HC Deb 28 April 1952 vol 499 cc1182-3

Lords Amendment: In page 14, line 47, at end, insert new Clause "A": For the purpose of—

  1. (a)removing from the Army Act references (whether express or implied) to the volunteers; and
  2. (b)removing from that Act references (whether express or implied) to the militia and securing uniformity of language as respects references to the army reserve;
the sections of that Act specified in the first column of the Second Schedule to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendments respectively specified in relation thereto in the second column of that Schedule.

Mr. Head

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

Hon. Members will recall it was very properly suggested that references to volunteers and militia should be removed from the Army Act as both these terms were now out of date. They were inserted at an earlier stage, although I am aware that they form a very small part of the anomalies which are contained in the Act. They were perhaps some of the fortunate few who were put in as a result—I should like to acknowledge the fact—of representations made by hon. Members opposite.

I hope that the atmosphere engendered over the last Amendment will not in any way suggest that I am trying to produce a climate in which, in any way, the success of the Select Committee will be vitiated. Nobody is more anxious than I that it should succeed, and I am quite prepared to pay tribute to the considerable research work done by hon. Members opposite. But I am not prepared to make the remark which the hon. and learned and grinning Gentleman the Member for Northampton (Mr. Paget) knows full well that neither he nor I believe, for all his synthetic rage.

On this occasion, I pay tribute to the hon. and learned Member for Hornchurch (Mr. Bing), who, by his great research in the Library, drew up this Amendment and presented it to the House.

Mr. Bing

Since it was my original Amendment, perhaps the House will allow me a word. The right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for War, saw fit to make, on an earlier Amendment, a statement that referred to Napoleon, which implied that I, at any rate in such an Amendment as I moved, had no external aid. The implication was that the big battalions were on his side and that he had some external aid as well. Against both those forces, I like to take a modest pride that we were able to secure this Amendment.

Under these circumstances I am glad to see that the right hon. Gentleman has now seen fit to have had put in, in another place, a Clause making sense of the Schedule, instead of being content with the Schedule as it was.