HC Deb 30 July 1951 vol 491 c1099

Lords Amendment: In page 69, line 24, leave out "Korea" and insert: the Korean operations continuing at the passing of this Act or in other operations designated for the purposes of this sub-paragraph by His Majesty by Order in Council

Mr. Wyatt

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

The purpose of this Amendment and a further Amendment in page 70, line 3, is simple. It is that if in future there should be another occurrence similar to that in Korea, we should be able by Order in Council to extend the provisions of the Bill.

Mr. Manningham-Buller

This is an Amendment which at first reading is, perhaps, gloomy in character, as it appears to envisage the possibility of other operations. I am sure there is a good case for it, as this is not meant to be a Bill giving only temporary protection to Service men outside the country. If it were only a Bill of limited duration and only likely to last for a short time, coming to an end with what we hope will be a speedy termination to hostilities in Korea, then clearly the Bill should be limited to Korea and nothing else, but now one must realise that there is a possibility of operations in other fields. We hope that possibility will not arise, but to avoid the necessity of introducing another Bill to extend this Bill to those operations, it is necessary to make some Amendment of this kind.

I think I am right in saying that this was yet another Amendment to the Bill suggested by Members of the Conservative Party in another place, and I hope I shall not be out of order in expressing our thanks to the hon. Gentlemen opposite who have been responsible for this Bill for the way in which they have met so many of the points that we have raised and so many of the points which have been raised in another place. It will be agreed that they have done much to improve this Bill. This Bill has passed through this House and another place in a very short space of time, and owing to the efforts made, it has been much improved since its original introduction.

Question put, and agreed to.

Remaining Lords Amendments agreed to. [Several with Special Entries.]