)	Wilmot, Rt. Hon. J
Leonard, W.	Rogers, G. H. R.	Wise, Major F J
Leslie, J. R.	Ross, William (Kilmarnock)	Woods, G. S.
Levy, B. W.	Royle, C.	Wyatt, W.
Lewis, A. W. J. (Upton)	Sargood, R.	Yates, V. F.
Lindgren, G. S	Scollan, T.	Young, Sir R. (Newton)
Lipton, Lt.-Col M	Scott-Elliot, W.	Younger, Hon. Kenneth
Logan, D G.	Segal, Dr. S.	Zilliacus, K.
Longden, F	Shackleton, E. A. A.
Lyne, A. W.	Sharp, Granville	TELLERS FOR THE AYES:
McAdam, W.	Shinwell, Rt Hon. E	Mr. Joseph Henderson and
McAllister, G	Shurmer, P.	Mr. Hannan.
McEntee, V. La T.	Silkin, Rt. Hon L.

NOES.
Agnew, Cmdr. P. G.	Astor, Hon. M.	Baxter, A. B
Amory, D. Heathcoat	Baldwin, A. E.	Beamish, Maj. T. V. H
Assheton, Rt. Hon. R	Barlow, Sir J.	Bennett, Sir P.

Birch, Nigel	Mollis, M. C	Pickthorn, K.
Boles, Lt.-Col D C. (Wells)	Holmes, Sir J Stanley (Harwich)	Pitman, I. J.
Boothby R.	Hope, Lord J	Ponsonby, Col. C. E
Bower, N	Hutchison, Lt.-Cm, Clark (E'b'rgh W.)	Poole, O B. S (Oswestry;
Boyd-Carpenter, [...]	Hutohison, Col J R (Glasgow. C)	Prescott, Stanley
Butcher, H. W	Jarvis, Sir J	Prior-Palmer, Brig. O
Byers, Frank	Jeffreys, General Sir G	Raikes, H. V.
Clarke, Col R. S	Jennings, R	Rayner, Brig. R
Clifton-Brown, Lt.-Col G	Joynson-Hicks, Hon L. W	Reed, Sir S. (Aylesbury)
Conant, Maj. R. J. E.	Keeling, E. H.	Reid, Rt Hon. J. S. C. (Hillhead)
Corbett, Lieut.-Col. U. (Ludlow)	Kerr, Sir J. Graham	Roberts, Emrys (Merioneth)
Crosthwaite-Eyre, Col O E.	Lambert, Hon. G	Roberts, H. (Handsworth)
Cuthbert, W. N	Langford-Holt, J.	Roberts, Maj. P. G. (Ecclesall)
De la Bère, R	Law, Rt. Hon. R. K.	Roberts, W. (Cumberland, N.)
Digby, S. W	Legge-Bourke, Maj. E. A H	Robinson, Wing-Comdr. Roland
Dodds-Parker, A. D	Lennox-Boyd, A. T.	Ross, Sir R. D. (Londonderry)
Donner, Sqn.-Ldr. P. W.	Lindsay, M -Solihull)	Sanderson, Sir F
Dower, Lt.-Col A. V. G. (Penrith)	Lipson, D L	Soott, Lord W.
Dower, E. L. G. (Caithness)	Lloyd, Selwyn (Wirral)	Shepherd, W. S. (Bucklew)
Drayson, G. B.	Low, Brig A R. W	Smiles, Lt.-Col. Sir W
Dugdale, Maj. Sir T. (Richmond)	Lucas-Tooth, Sir H.	Snadden, W. M.
Duthie, W. S.	McCallum, Maj. D	Spearman, A. C. M
Eden, Rt. Hon A	Macdonald, Sir P. (I of Wight)	Spence, H. R.
Elliot Rt. Hon. Walter	Maokeson, Brig. H. R.	Stoddart-Scott, Col. M.
Fletcher, W (Bury)	McKie, J. H (Galloway)	Strauss, H. G (English Universities)
Fox, Sir G	Maclay, Hon. J. S.	Studholme, H. G.
Fraser, H. C. P (Stone)	Macmillan, Rt. Hon. Harold (Bromley)	Sutcliffe, H
Fyte, Rt Hon Sir D. P M	Macpherson, N. (Dumfries)	Thomas, J. P. L (Hereford)
Gage, C.	Maitland, Comdr. J. W.	Thorneycroft, G. E P. (Monmouth)
Galbraith, Cmdr. T D	Manningham-Buller, R. E	Touche, G. C.
Gammans, L. D	Marples, A. E.	Turton, R, H.
George, Maj Rt. Hon. G. Lloyd (P'ke)	Marsden, Cap! A.	Wadsworth, G.
George, Lady M. Lloyd (Anglesey)	Marshall, D. (Bodmin)	Wakefield, Sir W. W.
Grant, Lady	Mellor, Sir J	Ward, Hon. G. R.
Gridley, Sir A.	Molson, A. H E.	Watt, Sir G. S. Harvie
Grimston, R. V.	Moore, Lt.-Col. Sir T	Wheatley, Colonel M. J
Gruffydd, Prof. W. J.	Morris, Hopktn (Carmarthen)	White, Sir D. (Fareham)
Hannon, Sir P. (Moseley)	Morrison,'Maj. J. G. (Salisbury)	White, J. B. (Canterbury)
Hare, Hon J H. (Woodbridge)	Neven-Spence, Sir B	Williams, C. (Torquay)
Harvey, Air-Comdre A. V.	Nicholson, G	Winterton, Rt Hon. Earl
Head, Brig A. H.	Noble, Comdr. A. H. P	York, C.
Headlam, Lieut.-Col. Rt. Hon Sir C.	O'Neill, Rt. Hon. Sir H
Henderson, John (Cathcart)	Orr-Ewing, I. L.	TELLERS FOR THE NOES:
Herbert, Sir A. P.	Osborne, C.	Major Ramsay and
Hinchingbrooke, Viscount	Peake, Rt. Hon. O.	Lieut.-Colonel Thorp.
Hogg, Hon. Q	Peto, Brig. C. H. M.

Lords Amendment: In page 7, line 37, leave out "other provision is made by such an order" and insert: determined otherwise by the Commission.

Mr. Barnes

I beg to move, "That this House doth disagree with the Lords in the said Amendment." This is an Amendment related to that which we have just discussed.

Question put, and agreed to.

7.15 p.m.

Lords Amendment: In page 7, line 40, after the second "Executive" insert: "the Scottish Transport Executive."

Mr. Barnes

I beg to move, "That this House doth disagree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

The Amendment proposes to introduce an entirely new type of board into the Bill, and for that reason we disagree with it. I would recall that so far, we have established the British Transport Commission and a series of functional executives to conduct the operations of the railways, ports, hotels, and 1 catering. If the Amend- ment were adopted, we should be creating a new type of body. In no way have their Lordships attempted to define the duties which the proposed Scottish Transport Executive would have to perform. I would briefly indicate what the present position is and how the Amendment would work out. I think hon. Members will sec the anomalies that would develop if the. Amendment were accepted.

The existing railway organisation in Scotland will be merged into one railway system, and the management side will be unified and strengthened. From the point of view of being able to function in the executive and management way, the requirements and railway needs of Scotland are bound to be better served. On the road passenger side, when the area schemes are developed, it is inevitable that there will be two, three, four or more road passenger transport organisations developed. The bodies that will be appointed to administer those area transport schemes will be drawn from bodies representative of the locality and will be largely responsible for the operation of the schemes, in consultation, conforming to the co-ordination policy of the executive at the national end. The Commission are under the obligation to consult local opinion fully, and it is only when a large measure of agreement is eventually achieved that the Minister can approve the scheme. If at any time there is a divergence of opinion, the matter must be submitted to Parliament, and it becomes subject to the special Parliamentary procedure.

During the Debate on the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive, I explained that there was nothing in the Bill to prevent the Commission and the ports executive, if they represented opinion on the Clyde, from accepting and putting into force a scheme similar to that reported upon by the Cooper Committee. Therefore, on the road passenger side, and on the ports and harbours side, it is clear that the type of organisation which will administer these schemes locally in Scotland will be essentially Scottish in character The Scottish Transport Executive proposed in the Amendment would have to have formulated for it a transport executive for Scotland, and would have to cut through the whole of that executive machinery. So, in fact, unless it dealt with railways alone, if it absorbed the functions of the other executives it would become a Scottish transport authority. I do not know what kind of function or responsibility, financial or otherwise, such a body would exercise within the provisions of the Bill.

In the Amendment which comes from the Lords we are, therefore, confronted with a completely anomalous situation. I am satisfied that with the Scottish Consultative Committee which the Bill establishes, and with the machinery provided for area transport and port schemes, the legitimate desire of Scottish opinion to manage, as far as possible, their own affairs is attended to, without completely destroying the economy, co-ordination, and integration which the Bill establishes. The Bill meets legitimate Scottish aspirations.

Further, I am satisfied that I am serving Scottish national interests by adhering to the existing structure of the Bill, because if, by any chance, Scottish transport in all its aspects is cut off cleanly from British transport as a whole, it meets many difficult circumstances which are peculiar to Scotland and represent heavy financial obligations upon any transport system. Therefore, from the angle of the economic interests of Scotland, there is everything to be said for it being integrated in the British transport system and for capital control and receipts passing into a common pool so that the peculiar physical handicaps which affect many parts of Scotland can be taken in its stride. Hon. Members who were on the Standing Committee will recollect that Members representing Scottish constituencies pressed very strongly the peculiar and urgent needs, particularly of the Highlands and the Western Isles. Although I was not able to meet their requests in the Standing Committee in regard to certain shipping services, on another occasion in this House quite recently a further step was taken in that direction, and I gave a general undertaking that I hoped that when the position was established, these peculiar problems would, for the first time, receive special and sympathetic study in a way possibly to enable them to be met in the future in a form which has never been possible in the past because transport has been broken up into so many pieces.

I have taken a little time in explaining the situation on this Amendment, not because I consider this Amendment, of itself, of any definite value to the Bill, but because it is essential that the relationship of these problems in Scotland to the British transport system as a whole should be thoroughly appreciated so that we can dispel any attempt to exploit on false sentimental or nationalistic grounds a proposal which, on the face of it, might appear to be giving Scotland an advantage but which is anomalous in the structure of the Bill and in its ultimate result. If the Government had accepted this Amendment and then attempted to clothe the Amendment with the necessary powers to make it work, I am confident that we would have injured Scottish national interests rather than advanced them.

Lord John Hope (Midlothian and Peebles, Northern)

The right hon. Gentleman said that he did not consider this Amendment was a very valuable one in itself. I would start by pointing out that it was designed not to wreck the Bill, but to make the scheme workable in Scotland. There is a very remarkable circumstance in connection with this Amendment. If the record of what has gone on in Scotland is of any value, this is not and cannot be a party matter. Let me quote to the House what one or two Scottish bodies have said about this, bodies which are in no way identified with any political party. I refer, first, to the Scottish Council for Trade and Industry, which consists of members owning allegiance to every political party. This is what they say: The Council feel very strongly, however, that if firm provision is not made beforehand for a system of control in Scotland which will be satisfactory in practice, there is no guarantee that a satisfactory system will in fact be provided. The Council, therefore, urge the Government to insure by direction beforehand, either by the insertion of a suitable Clause in the Bill that … that provision must be met by the Transport Commission for the fullest possible delegation of effective administrative authority to offices in Scotland.… —and so on. Then we have the opinion of the Scottish T.U.C. In moving the rejection of this Amendment, the Minister said that he was satisfied with the Consultative Committee in terms of Scotland's interest being well and truly served. That is not at all what the Scottish T.U.C. thinks of the Consultative Committee.

Mr. Scollan (Renfrew, Western)

Of course, it is.

Lord John Hope

This is what it says: The General Council, whilst welcoming the provision of a consultative committee for Scotland, considers that such a Committee … will not adequately meet the wishes of the Scottish people.… That is what the General Council of the Scottish T.U.C. says about it. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman knows very much better what they meant, but that is what they said.

Mr. Scollan

Yes, very much better.

Lord John Hope

The third non-party source which I would quote is the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, whose opinion is as follows: The General Assembly, seriously considering the possible invasion of human rights and local independence by large-scale collectivism, and noting the continued disregard of Scottish sentiment and the claims of Scotland as a nation in many matters which vitally affect the prosperity of the Scottish people, declare their conviction that schemes of nationalisation must be accompanied by a large measure of devolution and decentralisation if the achievements of a genuine democracy is not to be frustrated. There are three opinions, all of them given by bodies composed of men belonging to all political parties, completely ignored by the Government. If this Amendment is not accepted, the Government will merely be fomenting Scottish Nationalism. There is no one who would regret that fomentation more than I. In its concept it is wrong, and inimical both to the interests of Scotland and of the United Kingdom, but this is just the way in which that kind of undesirable trend will be encouraged. The Government would have a precedent if they allowed the formation of a Scottish Executive. They would find it in the Transport Bill which the Labour Government brought in in 1930. That Bill treated Scotland as a separate region for the purpose of the Bill, and I cannot see why this Government could not do the same thing.

7.30 p.m.

I quoted at the beginning of my speech three non-party sources in favour of the setting up of a Scottish Executive, and in that connection I would quote two admittedly biased sources, both distinguished Members ef the Labour Party, in favour of this kind of decentralisation. First that distinguished Scottish Socialist, Mr. Thomas Johnston, considered the statutory creation of a Scottish Board in land transport essential it the social and administrative services of the country are to be run with efficiency and with a minimum of frustration and annoyance to the North.

Mr. Malcolm MacMillan (Western Isles)

Was that in the "Sunday Times," a Tory paper?

Lord John Hope

That was from the "Sunday Times." [An HON. MEMBER: "A Tory paper."] Whether it is a Socialist or Tory paper—and whether I his is in Order or not—Mr. Johnston is surely recognised by hon. Members opposite as a distinguished and loyal Member of the Labour Party. The final authority I wish to quote from the Socialist ranks is the right hon. Gentleman the Lord President of the Council who, in his speech winding up the Second Reading Debate, made the following two observations: I believe fervently that, in regard to the detailed management of an undertaking in its day-to-day activities, the Minister had be out of it— and he added rather unkindly: and Members of Parliament had better be out of it as well. He then said: In the administrative scheme, it is the intention of the Government to prevent over-centralisation. There will be the maximum practical amount of devolution.…"—[OFICIAL REPORT, 18th December, 1946; Vol. 431, cc. 2082 and 2083.] Neither of those suggestions is being followed by the Government in their refusal to set up a Scottish Board, and I would utter a friendly but firm warning to the Minister that, if he continues to neglect non-party Scottish opinion, and the desires of the Scottish people generally in this matter, he may well have the distinction of starting a legend which will tell the story of Alfred who burnt, not the cakes, but his fingers.

Mr. M. MacMillan

The argument,we have been hearing from the noble Lord the Member for Midlothian and Peebles, Northern (Lord John Hope) mentioned the Scottish National Party, Mr. Tom Johnston, the Church of Scotland Assembly, the Scottish Council of Trade and Industry, and the T.U.C. the most bizarre coalition of which I have ever heard. As for the Church of Scotland Assembly, even that draws a subsidy from the British Exchequer in order to continue as the Church of Scotland—but I will not pursue that point, Mr. Deputy-Speaker. There is nothing Scotland wants more than what this Bill is trying to provide in this Clause. We have suffered from the lack of what this Bill will provide, a decent co-ordinated system of transport in Scotland; and nowhere more than in the North of Scotland where, under this Bill, we hope to see the progress we have never had under the existing system—I would call it chaos, rather than system. The noble Lord said we must not pander to the Scottish Nationalists on this issue. He said they were wrong, and then went on to argue that we should give them all they ask and so create more Scottish Nationalists.

Lord John Hope

All I said was that Scottish Nationalism as a concept is wrong. I did not say Scottish Nationalists were wrong on every single point; of course, that would be better ridiculous.

Mr. MacMillan

The noble Lord brought in all the arguments the Scottish Nationalists use. They certainly are not wrong over everything, but in this Amendment as it is framed they are wrong. We have a Bill here which implies throughout that Scotland will have the same financial consideration as England and will have an adequate transport system which has not existed before under private enterprise or any other system. Indeed, it is by State subsidies we have provided a shipping company, in the West Highlands and Islands. We have even with the subsidy an inadequate transport system, and everything has pointed to the need for taking it over completely and running it properly as a service for the people and industry. To provide such service ultimately is what this Bill is trying to do, and in trying to destroy the Bill hon. Members opposite are depriving Scotland of it. I do not suggest for a moment that is their intention, but that will be the effect; it will deprive Scotland of the hope of getting what it has never had before, a properly integrated system of transport. The noble Lord said he would not wreck the Bill, but he would do much more than that—he would rob Scotland of a decent transport system; and it is no use dragging in the Scottish T.U.C.—

Lord John Hope

The hon. Member means it is not convenient.

Mr. MacMillan

It is extremely convenient for hon. Members opposite to be able to quote the Scottish T.U.C. for the first time in their lives when they think it is guilty of a convenient aberration, as the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Woodford (Mr. Churchill) might put it. We will not have Tom Johnston thrown at us, time afer time, as a leading Socialist—

Mr. McKie (Galloway)

Does the hon. Gentleman repudiate him?

Mr. MacMillan

I am not repudiating Mr. Tom Johnston's membership of the Socialist Party, but I am repudiating certain statements he has made in public which make him appear more a Member of the Scottish Nationalist Party and, therefore, at present conveniently acceptable to the Tories. He has repudiated us in so far as he has attacked the Transport Bill and certain other actions of the Government. The hon. Member for Galloway (Mr. McKie) has much less reason to be sorry than I have. Let us resist this thing to the limit. What we are after here is a much bigger thing than the plaudits of a small oft-rejected section of opinion in Scotland. If the Tories want to pander to the Scottish Nationalists, let them do it, but on the same basis as the Scottish Nationalists are talking—Home Rule and self-government. If the Tories want that, let them say it and not pick out a convenient point of this kind. Let them come out into the open, either for or against the Scottish Nationalists and Home Rule and self-government, but on the merits of this Bill I say to them, do not wreck the Bill because to do so will wreck Scotland's chance of getting a decent transport system.

Colonel Hutchison

I hoped we were sailing into, or that we were in, calmer waters than those through which we passed in considering the previous Amendment, but the hon. Member for the Western Isles (Mr. M. MacMillan) seemed to be generating a spurious and quickly manufactured feeling of indignation as he took us towards the Western Islands of Scotland, and at the same time conveniently threw overboard Mr. Tom Johnston.

Mr. M. MacMillan

Will the hon. and gallant Gentleman do me the common courtesy of believing that our indignation at the inefficient and chaotic Scottish transport system is, to say the least, genuine?

Colonel Hutchison

Of course, if it was heartfelt, as it now seems to be, and also spontaneous. I make no apology for delaying the House on this question, because, although the Minister gave the impression that this had been closely considered in another stage of the Bill, in fact that was not so. Owing, perhaps, to my unfamiliarity with the complicated technique aid machinery, Amendments down in my name and in the names of hon. Friends in this direction were in fact never called, and we thought that our opportunity of speaking to this matter had gone. I draw the attention of the hon Member for the Western Isles to the fact that this is not in support of Scottish Nationalism, but for the very purpose of providing an antidote. We never had an opportunity of dealing with this mater until out of the treadmill at length has come this Amendment. I ask the House to disagree with the Government in disagreeing with the Lords Amendment, and in fact to support the Amendment. We in Scotland consider this Amendment desirable and helpful. My hon. Friend the Member for Midlothian and Peebles (Lord John Hope) has already mentioned bodies which supported this course, and hon. Members opposite threw scorn on the quotations. But I would like to know from them what more suitable examples they would like given. He mentioned the Scottish Council for Industry, which advocated something very like what the Amendment proposes. The Scottish Council for Industry is made up of industrialists and trade union representatives. Can hon. Members opposite give a better example of representation for Scotland. Then, in order to clinch the matter, in case it were thought not completely representative of trade union interests, he quoted the Scottish T.U.C. who, in contradistinction to what one hon. Member opposite said, have in fact asked for this executive.

Mr. Willis (Edinburgh, North)

When?

Colonel Hutchison

When I find it I will furnish it to any hon. Member opposite who wants it, but I am afraid I have for the moment mislaid the document. Those are bodies who have asked that this measure should be taken. Is there any other body which hon. Members would like me to quote—any other body they would like me to bring into the fold, to show that Scottish opinion as a whole, is favourable to this, as indeed most of them were not so long ago?

Major McCallum (Argyll)

At he General Election.

7.45 p.m.

Colonel Hutchison

What is this executive for which we are asking? Let me draw attention to exactly what an executive is, as described in the Bill: Each executive shall, as agents for the Commission, exercise such functions of the Commission as are for the time being delegated to them by or under a scheme made by the Commission and approved by the Minister. The right hon. Gentleman threw some scorn on the fact that we have not defined the functions of the executive, but they are defined there. They are, in fact, the agents of the Commission, and are to carry out such tasks as the Commission think right. When we tried to consider this in Committee upstairs, we thought we were being helpful in not trying to tie it down too closely. So far from this executive being ill-defined and unfavourable to our contention, we submit that it ought to help.

On what do we base our demands, and on what do these bodies base a demand for a Scottish executive? First, on the statement of the Lord President of the Council that devolution was to be sought in all these nationalisation Measures: we still have confidence in promises of that kind, but I am bound to admit that in the nationalisation Measures I have watched so far—and I have taken part in most of them—there has been a very poor attempt at devolution, and at carrying out that promise. We also base the demand on the special character of the Scottish problem. It cannot too often be emphasised that Scotland has separate rating, separate land tenure, and a separate law system, different geography, and different customs. Yet it is claimed that there is no foundation for our claim that we should be treated somewhat separately because of all these differences and distinctions. The next reason upon which we base our claim is that we see an overgrown colossus being established to run the transport system in London. Already many think that each of the four railways were too big to be run by one set of men. Yet here, we have the four lumped together and the whole of their policy and functioning being dictated from London. There the Government are creating a Juggernaut car which will drive—slowly, I have no doubt, as Government machines do not go fast—over Scottish aspirations, Scottish hopes, and Scottish incentives.

In this matter there is much in the incentive there would be for a Scottish transport system of road or rail, or, as I would like to see, both, controlled from Scotland, and an element of competition, which is the lifeblood of efficiency, if a Scottish Executive were set up and given a chance of running transport in its own country.

Mr. David Jones (The Hartlepools)

How is it possible for a Scottish Executive to indulge in competition if they act as agents for the Commission?

Colonel Hutchison

Easily. If the hon. Member will imagine the situation which will arise, he will see that there will be transport dealt with in England by a transport Executive, and a Scottish transport Executive dealing with transport in that country. Would that not be a form of competition in which one could compare results one with another?

Mr. D. Jones

No.

Colonel Hutchison

I suggest that the hon. Member goes to the Library afterwards and looks up the definition of the word "competition." We claim that there is another advantage in the question of speed of decision. I want to give an illustration of what has happened in the past. [An HON. MEMBER: "Why?"] Because illustrations are perhaps rather more graphic than academic discussions. There was the case of a graving dock belonging to a railway company and the dock was closed down for widening. The problem went from those working the dock to the Scottish committee of the railway company concerned. They then had to submit it to London, and the London committee then had to consider it, and pass it back to the Scottish committee. I may say that each of these moves took a minimum of a month. The Scottish committee passed it back to the concern, the concern had certain questions to ask about the answer, and the whole matter took about a year before a conclusion was reached. This kind of thing is typical, and will be even greater and slower under this Measure. We say that it should be possible for a decision of that kind to be taken locally, by people who know the local circumstances, and who have the power to say "Yes" or "No."

What, then, are we offered? In his opening statement, the Minister said that we were in fact being offered everything that was good for Scotland—perhaps he will allow us to know what we think is good for ourselves—and that he would be doing a disservice to Scotland if he agreed to what we are now asking. There was some question about financial responsibility. What difference would it make in that respect if Scotland had its own executive? That executive would have the same financial powers as the other executives which are being set up under the Commission. We are to be fobbed off with a consultative committee, with no executive powers, area boards for transport, approved authorities for ports, but all ultimately subjected to the main body, part of the colossus in London. Local initiative and power of decision is what we want. If the Minister would give power to these local boards, a great deal of our objection would be removed. We have seen little coming to us so far from these consultative or advisory committees which have been set up already. I do not know how many Members opposite noticed the figures given by the Minister today in reply to a Question of mine, as to the activity going on at Prestwick on the part of foreign air lines and the lack of attention which Prestwick is being given by our Corporation. That is not a great advertisement for the Scottish Advisory Committee, which was to put Scotland and Scotland's air lines on to the map.

Mr. Willis

Is that not because international lines have been given certain freedom rights at Prestwick in order to safeguard civil aviation?

Colonel Hutchison

I do not want to get out of Order by pursuing that matter too far, but I would like the hon. Member to reflect a little on the significant fact that there were 19 departures by British lines in the month of June—

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

The hon. and gallant Member is getting right away from the Amendment with which we are dealing.

Colonel Hutchison

I had passed on but I was led back.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

The fault of the hon. and gallant Member was that he allowed himself to be led.

Colonel Hutchison

I am too gullible. I would say that if we are to take examples from the past of what advisory and consultative committees have done for Scotland then those in this Bill will not get us anywhere near where we want to be.

I again quote the Scottish T.U.C., who have said that this proposal which the Government have put into the Bill, and the Bill as it stands now, will not adequately meet the wishes of the Scottish people—[HON. MEMBERS: "When."] This is the same quotation as before, and I will furnish the context to any hon. Member when I sit down. At the same time, they went on to say that what the Minister said is good enough for us, is not, in fact, good enough for them. What is the Government's objection to this proposal? First, they make a great deal of play with the point that everything must be functional and not regional. I cannot see that there is anything sacrosanct about functionalism as against regionalism. By geography and by distance, one place can be so different from another that it becomes functionally different. The Government have allowed the London Passenger Transport Board to have its own executive. Is there not just as big a difference in the carriage of persons and goods between England and Scotland as there is between Middlesex and London? Are the populations not comparable? In fact, is not the number of vehicles ran-fling in Scotland probably greater than the number running in London? Therefore, why should there be this clear-cut case, which no doubt existed in the Minister's mind, in favour of London having its own executive and for Scotland being denied the same?

If the right hon. Gentleman considers it is difficult to handle a Scottish Transport executive because a train has to go across the Border, then leave that aspect cut. The more the executive handles the better I shall be pleased. It is really nonsense to say that because a train is to go from London to Edinburgh or Glasgow, and has to cross the Border, it makes it impossible for the two countries to have their own transport systems. What about a train which, starting in Paris, crosses Italy, then Yugoslavia and finally arrives at Istanbul? Is it to be argued that neither the Yugoslays, the Italians nor the Turks are entitled to have their own transport system because that train crosses their frontiers? There is nothing in such an argument; it does not make much sense. There is a growing depth of feeling about this matter. I say to hon. Gentlemen opposite, and particularly to the hon. Member for the Western Isles, who, I think, purposely tried to pull wool over the eyes of the House, that this is not a question of Scottish Nationalism but one of an antidote to Scottish Nationalism because those Members who represent Scottish constituencies are aware, and cannot help being aware, of the growing feeling at this centralisation of all Scottish interests in London. Those who are English Members know nothing about it. I have no doubt that the Press considered that we were benefiting when they instituted the system from which we are suffering of the major English daily papers having brought out a Scottish edition, with the result that Scottish matters, such as demands for Scottish transport—

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

The hon. and gallant Member is now much too wide of the Amendment.

Colonel Hutchison

I would conclude the matter by saying that these Scottish questions are not known to the English public. They live in a watertight compartment. We who represent Scottish constituencies are very much aware of how much is felt in Scotland on this and analogous questions. We have devolution in health, education and housing, and we have a separate Scottish Tourist Board. Why, then, is it not possible for us to have an executive for Scotland on this equally important question of Scottish transport? I regret that the Government are to refuse us. For a moment, a breath of fresh air and sanity came through those doors from another place, and it blew up to Scotland, and the Scots were grateful, and approved. Now, if it is again to be stifled, I say, in all seriousness, to hon. Members opposite, that a man is appearing in front of this Juggernaut car which the Government are driving with their Transport Bill. He is carrying a red flag, but hon. Members need not cheer; he is no supporter of theirs. He is giving the warning "If you go further along this road, you do so with danger."

8.0 p.m.

Mr. McLean Watson (Dunfermline Burghs)

It is only since the last General Election that we have seen the slightest indication the part of Tories of a desire to have Scottish affairs brought to the fore. Over and over again I have seen Scottish Home Rule Bills introduced into this House, but I have never heard a word from the Tory benches in favour of Scottish Home Rule. But here we have a Transport Bill, and there comes from another place a proposal that we should have a separate Executive for Scotland. I want as much control of Scottish affairs by Scotsmen as is possible, but I have never disguised the fact that even if we had Scottish Home Rule, we could not have purely Scottish railways.

Colonel Hutchison

On a point of Order, Mr. Deputy-Speaker. Are we in Order in discussing Scottish Home Rule?

Mr. Watson

I am discussing the question of a Scottish Executive in connection with this Measure, and I am pointing out that it is impossible to separate Scotland from England when we have such organisations as the present railway system. We never had any objection from hon. Members opposite when the four railway companies, including the two which serve Scotland, were created. There was no objection to any executive, no criticism of the way in which the railways were run. It is only now, when we have this Bill before us, that there is a demand from the other side of the House for a Scottish Executive. As has been pointed out, there is no indication in the Amendment how this Executive is to function, what powers it is to have, and what financial control there will be.

Mr. Maclay (Montrose Burghs)

There is no real indication that the Bill will function in any other direction.

Mr. Watson

It will function all right, and hon. Members opposite know it. What is troubling them is that all these nationalisation schemes are coming along. As a last resort, we have this development of Scottish Nationalism. I could have understood it, had it been on this side of the House, because we have always been in favour of the largest measure of Scottish self-government. Every Measure that has been introduced has been condemned on the assumption that what we were asking for was purely separation from England. Here is a Measure which simply proposes to deal with transport. I am one who wishes as much self-government as possible for Scotland, but I am still prepared to accept this Measure. My reason is that, under it, there is a chance of a co-ordinated system, a really effective system of transport for Scotland, including the Isles and the Highlands. We know that improved transport is needed there. I believe that the provisions of this Bill, coupled with the assurances we have had from the Minister, are ample to safeguard our interests. We have plenty of other things to attend to in Scotland apart from transport, even if, by and by, we get a Scottish Parliament.

I would remind hon. Members that this question is not confined to railway transport. There are English interests in other forms of Scottish transport. Finance knows no borders. English finance does not stop at Berwick. Finance crosses rivers and borders. It knows no frontiers, nor does it know nationalism. I hope that we are not going to waste more time on this. We have a considerable amount of work to get through before we dispose of all the Amendments on the Order Paper. I hope that we will not spend more time in a useless attempt on the part of hon. Members opposite to raise the issue of Scottish Nationalism, because it will cut no ice at the next General Election. This attitude has developed since the last Election. They have been attempting to show the people that they stand for Scottish Nationalism, but Scotland is not following them. The people know sufficient of the peers who have represented Scotland in another place to know that they are not the leaders of the Scottish people.

Mr. Maclay

There are one or two points with which I wish to deal, and I hope that it will not be a waste of time. I am sorry that the hon. Member for Dunfermline Burghs (Mr. Watson) feels that we are wasting time, because this is very important. My first point is in relation to something which the Minister said in his speech. It was a point which was worrying me. He pointed out that there will be a large degree of decentralisation and of area control. I am very grateful to the Minister for accepting some Amendments and putting in certain qualifications which make that more and more certain. The Minister also referred to the area road passenger transport scheme. I am not quite clear whether that does away with the need for a Scottish Transport Executive. What we are really after is effective decentralisation. I think hon. Members in all parts of the House want that. What we want is proper co-ordination and the production of a properly integrated service. The Minister talked about unification.

Before I come to the main argument on integration, I would ask, what about long-distance road transport of goods? I think I am right in saying that that does not come under the area schemes. It is to be operated by whichever Executive is responsible. In the main, it must be operated from London. There is something in what the Minister said when it is applied to passenger road transport. There is a great deal in it when applied to docks and harbours. But I would point out what my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Central Glasgcw (Colonel Hutchison) said, that this Amendment does not necessarily impose on the Scottish Transport Executive, if it comes into existence, the necessity of dealing with all and everything in the Bill. The Amendment would merely pit a Scottish Transport Executive there and the Executive would have such functions as the Commission for the time being delegated to it. If I understand the Amendment correctly, that is the position.

What would be the function of a Scottish Transport Executive? I submit that before long the hon. Member for the Western Isles (Mr. M. MacMillan) will wish there was a Scottish Executive to overcome the very difficulties about which he spoke. One thing which the hon. Member for the Western Isles is never going to overcome, is the fact that the Minch gets rough and that a certain type of ship is necessary for transport. Unfortunately, it is an expensive type of ship which must be fast, and which must co-ordinate with road transport at ore end and rail transport at the other. If the hon. Member hopes that nationalisation will solve the problem of people getting across the Minch without being sick, he is more of an optimist than I am.

Mr. M. MacMillan

Surely, the hon. Member will admit that private enterprise would never have given us any service there? That is shown by the very fact that we have to pay such immense subsidies from the State to support private enterprise which never gave us goods service until it had State assistance.

Mr. Maclay

I think it will be agreed that we are getting out of Order—

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

Yes, and I would remind the hon. Member that it was he who started it.

Mr. Maclay

My argument was merely by way of illustration, but I submit that the hon. Member for the Western Isles went further, and I did not want to follow him. The point is that we need the proper co-ordination of the railways and other transport services. Will the hon. Member get that in this set-up? I submit that there is the strongest possible case for a Scottish Executive with powers delegated to it as the Commission may desire. If we had that, we could put to the Scottish Transport Executive the peculiar problems of certain areas of Scotland, including the area of the hon. Member for the Western Isles, which constitutes one of our great difficulties. It is going to be extremely difficult to decide on the best form of this service, and there is the problem of providing services for islands which provide very little traffic. I think that, in regard to some of the smaller islands, the problems are incapable of solution under the present set-up, and are a matter for a Scottish Executive, and I do not think this is denied by the Advisory Committee. I think that, even with passenger road transport, we shall need some body in Scotland which can do the co-ordinating which is not possible, or, at any rate, very difficult, under the Bill as it stands. For that reason, I feel bound to support the Amendment.

Mr. Scollan

I want to say a word or two about the Amendment sent to us by another place asking for a Scottish Transport Executive. I can understand the Road Transport Executive, as mentioned in the Bill, but I cannot understand what is meant by a Scottish Transport Executive. The Bill itself is drafted very definitely on industrial lines, and it creates a Railway Executive, a Docks and Inland Waterways Executive, and others. If this particular Amendment is accepted, for the establishment of a Scottish Transport Executive, would it mean that we should have English and Welsh Transport Executives, a London Transport Executive and a Scottish Transport Executive as well, and, at the same time, a Scottish Consultative Committee in addition to the various Consultative Committees for the other areas? It does not seem to me that that is at all helping to amend the Bill in a proper spirit. All the claims that have been made for it have been made on the grounds that only the Scottish people, or some of their representatives, know the problems of transport that confront Scotland. Complete provision has been made for that in Clause 6 of the Bill, which says: a Transport Users Consultative Committee in respect of both passenger and goods traffic for Scotland. Obviously, if we have a consultative committee for Scotland, it will be composed of merchants, industrialists, trade unionists and all the different interests, and there is no way in which we can get a body that can advise on their own needs better than that. But there is something more than that. The situation at present is that, under the merger that took place in the railway transport system, when the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, the Caledonian Railway and the North British Railway—

Mr. Boothby (Aberdeen and Kincardine, Eastern)

Hear, hear.

Mr. Scollan

Prior to that merger, we had these separate railways, but we also had the North British Railway locomotive and wagon works, the Caledonian Railway locomotive and wagon works, and the Glasgow and South-Western Railway locomotive and wagon works; but when the capitalist merger took place, all these works were transferred from Glasgow to Crewe and Derby, and not a single voice was raised against it. But now what do we get? For the first time we are getting the right to raise on public bodies the need of some particular part of Scotland. For the first time in the history of Scotland, the people of a given locality can say to their representative, "We are not being properly catered for by the transport system, and we want you to take up the matter." What hon. Members opposite are saying is that they want some kind of Scottish autonomy, such as this ambiguous body, the Scottish Transport Executive. If they had it, it would mean that the consultative body would have to disappear; there would he no point in having the two.

8.15 p.m.

Commander Galbraith (Glasgow Pollok)

Why not?

Mr. Scollan

They want a Scottish Transport Executive as well as a consultative body. Now we are getting to the nigger in the wood pile; somebody is looking for a job. The leopard cannot change its spots. In every public corporation set up under past Governments, some representative of the investing class, and a sympathetic member of the Conservative Party generally, found a job. I can see now what they want; the Scottish nobility have always had their eye on the big chance. I am very glad that we have been told that they want both, because we now know that somebody wants to be more ornamental than useful, and to draw £2,000 a year as a member of the Scottish Transport Executive. But I do not think we can fool the Scottish people all the time; they know perfectly well what has been the record of the Scottish nobility. I will not go into that, however, because to do so would be out of Order.

Lord John Hope

I am much obliged to the hon. Member for that compliment. No doubt that is why I am in this House today.

Mr. Scollan

As a matter of tact one swallow does not make a summer

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I cannot allow the hon Member to continue that line of argument. Perhaps he will be good enough to come back to the original argument.

Mr. Scollan

I will do so with pleasure, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, because the other subject is a very dismal and sorry one. The hopes of the people of Scotland, as expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for the Western Isles (Mr. M. MacMillan), are the main points in regard to this Bill [here is no question that, in the past. whatever the ambitions of the Scottish people have been to develop the northern part of Scotland, they have been largely frustrated owing to the fact that transport was almost impossible. That has been the biggest obstacle to the development of northern Scotland. When the new developments which are visualised actually take place, it is obvious that somebody must be prepared to spend the necessary money in order to develop that part of the country. No capitalist company ever spends money for the purpose of development; it spends money only when it is sure that it is going to get back something extra in the process.

It will take years before the people of this country will be repaid, but the thing must obviously be done. It can be done only by a nationalised transport system, where there is a common pool of money, and a sensible and long-range vision about expenditure in certain places for the purpose of developing the country The potential wealth of the North has not been developed by the people who pay lip service to it. It can be developed, but this is the only way to do it. I hope that my right hon. Friend the Minister will resist this Amendment.

Mr. J. S. C. Reid (Glasgow, Hillhead)

I rise at this stage of the Debate for the purpose of putting to the Secretary of State for Scotland, whom I now see in his place, the view of this side of the House that he ought to take part in the Debate, and I think my reason for saying that will become obvious as I go along. I trust that my rising now will enable him to have time to prepare his reply while those of my hon. Friends who so desire follow me. I think it is quite clear that there is a vast number of points to be covered in this, which is, perhaps, the most important question relating to Scotland which has yet been brought up in this Parliament. I doubt whether the Secretary of State would disagree with that statement. It is certainly very much more important than points on which we have spent a whole day on the Second Reading of Bills, and the detail involved is even greater than in most Bills, and nearly as great as, and of much more importance than, the Town and Country Planning Bill which took us a very long time to consider. Therefore, I have no doubt that a number of points will be covered by those on this side of the House who will follow me.

The hon. Member for the Western Isles (Mr. M. MacMillan) alluded to a "bizarre coalition" opposing the Government's view on this question. It is perfectly true that in Scotland there are persons united on this issue who have probably never been united before on a political issue, and, perhaps, will rarely be united again. When that kind of thing occurs, when people who are lifelong political enemies, or who have no politics at all, take the same view, there is a very high probability that they are right. I can think of no other reason why there should be this "bizarre coalition," as the hon. Member calls it, against the Government's proposal.

Mr. M. MacMillan

Surely, the right hon. and learned Gentleman knows perfectly well that the same thing has happened on every other matter coming under nationalisation.

Mr. Reid

I will deal in a moment with the various bodies in this coalition, but I am surprised to learn that the hon. Member should apparently think that the Scottish T.U.C. is a Nationalist body.

Mr. M. MacMillan

I have not said that.

Mr. Reid

The Scottish T.U.C. is one of the bodies involved. If the hon. Member does not say that, I do not see the sense of his interjection.

Mr. M. MacMillan

I have no doubt that the right hon. and learned Gentleman will make his case as efficiently, as he always does, but he must not say that I said the Scottish T.U.C. is a Nationalist body. The reason this "bizarre coalition" I mentioned is so bizarre is the fact that we have on the one hand the Scottish Nationalists, and on the other hand the T.U.C., the Church of Scotland and the Tory Party. The very essence of this bizarre position is the fact that the Scottish T.U.C. is attached to such an assortment of people.

Mr. Reid

I should have thought the hon. Gentleman would have paused when he found all these bodies united against him, but, apparently, such is his loyalty to the party caucus in London that he puts that before any other consideration. I will have occasion in a few moments to remark on another part of the hon. Gentleman's speech which, I think, carries more weight than it would otherwise have done, by reason of the fact that he is the chairman of the Scottish Members who sit on the opposite benches, and, therefore, he may be supposed to speak for them in this matter, to a certain extent at least.

Coming to the merits of the Amendment, the Minister and others have said that the Amendment is vague. I do not think it lies in the mouth of the Minister producing this Bill to complain of vagueness; of course, the Amendment is vague. The Clause is vague, and it would not be possible on such a vague Clause to draft a detailed Amendment. Observe what the Clause says. It says: Each executive shall, as agents for the Commission, exercise such functions of the Commission as are for the time being delegated to them by or under a scheme made by the Commission and approved by the Minister. There is no definition of the powers or duties of any of the executives; and, indeed, plain notice that they may vary from time to time. They may vary from time to time in the most fundamental manner. Therefore, it does not seem odd that an Amendment to such a Clause should be vague in its terms. But what is behind the Amendment is not in the least vague, as the right hon. Gentleman himself very well knows, because the Scottish Council of Development and Industry has had some communications with the Minister on this matter, and the chairman, presenting a unanimous resolution, has put forward in great detail a scheme which that Council has sponsored, and it is not in the least a vague scheme.

It is a scheme which could be given effect to with ease under the Amendment, but it would be quite impossible for a scheme of this sort to be brought into effect if the Amendment is rejected. The scheme occupies half a column in print, and the history of the matter is this. Representatives of the Council, who represent every shade of political thought in Scotland, who represent all classes of the community, met the Minister and got the same sort of soothing syrup as we have had today—I shall say more about it in a moment—and went away completely dissatisfied. They took the view that there was no guarantee that a statutory scheme would be provided, and they set themselves to devise a positive scheme for Scotland within the framework of the Transport Bill, and they did that because, as they say, Embracing as it does all shades of effective political opinion, the Council is itself strictly non-political. It is completely impartial on the question of the nationalisation as such, but is vitally concerned to ensure that the arrangements made with particular industries which are nationalised are not prejudicial to legitimate Scottish economic interests. That is the basis on which this Council—as I say, completely representative and unanimous—set forth to devise a scheme; and they devised a long scheme. I shall not weary the House by reading it. The Minister knows perfectly well what it is about. If he or somebody else, likes to get up to pick holes in it, to show why it will not work, let him do so. All I can say is that it is very odd, if he thinks it will not work, that he has not said so before now. I should have thought that, in the course of these Debates, the plain answer to this Amendment, if there is an answer, would be, "This Amendment, if it is founded on anything, is founded on the Scottish Council's scheme; I can show you here and now that it is an unworkable scheme; nobody has suggested any other reasons for the Amendment, and, therefore, the Amendment is a bad Amendment." It would have been a devastating argument, but it has never been advanced because it cannot be advanced, as the Minister knows quite well. What the Scottish Council has said is perfectly true.

Mr. McAllister (Rutherglen)

It is surprising that, in the right hon. and learned Gentleman's argument he attaches so much importance to the Scottish Council for Industry, which is a non-statutory, non-elected, non-executive, purely advisory body, with no status of any kind except the status created by itself.

8.30 p.m.

Mr. Reid

I do t of say anything about that. I do not think the hon. Member is right, because it is quite clear that this Council is, among other things, directly representative of local authorities. The chairman has said it in black and white, and nobody has challenged it. I do not carry with me the constitution of the body, but I am quite sure the chairman would not put that in black and white unless it were accurate.

Mr. McAllister

I think the right hon. and learned Member knows that representatives are appointed by the associations to local authorities, and surely he would agree that that is not representation in the electoral sense.

Mr. Reid

Of course, I know that hon. Members opposite are doing their best today, and otherwise, to diminish the importance of all local authorities in Scotland. They are deliberately doing that; they have done it time and again; and I am not surprised at that attitude, for the very simple reason that local authorities—be they Unionist, Socialist, or non-political—are Scotsmen first, whereas hon. Members opposite are showing by their conduct that they are not only Socialists first, but English Socialists first. [Laughter.] Hon. Members laugh but I will justify that before I have finished.

I wish to put on record the views of representative Scottish bodies who are unanimous upon this. I think the Secretary of State for Scotland may now begin to see why I think he ought to reply to this Debate. The document before me ends thus: A system of this nature"— that is to say, a system which this Amendment would allow, but which we have no indication that the Government will accept— would ensure the co-ordination of all transport in Scotland, and would provide for decisions on transport questions being taken in Scotland. The Scottish Council is satisfied that it would be entirely workable in practice, and that it would meet the needs of Scotland without conflicting in any way with the essential principles of the Transport Bill. That is what the Scottish Council found it necessary to publish after having been to the Minister and having been dissatisfied with his view—and found it necessary unanimously. Let us see what the Minister said against that very detailed statement. The Minister said that this scheme was apparently attempting exploitation on false sentimental or nationalist grounds. I was not quite clear what it was attempting to exploit, but I did take down those words. Does he still say that? Does he say that the Scottish Council were attempting to exploit the situation on sentimental or nationalist grounds. Does he say that about the Scottish T.U.C., I wonder? I am not quite certain whether the Scottish Cooperative Wholesale Society come into this matter, but if they do, I am quite sure they take the same view as the T.U.C. and the Development Council. Perhaps the Minister might ask some of his friends there what they think about it.

All I could gather from the right hon. Gentleman was that railway devolution was to be unified and strengthened. I am bound to say that those words did not convey any clear picture to my mind. I have not seen a clear picture in the earlier proceedings of this Bill. I may have missed it, but I have not seen it. Then we were told we would probably have an area road transport. I wonder why the right hon. Gentleman wants to call Scotland merely an area? I should have thought he might have been learning not to do that by now. But let that be. What was the only argument he put forward? I was able to detect only one. He was satisfied that it was serving Scottish interests, because under the Bill we are to be subsidised by England whereas under the Amendment we would not be. Now, he did not say those words, but I listened very carefully to the words which he did use and I could read no other meaning out of them. If he really meant something else I would be much obliged if he would tell us, but the impression which I certainly got was that he took the view that Scottish transport could not stand upon its own feet and must be subsidised by England. If that is right—and I very much doubt whether it is right—then let us know about it. I have not heard it stated in that way before. Let us know what calculated amount of subsidy the right hon. Gentleman thinks England should pay to Scotland for Scotland to have an adequate transport system. I am sure that the Scottish Council did not realise that that was the position; otherwise I find it difficult to understand why they should have pursued the line that they took.

I do not want to put forward my own argument in this matter. I do not profess to be an expert in transport in any shape or form. What I am trying to do is to gather together and put before the House the consensus of opinion from all quarters in Scotland. Among those who really know about it, we have not discovered a single Scottish source which takes the opposite view, apart from those directly subordinate to the Socialist Party. I want to read certain words as part of my argument, and then say a word about them. Indeed, to most Scotsmen, it would appear as if Whitehall's insistence upon long-distance control in administration is calculated to secure for these new public service ventures the worst possible start. Nothing is more certain than that other Scottish boards, and particularly in air and land transport, will require to have separate statutory creation if the social and administrative services of the country are to be run efficiently with knowledge of local circumstances and with a minimum of frustration and annoyance to the lieges in the North. These are the words of Mr. Tom Johnston. I think that Scotland is rather interested in this matter, because to most Scotsmen Mr. Tom Johnston appears to be the most eminent living Socialist in that country. I doubt whether hon. Members opposite will deny that he has rendered to their party in the past very great services. I was a little surprised at the chairman of the Scottish Socialist Members saying that Mr. Tom Johnston was no longer a Socialist, and that he was now only a Scottish Nationalist. If that is the view of Scottish Socialist Members, and if they have moved so far away from their own past that they must now disown Mr. Tom Johnston, let it be made public to Scotland.

Mr. Scollan

Would not the right hon. and learned Gentleman agree that Mr. Tom Johnston found a place in the hearts of the Scottish people because of his exposure of the Scottish noble families and their clique?

Mr. Reid

I should have thought myself that Mr. Tom Johnston found his present eminence by his successful administration of the affairs of Scotland for four years in most difficult circumstances.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I am sorry to interrupt the right hon. and learned Gentleman, but I cannot find anything about Mr. Tom Johnston in this Amendment.

Mr. Reid

I agree that it is not relevant to discuss Mr. Tom Johnston's peculiar status in Scotland, but it is relevant to point out that Scottish Socialists, in supporting the Government on this matter, are compelled to throw over the most eminent living Scottish Socialist, and to go back on what they have said throughout their political lives.

Lieut.-Colonel Sir Thomas Moore (Ayr Burghs)

On a point of Order, Mr. Deputy-Speaker. May I appeal to you not to allow Members opposite to make the same speeches half-a-dozen times?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I cannot quite follow the point which the hon. and gallant Member has just put to me.

Mr. M. MacMillan

As I was directly addressed by the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for Hillhead (Mr. J. S. C. Reid), I would ask him not to misrepresent what I said about Mr. Johnston. I said that he had pandered to a nationalist type of propaganda, and that on this issue, he was not the spokesman of the majority of the Scottish electors.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I think I ought to make it clear that from now onward in this Debate, Mr. Tom Johnston is out of Order.

Mr. Reid

I will not mention his name again. [Laughter.] Things have come to a pretty pass when that name is greeted with ribald laughter in this House. I do not desire to take up any more time, except to say that unless the Secretary of State for Scotland justifies the Government's attitude in this matter, Scotland will feel that once again the right hon. Gentleman has let down the interests of his native country.

Mr. Gilzean (Edinburgh, Central)

Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman tell us what was the attitude of the Church of Scotland?

Mr. Reid

I could, but I will not.

Mr. John Henderson (Glasgow, Cathcart)

With a considerable amount of diffidence I intervene at this late stage in the discussion. I have nothing but the greatest admiration for Members representing English constituencies at the patience they have exhibited while Scottish Members have been discussing this Amendment. I think all sides of the House must he appreciative of, and grateful to, the Members of another place for putting down this Amendment, and giving Scottish Members the opportunity to express their views on this matter. For a moment or two I will leave Mr. Tom Johnston and the Scottish Nationalist Party alone, and try to take Members to "Bonnie Scotland." Scotland differs considerably from any part of England and Wales, because there are great areas of land divided by mountains, hills, and rivers.

A very distinguished Member of this House asked me, the other week, where he could go to Scotland for a holiday, and I suggested a place called Rothesay, in the Kyles of Bute. I gave him the name of a good hotel, and he said he would go there. But a few weeks later he said he had changed his mind. He had wanted to take his car and his family, hut after inquiries he found that the car would take him only to a certain part of Scotland, and that he would then have to get a boat to take the car across the Firth of Clyde and land him at the Madeira of Scotland. Because of this trouble, and the fact that boats were available only at high tide for the conveyance of cars, he scrapped his arrangements, and decided to go to another part of Scotland.

Mr. Scollan

Is the hon. Member telling the House that boats travelling between the Island of Bute and the mainland are available only at high tide, because that is not true?

8.45 p.m.

Mr. Henderson

Boats will accept motor cars only at certain times of the day, when high tide prevails. I am sorry that the hon. Member for West Renfrew (Mr. Scollan) has contradicted me, but I think I am perfectly right. I produce that evidence to prove the difficulty that bound to be experienced in connection with the nationalisation of transport so far as Scotland is concerned. I think it is most desirable that these Executives should be composed of people who will have an intimate knowledge of the difficulties of Scotland, and I am more than surprised to hear the opposition from hon. Members on the other side of the House. A great many of them I have had the privilege of knowing for a long number of years, and they have expressed the greatest concern about the conditions in Scotland, and how it has been unjustly treated by English Governments. Here is a golden opportunity for them to go into the Division Lobby today and render something more than lip service in the cause of Scotland. I was greatly struck by the speech of a noble Lord in another place, in which he wound up on behalf of His Majesty's Government. He was replying to certain riticism responsible for the Amendment being carried, and he said: I am not quite sure why I have been selected to speak on behalf of the Government. I have, to the best of my knowledge, no Scottish blood in my veins.

Mr. Willis

Is it in Order for the hon. Gentleman to read a speech made in another place?

Mr. J. S. C. Reid

Is it not in Order to read what a Minister says in another place on behalf of the Government?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker (Mr. Hubert Beaumont)

It is only in Order on Government policy.

Mr. Henderson

The noble Lord was replying on behalf of the Government and, therefore, he must have been replying with regard to the policy of de Government. He said: I have, to the' best of my knowledge, no Scottish blood in my veins, but I was fortunate enough to have a Scottish godfather"—

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I am puzzled because I do not know to which noble Lord the hon. Gentleman is referring, and whether it is Government policy which he is quoting.

Lieut.-Colonel Elliot (Scottish Universities)

It is Government policy to call upon someone who has no Scottish blood in his veins.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

It is not for the Chair to judge whether or not the statement is true.

Lieut.-Colonel Elliot

I hope that that will not be regarded as any reflection on the ancestry of a noble Lord in another place?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

Not at all.

Mr. Mitchison (Kettering)

Is the question of a godfather in the distant past a matter of Government policy?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

Not being Solomon, I refrain from giving any decision.

Mr. Henderson

I am quoting Lord Walkden. He said: When I was younger, I had a fine sandy beard, but that is as near as I can get to being a Scotsman. If these are the noble Lord's only qualifications for dealing with Scots affairs, and should this ever be read by Scots people, one of two things will happen. They will hold their hands above their heads, their eyes will be turned up to heaven, and they will say, "Ma conscience," or else they will bow their heads to the ground, and say, "Puir auld Scotland."

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I have no spokesmen in another place.

Mr. Henderson

I did not attribute my remarks to you, Mr. Deputy-Speaker. These were the observations made by the noble Lord in another place, who wound up the Debate on behalf of His Majesty's Government.

Again, I would reinforce the appeals which have been made, and I hope that this Amendment will be pursued so that an Executive for Scotland to deal with Scottish affairs will be set up. A great deal of the ground has already been covered. It is difficult to say anything new, because so much has already been said, but I hope Labour Members on the other side of the House will make effective their utterances regarding having Scotland's welfare so much at heart by voting with this party in the Lobby to see that justice is done to Scottish transport.

Mr. McKinlay (Dumbartonshire)

I always like to follow the hon. Member for Cathcart (Mr. John Henderson), because he is always interesting though not very illuminating. I am still waiting for someone from the other side to tell me what this Amendment means. The hon. Member for Montrose Burghs (Mr. Maclay), has fallen from grace for he has entered into a marriage which is a flop, politically speaking. He with his experience and his background in Glasgow knows perfectly well that the purpose behind this Amendment is just as it was described by the hon. and gallant Gentleman the Member for the Central Division of Glasgow (Colonel Hutchison)—an anti dote to Scottish Nationalism. I have never known of a recovery in any country in the world which was such an antidote. If I read the Bill correctly, if this Executive were appointed they would carry out the desires and instructions of the Commission. If that is so, the Scottish Executive is not even an antidote; it is a negative commodity. The amazing thing about this is—I have known many hon. Gentlemen opposite, including some on the Front Bench, who hoped some day to qualify for higher office, on every conceivable occasion express this intensive desire to remove the remote control of Whitehall. As a matter of fact the right hon. and gallant Member for the Scottish Universities (Lieut.-Colonel Elliot) had ample opportunity of removing the clammy hand of Whitehall. Instead of that he transferred his services to the Ministry of Agriculture in England.

Mr. Godfrey Nicholson (Farnham)

On a point of Order. Is not the hon. Gentleman going a little out of the way?

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I am wondering in what manner the hon. Member was going to use that illustration.

Mr. McKinlay

I hope the hon. Gentleman the Member for Farnham (Mr. Nicholson) will not think ill of me because I am fulfilling a function at the moment for the Conservative Party, namely to keep this Debate going—

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I do not think that that is the business of the Amendment under discussion.

Mr. McKinlay

It is a party Amendment, and I was saying that this is a deliberate attempt to keep the Amendment going until the main army has been fed, even at the risk of the emaciation of the Scottish Members on the Front Bench. When I hear of this desire and demand to get away from Whitehall, I have to point out that every single Member on the Front Bench opposite at the moment knows perfectly well that so long as the Treasury has its clammy hand on Scotland, there is nothing any Executive or any other body can do about it.

Lieut.-Colonel Elliot

Is the hon. Gentleman challenging me?

Mr. McKinlay

No, the right hon. and gallant Gentleman is only one of the crowd.

Lieut.-Colonel Elliot

The hon. Gentleman challenges me as one of the crowd. He did me the honour of saying that I had been in control for a time of a certain Government Department. Does he realise that when I set up the Milk Board, I gave it no power over Scotland, but provided a separate Scottish Milk Board which had powers similar to those held here? If the party opposite will do in this case, what I did for the Milk Board we will be satisfied as Scotsmen.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

We cannot have a discussion on the Milk Board now.

Mr. McKinlay

I am surprised at the right hon. and gallant Gentleman, with his knowledge of Parliamentary procedure, introducing such a subject as that. In any case, so far as concerns the much boosted Milk Board—and I am using this by way of illustration, Mr. Deputy-Speaker—there was a man whose name has been unfairly dealt with here tonight and who was the father of organised milk distribution among school children, which is the most important thing. I myself have had to drink milk imported from England.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I do not doubt that, but it has nothing to do with the subject under discussion.

Mr. McKinlay

I do not wish to challenge your Ruling, Mr. Deputy-Speaks r, but I am trying to develop my point as to how the Board could improve its transport system to bring that milk to Scotland in a more orderly way. Even the hon. and gallant Gentleman opposite who seems to have forgotten but who used to sit for one of the Belfast constituencies would agree that an efficient transport system could distribute Ulster milk in the West of Scotland rather more quickly than can be done at the moment.

Sir Ronald Ross (Londonderry)

Is the hon. Gentleman alluding to me as sitting for Belfast?

Mr. McKinlay

I did not really, because I said "the hon. and gallant Gentleman who used to represent Belfast." The hon. and gallant Gentleman is a Member of the House at present. The gentleman in question still represents a constituency in the dirty, black North.

Sir R. Ross

I think the hon. Gentleman is confusing—I will not say his own representation with mine but the fact is that I have always been in the North-West and have never represented Belfast. I have always represented Londonderry. And when we distribute milk to Scotland we do so by sea—oddly enough.

Mr. McKinlay

The antidote contained in this Amendment has evidently net penetrated to the North of Ireland. What really brought me to my feet is the fact that Scottish devolution is receiving stir-port from the most peculiar quarter, so much so that I am beginning to think that I have been wrong all my life. I am suspicious. If any hon. Member on the other side believes that the appointment of the Scottish Executive will strengthen Scottish transport, will he please explain how, so long as the Treasury control the purse strings, what the purpose is of creating the proposed Scottish Executive, to act under the directions of a Commission still located in Whitehall? I have not heard any hon. Member try to explain that point.

I am speaking on behalf of all the Labour Members without exception, who have discussed this matter inside out. If we cannot get the reasonable explanation for which I am asking I do not think that there is much hope of our departing from our decision to support the Minister. We think he is correct, and that a co-ordinated service can only come by the methods which he proposes and which are contained in the Bill.

9.0 p.m.

Sir T. Moore

I would like to bring the discussion back to the Amendment which has been sent from another place. I have listened to all the arguments that have been used and I have not found one answer given by the Minister or any of his supporters that appeals either to the reason or the intellect. To passion and to prejudice, yes, but not to reason. I sometimes wonder whether there may be a discrimination taking place by which Scotsmen are not to be given executive jobs in their own country but are to be dragged out of Scotland, with the object of giving them jobs in England. Is England indeed so short of men of capacity and experience that Government policy is designed to make good the deficiency with Scots. Is there any plan to deny Scotsmen work in their own country?

After the fantastic farrago of nonsense that has been talked by hon. Gentlemen opposite, one wonders how the Government can carry on its work at all. One is torn, in discussions of this kind, between two clashing interests. One is how to give more control to Scotsmen over Scottish affairs in Scotland. The other is how to maintain as close as possible the link between the two countries, Scotland and the larger though less important country South of the Border. Despite the economic depths into which we are about to be hurled and in which we may lose everything that we have been building up for so long, I say that the point in the proposed Amendment means a great deal to Scotland.

I see the Secretary of State here in his place, I hope ready to abandon his participation in this surrender. I warn him that Scotland is getting rather tired of control by England, and of being included in every piece of English legislation. Occasionally we get a sop like the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Bill, or the National Health Services Bill but still the control remains here. Whether or not we get those sporadic last Clauses in a Bill saying that the Bill applies or does not apply to Scotland does not alter the fact that control still remains in Westminster and that we still suffer from the old overlordship of England. The hon. Member for Dumbartonshire (Mr. McKinlay) who has just spoken, referred to the power of the Treasury. We cannot deny that, but we want to ensure that Scotsmen in Scotland are permitted to administer such funds as they receive from the Treasury, and to use the knowledge they have of Scottish affairs.

I referred to the Secretary of State just now. I would like to say, that I like him personally very much, as he knows, but I blame him for some of the results from which we are suffering and especially for the result that we are discussing tonight. I do not say that he did not fight in the Cabinet for this Amendment—I am sure he did—but he does not fight for the position of the Secretary of State for Scotland, which should dominate not only the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but every other English Minister, because the Secretary of State for Scotland is the Prime Minister of Scotland, and he should recognise himself as such and not allow himself to be treated as a shuttlecock between the various contending interests in England. The time has come for us to put our foot down on this question. I ask the Secretary of State to realise the strength of the feeling that exists and urge him to exercise his authority in order to ensure that Scotsmen get the chance of running Scotland as they want to run it and not as the Minister of Transport wants to run it.

Mr. Spence (Aberdeen and Kincardine, Central)

The hon. Member for Dumbartonshire (Mr. McKinlay) asked if anyone on this side would tell him what an Executive Committee would do in Scotland. He referred to the fact that if it were set up in Scotland, it would have no power of its own because it would be under the Commission. Why should any Executives be set up at all? Five or six other Executives are laid down in the Bill to work under the Commission, but if they work independently and have a certain autonomy of action on occasions, surely the Scottish Executive set up would have an autonomy of action? If a Scottish Executive is set up, the result would be that we should have men and women who know the conditions in Scotland taking action on the spot when it was needed and not a month late, as would probably happen if the matter is done by Whitehall. The Minister rather misled us when he implied that Scotland would be worse off financially if we had our own Executive. That has been debunked by the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for Hillhead (Mr. J. S. C. Reid). There can be no doubt that if Scotland got an Executive it would be no worse off financially than it would be working under the main Committee from Whitehall.

The hon. Member for the Western Isles (Mr. M. MacMillan) said that the call for an Executive for Scotland was a flash in the pan and an isolated case. He has faithfully attended at the Scottish Grand Committee and he will know the feeling in Scotland today and the continuous efforts that have been made from this sid of the House to get as much local control as possible of our own affairs. I quite understand the uneasiness of hon. Members opposite. They remember their Election speeches. I remember them, too. They will have to explain to their constituents when they go back this weekend why they did not go into the Lobby on our side.

Mr. Niall Macpherson (Dumfries)

When this Debate is read in Scotland tomorrow, there will be a considerable amount of disappointment at the smallness of the arguments from the other side directed to the merits of the Amendment. The other side have attacked this Amendment almost wholly on political grounds. They have attacked it with ridicule and levity. But they have done nothing whatever to argue the case for the coordination in Scotland of transport in Scotland. The hon. Member for Dumbartonshire (Mr. McKinlay) argued that even this Executive would have to take orders from London. What is likely to be the order of the Executive in London? Surely, it wil be, "Get on with the job, co-ordinate transport in Scotland, and leave us alone as far as possible." That is what Scotland wants and that is the kind of order we expect to be given by the Commission. So far as co-ordination with England is concerned, that can be done between the Scottish Board and the Commission, or with any separate board or Executive that may be set up in England, but the essential thing is that the co-ordination in Scotland should be done in Scotland by those who have the needs of Scotland in mind. For that reason, I strongly support the Amendment.

Mr. Boothby

This has been a very interesting Debate, rather an epoch-making Debate for Scotland. I was very astonished at the remarks of the hon. Member for West Renfrew (Mr. Scollan) when he said that he thought our object in putting down the Amendment was to get jobs for ourselves. One thing we are absolutely certain of on this side is that as long as the present Government remain in power, there is not a hope of any of us getting a job. We know there are many jobs going and we know where they are going. I am not bitter about it. It is one of the unpleasant facts of life which has to be faced.

I did not follow the argument of the hon. Member for West Renfrew in that connection. Little did I think that I should live to see the day when Tom Johnston would be thrown to the winds by the party opposite. The hon. Member for the Western Isles (Mr. H. MacMillan) threw him out and described him as an ex-Socialist. I hope this does not mean that he will be sacked from the Hydro-Electric Board, because he is doing a very good job there. I beg the Minister to give some assurance on that point. Nevertheless, it is another indication of the rising tide of anti-Scottish prejudice which is gripping hon. Members opposite, particularly the Scottish Socialist hon. Members. I cannot understand what has come over them. If we read their Electron addresses, we find—

Mr. Deputy-Speaker (Major Milner)

I hope the hon. Member will confine his remarks to the matter before the House.

Mr. Boothby

With great respect and all humility, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, I submit that we are discussing a project of devolution and a project to set up a separate executive for transport in Scotland. That raises in a most critical form the whole question of self-government in greater or less degree in Scotland. That is the issue tonight.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I certainly cannot allow the hon. Member to develop an argument on that very large subject.

Mr. Boothby

I shall not, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, but I do not think you can rule me out of Order if I confine myself rigidly to what the Minister of Transport himself said. He said the Scottish Transport system must be integrated with that of England. We say that it should be dis-integrated from that of England to a certain extent. We want decentralisation and devolution, and that is what hon. Gentlemen opposite have in the past always claimed they wanted for Scotland. We have never been great advocates in the past of a marked degree of separation between England and Scotland. They have. How do we know it was not purely for the purpose of getting votes from the Nationalists in Scotland?

Mr. Gallacher

The hon. Member will do it, too.

9.15 p.m.

Mr. Boothby

Not only did the Minister of Transport say that the Scottish transport system had to be closely integrated with that of England but he went on to refer in what I regarded as rather an offensive phrase, to the peculiar physical handicaps of Scotland. What did he mean by that? [An HON. MEMBER: "He was looking at you."] No further remarks of that nature, or I shall have to claim your protection, Mr. Deputy-Speaker. I propose to overlook it on this occasion. Nevertheless, the Minister referred to the peculiar physical handicaps of Scotland. I did not like the phrase. It showed a certain prejudice against Scotland. Do not let us have any "havers" now from the party opposite about decentralisation, devolution and self-government for Scotland. "Government of the people of Scotland by Whitehall, for Whitehall" is their slogan now, and at least we know where we are.

There is very little we can do to rectify the situation. We are bound to be outvoted in the Lobby tonight, but I think many hon. Members of the Labour Party will go into the Lobby with a heavy heart, and with an uneasy, queasy feeling in the pit of the stomach that they are doing the wrong thing. I think Scottish Members of the party are unhappy about this thing, but do not wish to make a rift in the party. Nevertheless, they are dealing a very damaging blow at the economy and the general interests of Scotland. Not a single argument has been adduced in the whole course of the Debate to show why the proposal we are making in this Amendment should not be adopted, and why we should not run an executive in Scotland. It would do no harm whatever to the general structure of the Bill, or to the transport system of the country as a whole. Not a single argument has been put forward to show what is wrong with this proposal, or why it would not work.

We in Scotland must reconcile ourselves to the fact that the only way in which we can have any say in the conduct of our affairs is to come down to Whitehall to run them from there. That, of course, is what we are doing to a great extent, but it is no great consolation to those who remain faithful in body as well as in spirit to the land of their birth, and who want to have some say in our affairs in Scotland. To throw cut the suggestion of Newcastle as a sop is not good enough; the Executive should be in Scotland.

Commander Galbraith

While this Amendment is being treated with a certain amount of levity by hon. Members on the Government benches, it is nevertheless a matter of supreme importance to Scotland. It is a matter on which much of the future of Scotland depends, and it should have been debated in all seriousness. It is perfectly obvious from representations which have been put forward, and to which my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Hillhead (Mr. J. S. C. Reid) referred, that this matter is considered as serious to the future of Scotland.

Hitherto, at least as long as I have been in this House, I have always understood that the Secretary of State for Scotland was the champion of Scotland's rights. I should have thought it would have been fitting for him to rise tonight to answer the very serious problems which have been put forward in argument from this side of the House. Not only so, but I think he has a duty to tell the people of Scotland why it is that he does not agree with the Lords in this Amendment. There have been many cogent arguments put forward, and many public bodies truly non-political in Scotland, representing what I believe to be the true voice of Scotland, have made representations on the subject. Yet the right hon. Gentleman does not think it is a worthy subject on which to rise and reply to a Debate in this House. I have waited all the evening for the right hon. Gentleman to rise in his place. I am astonished and astounded, as Scotland will be tomorrow, that he has not had the courtesy to do so.

Lieut.-Colonel Elliot

We are, of course, only at an early stage of this Debate, and, therefore, I apologise for intervening so soon, but we are determined to have an answer from a Scottish Minister—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] We are perfectly entitled to say that the Debate should go on. There are many arguments which can be adduced, and which will be adduced, until Scotland hears from its own Minister some answer to the case put by Scottish Members on this side of the House. Hon. Members opposite have adduced no argument against this Amendment, save the one that in any nationalisation scheme no devaluation of any kind or discretions such as this Amendment envisages may be permitted. This is, therefore, the beginning of a very serious process, which we intend to withstand. The Minister of Transport insisted that not merely an integration but a complete assimilation of the two systems was necessary before his scheme could work at all. This is not the only nationalisation Bill which is now before the House of Commons, and if that is to be so, we must take it as the stated policy of the Government, which is to he extended in many other directions. I see in his place the Lord President of the Council, who himself on a previous occasion steered a considerable Transport Measure through the House of Commons. He did it with great acceptance, but he was wise then not to bring forward any such extravagant claims as those which are being made by his successor the present Minister of Transport. I would that the Minister of Transport might borrow some of that sweet reasonableness with which the Lord President of the Council proceeded on those occasions.

Mr. H. Morrison

It is time that something nice was said about me.

Lieut.-Colonel Elliot

I am only too willing to give credit where credit is due and honour where honour is due. The right hon. Gentleman was a great Minister of Transport. If he has since fallen from grace a little, it only shows how the gnawing years advance upon us. There has been nothing to justify this rigid and unthinking opposition which the Minister of Transport is advancing against this Amendment. The hon. Member for the Western Isles (Mr. M. MacMillan) put forward the vigorous defence of the Government which we expect from those who are working their passage, and working it pretty hard.

Mr. M. MacMillan

Might I ask the right hon. and gallant Gentleman to be honest just for once in these Debates, and say exactly what he means?

Lieut.-Colonel Elliot

I have no objection whatever to stating that what I said, I said with the utmost honesty and sincerity, and I stand by every word of it.

Mr. M. MacMillan

Then would the right hon. and gallant Gentleman explain what he meant?

Lieut.-Colonel Elliot

I have no difficulty in explaining what I meant. The hon. Member, who has been a long time in this House, and who has totally failed to get office under any Government, is very anxious to get it now.

Mr. M. MacMillan

I ask for your protection, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, against that most scurrilous attack. If the right hon. and gallant Gentleman will cast his mind back to 1945, he will recall that there were Governments in office for ten years with which I would not be associated on any terms, and of which he was a distinguished Member and is now an extinguished one. I never sought office, I do not want office and I would not take office if it were offered to me. It is a scurrilous attack, and I demand a withdrawal.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I do not think that these personal animadversions are desirable. I hope the right hon. Gentleman will withdraw.

Lieut.-Colonel Elliot

I understand, Major Milner, that you consider personal animadversions undesirable and you consider that my remark partook of that character. I can only say that I have heard remarks of a very much stronger character on many occasions about many hon. Members but, Sir, in deference to the Chair, and only in deference to the Chair, if you so consider, I certainly withdraw anything which the Chair considers out of Order.

Mr. M. MacMillan

Might I ask, on this point of Order—

Mr. Deputy-Speaker

I think that honours are now even and the right hon. and gallant Gentleman should be allowed to continue.

Mr. M. MacMillan

On a point of Order. One would expect that a gentleman of so many years experience of this House, as he said himself, and who has himself been kicked out of every office he has held, would have the decency to withdraw more gracefully.

Lieut.-Colonel Elliot

Whether or not honours were even before, I think it may be said that the hon. Member has done his best to get down as far as he can just now. The hon. Member for the Western Isles, whose incursions into our Debates we always greet with hilarity, has been pleased to make some animadversions upon his fellow Scotsmen. He says that he finds it impossible to believe that a Scottish Executive situated in Scotland will do justice to every part of Scotland. He totally failed to advance any argument to show why that should be so. He totally failed to justify in any way the many animadversions which he cast out against his own fellow-countrymen and, Sir, more particularly against that fellow-countryman, the most distinguished member which the Socialist Party has ever had, one whose boots he is not fit to black, Tom Johnston.

The difficulties in which the House is placed by the action of the Government are simple and obvious. The Government have put up a Minister who is not acquainted with the affairs of Scotland to justify their action in connection with this matter which is of the greatest importance to Scotland herself. We have attempted to elicit from a Scottish Minister on a Scottish subject justification of actions which will be of the greatest importance to Scotland. The Executive for which we ask here is certainly not an Executive which anyone would describe as a wrecking of the Bill. In one of his wilder moments, the hon. Member for the Western Isles described this as an attempt to wreck the Bill although his own colleague pointed out that from their point of view the danger of the Amendment was that it was not sufficiently important and would not do anything to justify putting it in the Bill. Hon. Members opposite must have it one way or the other. They cannot have it both ways. I take it that they wish—

Mr. M. MacMillan

Which of these two arguments does the right hon. and gallant Gentleman accept—that it will wreck the Bill or that it is unimportant?

Lieut.-Colonel Elliot

The hon. Member for the Western Isles, not for the first time, is placing an entirely false dilemma before the House. It will not wreck the Bill and it is not unimportant. I hope that he will be able to understand that plain answer. It is important and it will not wreck the Bill. It is important because it will place in Scotland the executive power over Scottish transport. The suggestion that before one changes a bus fare or a tram fare in Glasgow or Camlachie one has to get permission of the Minister of Transport—for that is what it comes to—that and other questions, as we all know ourselves, are questions of principle. They have to be brought down here before they can be answered and when we ask, "How do we obtain redress?" the answer is, "You obtain redress by putting a Question on the Floor of the House." That is a point which has been put time and again as an answer to the complaints made by hon. and right hon. Gentlemen on this side of the House that an impossible degree of centralisation is being carried out.

The possibility of managing the great affairs of Scotland by Questions on the Floor of this House may be judged by the rigid refusal of the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for Scotland and his Under-Secretary to make any reply tonight on a very much more important question than some small point of procedure, or even of principle, in the management of some portion of Scottish administration. The right hon. Gentleman owes it to his great office and owes it to the House to make some answer to this point which we have pressed upon him, because of the arguments which have been put forward, the far-reaching argument which will certainly stop any similar devolution being carried through in any other Bill before the House.

9.30 p.m.

Surely on this occasion, the Secretary of State for Scotland will give us an answer? I am perfectly willing to resume my seat if he will do so. I am offering to facilitate the Government's business by resuming my seat to receive an answer from the Minister. If we are not to have it, then we must do our best to try and press our point of view. Will anybody, on behalf of the Government, explain why an executive in Edinburgh should be regarded as damaging to the prospects of this Bill? It still is subject to the overriding authority of the Commission. The hon. Member for Dumbarton (Mr. McKinlay) said that, as long as the executive power remained in the Commission, and as long as the clammy hand of the Treasury remained, this Amendment would really not be of any great importance. [Interruption.] Well, let him say that to the T.U.C., and to the Industrial Development Council for Scotland, and to those many bodies and hon. Members—

Mr. McKinlay

Will the right hon. and gallant Gentleman allow me? I have said that to 4,000 delegates in St. Andrew's Hall drawn from trade unions and other organisations throughout Scotland, and I will say it again to any trade union branch in the country.

Lieut.-Colonel Elliot

Well, the hon. Member has certainly done what we begged the Secretary of State to do—to attempt some sort of reply on behalf of Scotland. Is it to be that the Secretary of State and the Under-Secretary will do nothing in any way to defend themselves on their own case? The hon. Member who has just spoken explained that he has put the point before a delegate conference, and we must accept that horn him, but

Division No. 321]	AYES.	9.35 p.m
Adams, Richard (Balham)	Blyton, W R.	Daines, P.
Adams, W. T. (Hammersmith, South)	Bowden, Flg.-Ofr. H. W.	Davies, Edward (Burslem)
Allen, A. C. (Bosworth)	Bowles, F. G (Nuneaton)	Davies, Ernest (Enfield)
Allen, Scholefield (Crewe)	Bramall, E. A.	Davies, Harold (Leek)
Alpass, J. H	Brook, D. (Halifax)	Davies, Hadyn (St. Pancras, S.W)
Anderson, F (Whitehaven)	Brooks, T. J. (Rothwell>	Deer, G,
Attewell, H. C.	Brown, George (Belper)	de Freitas, Geoffrey
Austin, H. Lewis	Brown, T J. (Ince)	Delargy, H. J
Awbery, S. S	Bruce, Maj. D. W T	Diamond, J
Ayles, W. H.	Buchanan, G.	Dobbie, W
Ayrton Gould, Mrs. B	Burden, T. W	Dodds, N. N
Baird, J	Burke, W. A.	Donovan, T
Balfour, A	Champion, A. J.	Driberg, T. E. N.
Barnes, Rt. Hon. A. J.	Chater, D.	Dugdale, J. (W. Bromwich)
Barstow, P G.	Chetwynd, G. R.	Dumpleton, C W.
Barton, C.	Cobb, F. A.	Durbin, E. F. M.
Battley, J. R	Cocks, F S.	Dye, S.
Bechervaise, A. E.	Coldrick, W.	Ede, Rt. Hon J. C.
Belcher, J. W	Collide, P.	Edwards, A. (Middlesbrough, E.)
Benson, G	Collins, V. J.	Edwards, Rt, Hon. Sir C (Bedwellty)
Beswick, F.	Colman, Miss G. M	Edwards, N. (Caerphilly)
Bing, G H C.	Corbet, Mrs. F K (Came well N. W.)	Edwards, W. J (Whitechapel)
Binns, J	Cove, W. G	Evans, E. (Lowestoft)
Blackburn, A. R	Crawley, A	Evans, John (Ogmore)
Blenkinsop, A	Daggar, G	Evans, S. N. (Wednesbury)

the Secretary of State has not answered or explained how he thinks this modest Amendment from another place could be regarded as injuring the Bill nor has he given any reason to suppose that the Minister of Transport, if he were to put the case strongly to him, would not concede this point. We beg him to do so, and, if he refuses, we must continue to ask him to do so, but at the present moment, it is clear that he is not going to rise, and all I can say is that we shall continue our opposition to the Government's proposal on every occasion when we can.

Mr. Boorhby

On a point of Order. Would it be in Order, Mr. Speaker, to ask leave to move to report Progress?

Mr. Speaker

During proceedings on the consideration of Lords Amendments, a Motion to report Progress is not in Order.

Mr. J. S. C. Reid

Further to that point of Order. Would it be possible to move the Adjournment of the Debate in order that a representative of the Government may have an opportunity of replying?

Mr. Speaker

It would be in Order, but I might not accept it.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. William Whiteley)

rose in his place and claimed to move, "That the Question be now put."

Question put, "That the Question be now put."

The House divided: Ayes, 312; Noes, 129.

Ewart, R	Longden, F.	Sharp, Granville
Fairhurst, F.	Lyne, A. W	Shawcross, Rt Hn. Sir H (St Helens)
Farthing, W. J.	McAdam, W	Shurmer, P
Fernyhough, E	McAllister, G	Silkin, Rt Hon. L.
Field, Capl W J	McEntee, V La T.	Silverman, J. (Erdington)
Follick, M,	McGhee, H. G.	Silverman, S S. (Nelson)
Forman, J C.	McGovern, J.	Simmons, C. J.
Foster, W (Wigan)	Mack, J. D	Skeffington, A. M
Fraser, T. (Hamilton)	McKay, J. (Wallsend)	Skinnard, F. W.
Freeman, Maj. J. (Watford)	Mackay, R. W. G. (Hull, N.W)	Smith, C. (Colchester)
Freeman, Peter (Newport)	McKinlay, A. S.	Smith, H. N. (Nottingham, S.)
Gaitskell, H. T. N.	Maclean, N. (Govan)	Solley, L. J.
Gallacher, W.	McLeavy, F.	Sorensen, R. W
Ganley, Mrs. C. S	MacMillan, M. K. (Western Isles)	Soskice, Maj. Sir F
Gibbins, J	Macpherson, T. (Romford)	Sparks, J. A.
Gibson, C W	Mainwaring, W. H.	Stamford, W
Gilzean, A.	Mallalieu, J, P. W	Steele, T.
Glanville, J. E. (Consett)	Mann, Mrs. J.	Stephen, C
Gooch, E. G.	Manning, C. (Camberwell, N.)	Stewart, Michael (Fulham, E.)
Goodrich, H. E.	Manning, Mrs. L. (Epping)	Strauss, G. R. (Lambeth, N.)
Gordon-Walker, P. C.	Marshall, F. (Brightside)	Stress, Dr. B
Greenwood, Rt. Hon. A. (Wakefield)	Mathers, G.	Stubbs, A E
Greenwood, A. W. J. (Heywood)	Mayhew, C. P	Swingler, S.
Grenfell, D R	Medland, H. M.	Sylvester, G. O
Grey, C. F.	Mellish, R. J	Symonds, A. L.
Grierson, E	Mikardo, Ian	Taylor, H. B. (Mansfield)
Griffiths, D. (Rother Valley)	Millington, Wing-Comdr E. R.	Taylor, R. J. (Morpeth)
Griffiths, Rt. Hon. J (Llanelly)	Mitchison, G. R.	Taylor, Dr. S. (Barnet)
Gunter, R. J.	Monslow, W.	Thomas, D. E. (Aberdare)
Haier John E. (Wycombe)	Moody, A. S,	Thomas, Ivor (Keighley)
Hale, Leslie	Morgan, Dr. H. B.	Thomas, I. O (Wrekin)
Hall, W. G.	Morley, R.	Thomas, George (Cardiff)
Hamilton, Lieut.-Col. R.	Morris, P. (Swansea, W.)	Thomson, Rt. Hn. G. R. (Ed'b'gh, E.)
Hannan, W. (Maryhill)	Morrison, Rt. Hon. H. (Lewisham, E.)	Thorneycrofl, Harry (Clayton)
Hardman, D R	Moyle, A.	Thurtle, Ernest
Hardy, E. A.	Murray, J, D.	Tiffany, S.
Harrison, J.	Nally, W.	Timmons, J.
Hastings, Dr Somerville	Naylor, T. E.	Titterington, M. F
Haworth, J.	Neal, H. (Claycross)	Tolley, L.
Henderson, A. (Kingswinford)	Nichol, Mrs. M. E. (Bradford, N.)	Tomlinson, Rt. Hon G.
Henderson, Joseph (Ardwick)	Nicholls, H. R (Stratford)	Turner-Samuels, M.
Herbison, Miss M.	Noel-Baker, Rt. Hon. P J (Derby)	Ungoed-Thomas, L.
Hewitson, Capt. M.	Noel-Buxton, Lady	Vernon, Maj. W. F.
Hobson, C. R.	O'Brien, T.	Viant, S P.
Holman, P.	Oldfield, W. H.	Walker, G. H.
Holmes, H. E. (Hemswortn)	Oliver, G H	Wallace, G. D. (Chislehurst)
House, G.	Paget, R. T	Wallace, H. W. (Walthamstow, E.)
Hubbard, T.	Paling, Will T. (Dewsbury)	Watkins, T. E.
Hudson, J. H. (Ealing, W.)	Pargiter, G. A.	Watson, W. M.
Hughes, Hector (Aberdeen, N.)	Parker, J.	Webb, M. (Bradford, C.)
Hutchinson, H. L. (Rusholme)	Parkin B T.	Weitzman, D.
Hynd, H. (Hackney, C.)	Paton, J. (Norwich)	Wells, W. T. (Walsall)
Hynd, J. B. (Attercliffe)	Pearson, A	West, D. G.
Irving, W. J.	Peart, T. F.	Westwood, Rt. Hon. J.
Janner, B	Piratin, P	White, H. (Derbyshire, N.E.)
Jay, D. P. T.	Plans-Mills, J. F. F.	Whiteley, Rt. Hon. W
Jeger, G. (Winchester)	Poole, Major Cecil (Llchfield)	Wilcock, Group-Capt C. A. B.
Jeger, Dr. S. W. (St. Pancras, S.E.)	Porter E (Warrington)	Wilkes, L.
Jones, Rt. Hon. A. C. (Shipley)	Porter, G. (Leeds)	Wilkins, W. A.
Jones, D. T. (Hartlepools)	Price, M. Philips	Willey, F. T. (Sunderland)
Jones, Elwyn (Plaistow)	Proctor, W. T.	Willey, O G. (Cleveland)
Jones, J. H. (Bolton)	Pryde, D. J.	Williams, D. J. (Neath)
Jones, P. Asterley (Hitchln)	Randall, H. E.	Williams, J. L. (Kelvingrove)
Keenan, W.	Ranger, J.	Williams, Rt. Hon T (Don Valley)
Kenyon, C.	Rankin, J.	Williams, W R. (Heston)
Key, C W.	Rees-Williams, D. R.	Williamson, T.
King, E. M	Reeves, J,	Willis, E.
Kinley, J.	Reid, T. (Swindon)	Wills, Mrs. E. A
Kirby, B. V	Rhodes, H.	Wilmot, Rt. Hon. J
Lang, G.	Richards, R	Wise, Major F. J
Lavers, S.	Robens, A.	Woodburn, A.
Lawson, Rt. Hon. J. J.	Roberts, Goronwy (Caernarvonshire)	Woods, G. S.
Lee, F (Hulme)	Robertson, J. J. (Berwick)	Yates, V. F.
Leonard, W.	Rogers, G. H. R.	Young, Sir R. (Newton)
Leslie, J. R.	Ross, William (Kilmarnock)	Younger, Hon. Kenneth
Lever, N. H.	Reyle, C.	Zilliaeus, K.
Lewis, A. W. J. (Upton)	Sargood, R
Lindgren, G. S.	Scollan, T	TELLERS FOR THE AYES;
Lipton, Lt.-Col. M	Segal, Dr. S.	Mr. Snow and Mr. Popplewell
Logan, D. G	Shackleton, E. A. A.

NOES.
Agnew, Cmdr. P. G.	Harvey, Air-Comdre. A. V.	Osborne, C.
Amory, D. Heathcoat	Headlam, Lieut.-Col. Rt. Hon Sir C.	Peto, Brig. C. H. M
Assheton, Rt. Hon. R	Herbert, Sir A. P.	Pickthorn, K.
Baldwin, A. E.	Hinchingbrooke, Viscount	Pitman, I. J.
Barlow, Sir J.	Hogg, Hon. Q.	Poole, O. B. S. (Oswestry)
Bsamish, Maj. T. V. H	Holmes, Sir J. Stanley (Harwich)	Prescott, Stanley
Bunnett, Sir P.	Hudson, Rt. Hon. R. S. (Southport)	Prior-Palmer, Brig. O.
Boles, Lt.-Col D. G. (Wells)	Hurd, A.	Raikes, H. V.
Boothby, R.	Hutchison, Lt.-Cm. Clark (E'b'rgh W.)	Rayner, Brig, R
Bossom, A C.	Hutchison, Col. J. R. (Glasgow, C.)	Reed, Sir S. (Aylesbury)
Bowen, R	Jarvis, Sir J	Reid, Rt. Hon. J. S. C. (Hillhead)
Boyd-Carpenter, J. A.	Joynson-Hicks, Hon. L. W	Roberts, H. (Handsworth)
Bromley-Davenport, Lt.-Cot. W.	Kerr, Sir J Graham	Roberts, W. (Cumberland, N.)
Buchan-Hepburn, P. G. T.	Kingsmill, Lt.-Col. W H	Ropner, Col. L.
Butcher, H. W.	Lambert, Hon. G,	Ross, Sir R. D. (Londonderry)
Butler, Rt. Hon. R. A. (S'ffr'n W'ld'n)	Lancaster, Col. C. G.	Sanderson, Sir F
Byers, Frank	Langford-Holl, J.	Scott, Lord W.
Channon, H	Legge-Bourke, Maj. E. A H	Shepherd, W S. (Bucklow)
Clarke, Col. R. S.	Lipson, D. L.	Smiles, Lt.-Col. Sir W.
Clifton-Browne, Lt.-Col. G.	Low, Brig. A. R. W.	Snadden, W. M.
Corbett, Lieut.-Col. U. (Ludlow)	Lucas, Major Sir J.	Spearman, A. C. M
Crookshank, Capt. Rt. Hon. H. F. C.	Lucas-Tooth, Sir H	Spence, H. R.
Crosthwaite-Eyre, Col. O. E.	McCallum, Maj. D.	Stoddart-Scott, Col. M
Crowder, Capt. John E.	Macdonald, Sir P. (I of Wight)	Strauss, H. G (English Universities)
Cuthbert, W. N.	Mackeson, Brig. H. R.	Sludholme, H G.
De la Bère, R	McKie, J. H (Galloway)	Sutcliffe, H.
Digby, S. W.	Maclay, Hon. J. S.	Taylor, Vice-Adm. E. A. (P'dd't'n, S.)
Dodds-Parker, A. D	MaoLeod, J.	Thorneycroft, G. E. P. (Monmouth)
Donner, Sqn.-Ldr. P. W	Macpherson, N. (Dumfries)	Thorp, Lt.-Col R. A. F.
Dower, Lt.-Col. A. V. G. (Penrith)	Mailland, Comdr. J. W.	Touche, G. C.
Dower, E. L. G. (Caithness)	Manningham-Buller, R. E.	Turton, R. H.
Drayson, G. B.	Marlowe, A. A. H	Vane, W. M F
Dugdale, Maj. Sir T. (Richmond)	Marples, A. E.	Wadsworth, G.
Elliot Rt. Hon. Walter	Marsden, Capt. A.	Wakefield, Sir W. W.
Erroll, F. J.	Marshall, D (Bodmin)	Walker-Smith, D.
Fraser, Sir I. (Lonsdale)	Marshall S. H. (Sutton)	Wheatley, Colonel M. J.
Fyle, Rt. Hon. Sir D. P. M	Molson, A. H. E.	White, Sir D. (Fareham)
Gage, C.	Moore, Lt.-Col. Sir T.	While, J. B. (Canterbury)
Galbraith, Cmdr. T. D	Morris, Hopkin (Carmarthen)	Williams, C. (Torquay)
Gammans, L. D.	Neven-Spence, Sir B	Winterton, Rt. Hon. Earl
Grant, Lady	Nicholson, G	York, C.
Gridley, Sir A.	Noble, Comdr. A H. P
Hannon, Sir P. (Moseley)	O'Neill, Rt Hon. Sir H	TELLERS FOR THE NOES
Hare, Hon J. H. (Woodbridge)	Orr-Ewing, I. L	Major Conant and
		Malor Ramsay.

Question put accordingly "That this House doth disagree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

Division No. 322.]	AYES.	[9.45 p.m.
Adams, Richard (Balham)	Brooks, T. J. (Rothwell)	Diamond, J
Adams, W. T. (Hammersmith, South)	Brown, George (Belper)	Dobbie, W.
Allen, A. C. (Bosworth)	Brown, T. J. (Ince)	Dodds, N. N.
Allen, Scholefield (Crewe)	Bruce, Maj. D. W. T.	Donovan, T.
Alpass, J. H.	Buchanan, G.	Driberg, T. E. N.
Anderson, F (Whitehaven)	Burden, T. W.	Dugdale, J (W. Bromwich)
Attewell, H. C.	Burke, W A.	Dumpleton, C. W.
Austin, H. Lewis	Champion, A. J.	Durbin, E. F. M.
Awbery, S. S.	Chater, D.	Dye, S.
Ayles, W. H.	Chetwynd, G. R	Ede, Rt. Hon. J. C.
Ayrton Gould, Mrs. B.	Cluse, W. S.	Edwards, Rt. Hon. Sir C. (Bedwellty)
Baird, J.	Cobb, F. A.	Edwards, N. (Caerphilly)
Balfour, A	Cocks, F. S.	Edwards, W. J. (Whilechapel)
Barnes, Rt. Hon A. J.	Coldrick, W	Evans, E. (Lowestoft)
Barstow, P G.	Collick, P.	Evans, John (Ogmore)
Barton, C.	Collins, V. J.	Evans, S. N. (Wednesbury)
Battley, J. R.	Colman, Miss G. M.	Ewart, R.
Bechervaise, A E.	Corbel, Mrs. F K. (Camb' well, N.W.)	Fairhurst, F.
Belcher, J W	Cove, W. G	Farthing, W. J.
Benson, G	Crawley, A.	Fernyhough, E.
Beswick, F.	Daggar, G.	Field, Capt W. J.
Bing, G. H. C.	Daines, P.	Fletcher, E G M. (Islington, E.)
Binns, J.	Davies, Edward (Burslem)	Follick, M.
Blenkinsop, A	Davies, Ernest (Enfield)	Forman, J, C.
Blyton, W. R.	Davies, Harold (Leek)	Foster, W (Wigan)
Bowden, Flg.-Offr. H. W	Davies, Hadyn (St. Pancras, S. W.)	Fraser, T. (Hamilton)
Bowles, F. G. (Nuneaton)	Deer, G.	Freeman, Maj. J. (Watford)
Bramall, E. A.	de Freitas, Geoffrey	Freeman, Peter (Newport)
Brook, D. (Halifax)	Delargy, H, J	Gaitskell, H. T. N.

The House divided: Ayes, 314: Noes, 129.

The House divided: Ayes.314: Noes, 129.

Gallacher, W.	McKay, J. (Wallsend)	Silverman, S. S. (Nelson)
Ganley, Mrs. O S	Mackay, R. W. G. (Hull, N.W.)	Simmons, C. J.
Gibbins, J.	McKinlay, A. S.	Skeffington, A. M.
Gibson, C. W.	Maclean, N. (Govan)	Skinnard, F. W.
Gilzean, A.	McLeavy, F.	Smith, C (Colchester)
Glanville, J. E. (Consett)	MacMillan, M. K. (Western Isles)	Smith, H. N. (Nottingham, S.)
Gooch, E. G.	Macpherson, T. (Romford)	Smith, S. H. (Hull, S. W.)
Goodrich, H. E.	Mainwaring, W. H.	Solley, L. J.
Gordon-Walker, P. C.	Mallalieu, J. P. W.	Sorensen, R. W.
Greenwood, Rt. Hon. A. (Wakefield)	Mann, Mrs. J.	Soskice, Maj. Sir F.
Greenwood, A. W. J. (Heywood)	Manning, C. (Camberwell, N.)	Sparks, J. A.
Grenfell, D. R.	Manning, Mrs. L. (Epping)	Stamford, W.
Grey, C. F.	Marshall, F. (Brightside)	Steele, T.
Grierson, E.	Mathers, G.	Stephen, C.
Griffiths, D. (Rother Valley)	Mayhew, C. P.	Stewart, Michael (Fulham, E.)
Griffiths, Rt. Hon. J. (Llanelly)	Medland, H. M	Strauss, G. R, (Lambeth, N.)
Gunter, R. J.	Mellish, R. J.	Stross, Dr. B.
Haire, John E. (Wycombe)	Mikardo, Ian	Stubbs, A. E.
Hale, Leslie	Millington, Wing-Comdr. E. R.	Swingler, S.
Hall, W. G.	Mitchison, G. R.	Sylvester, G. O.
Hamilton, Lieut.-Col. R.	Monslow, W.	Symonds, A. L.
Hannan, W. (Maryhill)	Moody, A. S.	Taylor, H. B. (Mansfield)
Hardman, D. R.	Morgan, Dr. H. B.	Taylor, R. J. (Morpeth)
Hardy, E. A.	Morley, R.	Taylor, Dr. S. (Barnet)
Harrison, J.	Morris, P (Swansea, W.)	Thomas, D. E. (Aberdare)
Hastings, Dr. Somerville	Morrison, Rt Hon. H. (Lewisham, E.)	Thomas, Ivor (Keighley)
Haworth, J	Moyle, A.	Thomas, I. O. (Wrekin)
Henderson, A. (Kingswinford)	Murray J. D.	Thomas, George (Cardiff)
Henderson, Joseph (Ardwick)	Nally, W.	Thomson, Rt. Hn. G. R. (Ed'b'gh, E.)
Herbison, Miss M.	Naylor, T. E.	Thorneycroft, Harry (Clayton)
Hewitson, Capt. M.	Neal, H. (Claycross)	Thurtle, Ernest
Hobson, C. R.	Nichol, Mrs. M. E. (Bradlord, N.)	Tiffany, S.
Holman, P.	Nioholls, H. R (Stratford)	Timmons, J.
Holmes, H. E. (Hemsworth)	Noel-Baker, Rt. Hon. P J. (Derby)	Titterington M. F.
House, G.	Noel-Buxton, Lady	Tolley, L.
Hubbard, T.	O'Brien, T.	Tomlinson, Rt. Hon G.
Hudson, J. H. (Ealing, W.)	Oldfield, W. H.	Turner-Samuels, M.
Hughes, Hector (Aberdeen, N.)	Oliver, G. H.	Ungoed-Thomas, L.
Hutchinson, H. L. (Rusholme)	Paget, R. T.	Usborne, Henry
Hynd, H. (Hackney, C.)	Paling, Will T. (Dewsbury)	Vernon, Maj. W. F
Hynd, J. B. (Attercliffe)	Pargiter, G. A.	Viant, S. P.
Irving, W. J	Parker, J.	Walker, G. H
Janner, B.	Parkin, B. T.	Wallace, G. D. (Chislehurst)
Jay, D. P. T.	Paton, J. (Norwich)	Wallace, H. W (Walthamstow, E)
Jeger, G (Winchester)	Pearson, A.	Watkins, T. E.
Jeger, Dr. S. W. (St. Pancras, S. E.)	Peart, T. F.	Watson, W. M.
Jones, Rt. Hon. A. C. (Shipley)	Piratln, P.	Webb, M. (Bradford, C)
Jones, D. T. (Hartlepools)	Platts-Mills, J. F. F.	Weitzman, D.
Jones, Elwyn (Plaistow)	Poole, Major Cecil (Lichfield)	Wells, W. T. (Walsall)
Jones, J. H. (Bolton)	Porter E. (Warrington)	West, D. G.
Jones, P. Asterley (Hitchin)	Porter, G. (Leeds)	Westwood, Rt. Hon. J.
Keenan, W.	Price, M. Philips	White, H. (Derbyshire, N.E.)
Kenyon, C.	Proctor, W. T	Whiteley, Rt. Hon. W.
Key, C. W.	Pryde, D. J.	Wilcock, Group-Capt. C. A B
King, E. M.	Randall, H. E	Wilkes, L
Kinley, J.	Ranger, J.	Wilkins, W. A.
Kirby, B. V	Rankin, J.	Willey, F. T. (Sunderland)
Lang, G.	Rees-Williams, D R	Willey, O. G. (Cleveland)
Lavers, S.	Reeves, J.	Williams, D. J. (Neath)
Lawson, Rt Hon. J J	Reid, T. (Swindon)	Williams, J. L (Kelvingrove)
Lee, F. (Hulme)	Rhodes, H	Williams, Rt Hon. T. (Don Valley)
Leonard, W.	Richards, R	Williams, W. R. (Heston)
Leslie, J. R.	Robens, A.	Williamson, T.
Lever, N. H.	Roberts, Goronwy (Caernarvonshire)	Willis, E.
Lewis, A. W. J. (Upton)	Robertson, J. J (Berwick)	Wills, Mrs. E. A
Lewis, J. (Bolton)	Rogers, G. H. R.	Wilmot, Rt Hon J.
Lindgren, G. S.	Ross, William (Kilmarnock)	Wise, Major F J
Lipton, Lt.-Col. M	Royle, C.	Woodburn, A.
Logan, D G.	Sargood, R.	Woods, G. S
Longden, F	Scollan, T	Yales, V. F.
Lyne, A. W	Segal, Dr. S	Young, Sir R. (Newton)
McAdam, W	Shackleion, E A A	Younger, Hon. Kenneth
McAllister, G	Sharp, Granville	Zilliacus, K
McEntee, V. La T	Shawcross, Rt Hn. Sir H (St Helens)
McGhee, H G.	Shurmer, P.	TELLERS FOR THE AYES:
McGovern, J.	Sitkin, Rt. Hon. L.	Mr. Snow and Mr. Popplewell.
Mack, J. D	Silverman, J. (Erdington)

NOES.
Agnew, Cmdr P. G.	Baldwin, A. E	Boles, Lt.-Col D. C. (Wells)
Amory, D. Heathcoat	Barlow, Sir J.	Boothby, R.
Assheton, Rt. Hon R	Beamish, Maj. T. V. H	Bossom, A. C
Astor, Hon. M	Bennett, Sir P.	Bowen, R

Boyd-Carpenter, J A.	Hurd, A.	Poole, O B. S. (Oswestry)
Bromley-Davenport, Lt.[...]	Hutchison, Lt.-Cdr. Clark (Edin'gh, W.)	Prescott, Stanley
Buchan-Hepburn, P G T	Hutchison, Cot J. R. (Glasgow. G.)	Prior-Palmer, Brig. O
Butcher, H. W.	Jarvis, Sir J.	Raikes, H. V.
Buller, Rt. Hon. R A (S'ffr'n W'ld'n)	Joynson-Hicks, Hon. L. W	Rayner, Brig R
Byers, Frank	Kerr, Sir J. Graham	Reed, Sir S. (Aylesbury)
Channon, H.	Kingsmill, Lt.-Col W H	Reid, Rt. Hon. J. S. C. (Hillhead)
Clifton-Browne, Lt.-Col. G.	Lambert, Hon. G.	Roberts, H. (Handsworth)
Corbett, Lieut.-Col. U. (Ludlow.)	Langford-Holt, J.	Roberts, W. (Cumberland, N.)
Crookshank, Capt. Rt. Hon H F C.	Legge-Bourke, Maj. E A H	Ropner, Col. L
Crosthwaite-Eyre, Col. O. E.	Lipson, D. L.	Ross, Sir R. O. (Londonderry)
Crowder, Capt. John E	Low, Brig A R W	Sanderson, Sir F
Cuthbert, W. N.	Lucas, Major Sir J	Scott, Lord W.
De la Bère, R.	Lucas-Tooth, Sir H.	Shepherd, W. S. (Bucklow)
Digby, S. W	McCallum, Maj. D.	Smiles, Lt.-Col. Sir W
Dodds-Parker, A. D	Macdonald, Sir P. (I. of Wight)	Snadden, W. M.
Donner, Sqn.-Ldr. P. W.	Mackeson, Brig H. R.	Spearman, A. C M
Dower, Lt.-Col. A. V. G. (Penrith)	McKie, J. H (Galloway)	Spence, H. R.
Dower, E. L. G. (Caithness)	Maclay, Hon J S	Sloddart-Scott, Col. M
Drayson, G B	MacLeod, J	Strauss, H G (English Universities)
Dugdale, Mai Sir T. (Richmond)	Macpherson, N. (Dumfries)	Studholme, H G
Elliot Rt. Hon Walter	Mailland, Comdr. J W	Sutcliffe, H
Errsll, F. J.	Manningham-Buller, R E	Taylor, Vice-Adm. E. A (P'dd't'n, S)
Fletcher, W (Bury)	Marlowe, A. A H	Thorneycroft, G E P. (Monmouth)
Fraser, Sir I (Lonsdale)	Marples, A. E.	Thorp Lt.-Col. R A F
Fyfe, Rt Hon Sir D P M	Marsden, Capt. A.	Touche, G. C
Gage, C	Marshall, D (Bodmin)	Turton, R. H.
Galbraith, Cmdr T D.	Marshall, S. H (Sutton)	Vane, W M F
Gammans, L. D	Medlicott, F	Wadsworth, G.
George, Lady M Lloyd (Anglesey)	Molson, A. H E	Wakefield, Sir W W
Grant, Lady	Moore, Lt.-Col Sir I	Walker-Smith, D.
Gridley, Sir A	Neven-Spence, Sir B	Wheatley, Colonel M J
Hannon, Sir P (Moseley)	Nicholson, G.	White, Sir D. (Fareham)
Hare, Hon J. H. (Woodbridge)	Noble, Comdr. A H. P	White, J. B. (Canterbury)
Harvey, Air-Comdre. A V	O'Neill, Rt Hon Sir H	Williams, C. (Torquay)
Headlam, Lieut.-Col. Rt Hon Sir C	Orr Ewing, I. L.	Winterton. Rt. Hon. Earl
Herbert, Sir A. P	Osborne, C	York, C.
Hogg, Hon Q	Peto, Brig C H M	TELLERS FOR THE NOES:
Holmes, Sir J. Stanley (Harwich)	Pickthorn, K	Major Conant and
Hudson, Rt Hon. R. S. (Southport)	Pitman, I. J	Major Ramsay.

Lords Amendment: In page 8, line 4, leave out "and Edinburgh" and insert "Edinburgh and Belfast."

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment." —[Mr. G. R. Strauss.]

Mr. C. Williams

I should like to congratulate the Government on having accepted this Amendment It will be seen that this Amendment extends publicity to the Belfast Gazette. In expressing my congratulations, I would at the same time express surprise, in view of the Government's actions in regard to publicity. I should like also to congratulate the Government that, owing to their mismanagement of a previous Amendment, we can do this so beautifully without any waste of time.

Question put, and agreed to

Lords Amendment: In page 9, line 13, leave out from "where" to "abolish" in line 14, and insert "the Commission."

Motion made, and Question "That this House doth disagree with the Lords in the said Amendment," put and agreed to.

Lords Amendment: In page 9, line 19, leave out from "Commission" to end of Clause and insert: the scheme shall include, or, where there is no such scheme, the Minister shall by order make such transitional provisions as to the parties by and against whom, legal proceedings are to be instituted or continued, and such other transitional provisions, if any, as appear to the Commission and the Minister to be expedient.

Motion made, and Question "That this; House doth disagree with the Lords in the said Amendment," put, and agreed to.

Mr. G. R. Strauss

I beg to move. As an Amendment, in lieu thereof, to the words so restored to the Bill, in page 9, to leave out lines 20 to 24, and to insert: shall include such transitional provisions m to the parties by and against whom legal proceedings are to be instituted or continued, and such other transitional provisions, as any, as appear to the Minister, or to the Commission and the Minister, as the case may be, to be expedient. The first part of this Amendment is consequential on the decision which has already been taken by the House in regard to the Executives. This Amendment ensures that an Executive shall carry on when there is some legal case pending for the purposes of that case.

Amendment agreed to.