ADDRESS IN REPLY TO HIS MAJESTY'S MESSAGE. (Hansard, 1 June 1921)

§ EARL CURZON OF KEDLESTON

My Lords, I have now to move to resolve— That the Regulations made by His Majesty in Council under the Emergency 416 Powers Act, 1920, by Order dated the 27th May, 1921, shall continue in force, subject, however, to the provisions of Section 2 (4) of the said Act. In explanation of this Motion a few words only are necessary. The period of one month, for which the Emergency Regulations made on April 30 were enforced, expired last Sunday, and accordingly, at the end of last week, it was necessary for the Government to take steps for their continuance. At a Council held on Friday last the Proclamation of Emergency was reissued, and the Regulations re-enacted without alteration. Parliament has already decided that the emergency created by the cessation of work in coal mines necessitates the exceptional powers conferred by these Regulations, and the circumstances which justified the Regulations when they were last approved at the beginning of May justify their re-enactment now at the beginning of June.

The need for Regulations by which economy can be enforced and measures of rationing introduced in connection with the supply of coal and gas is obvious, and no serious objection has been taken here or elsewhere to any of the Regulations giving the Government power to control services and commodities. With regard to the Regulations which were introduced with a view to meeting any danger of public disorder, and about which one or two questions were asked when this matter came up before, I may say that it has fortunately not so far been found necessary to make much use of them, but a certain number of prosecutions have been undertaken under Regulation 19, and your Lordships will no doubt agree that the powers conferred by this and other Regulations are necessary so long as this unhappy strike continues. I have, therefore, to make the Motion standing in my name.