§ Mr. Alfred EdwardsI beg leave to present a Petition signed by the Standing Joint Committee of the Royal Automobile Club, the Automobile Association and the Royal Scottish Automobile Club, which are representative organisations of private car and motorcycle owners. This Petition has been signed by more than one million owners and users of private motorcars and motorcycles, and it says that they are very gravely concerned at the abolition of the basic petrol ration, and the effect thereof on the use of motor vehicles in the domestic and economic life of the community:
The Petitioners therefore humbly pray that if, in the opinion of your Honourable House, economies in the use of petrol by private motor vehicles are essential to the wellbeing of the country, the principle of the basic petrol ration be restored forthwith but, as a temporary expedient, on the basis of a 50 per cent. reduction in the scale of allowances which hitherto existed.I have satisfied myself that these signatures have been obtained in a constitutional manner, and that there was no connection in any way with the recent rally of motorists in Hyde Park.Petition to lie upon the Table.