§ LORD BUCKMASTER had given notice to call attention to the provisions of the Peace Treaties, and to move to resolve, "That the terms of the Treaties appropriating the private property of enemy-subjects shall not apply to sums of £5,000 or less where the owner is either born of British parents or had been resident in this country continuously for twenty-five years before 4th August, 1914."
§ The noble and learned Lord said: My Lords, the wholly unexpected introduction of the important debate which has just taken place puts me in a position of some difficulty. The Motion which stands in my name on the Paper is one that I regard, and I hope your Lordships will regard, as one of very great importance and one that certainly needs the most careful examination and attention. With the utmost anxiety to avoid fatiguing your Lordships with a long speech—I hope I shall not be claining too much for myself when I say that I always try not to fatigue your Lordships—I do not think it would be possible for me to compress what I have to say into a shorter compass than three-quarters of an hour or an hour, because there is a great deal of matter that must be gone into.
§ Two or three noble Lords, quite unsolicited, have expressed to me their anxiety to speak on this matter, and if that be so it would be clearly impossible for any adequate discussion to take place upon this Motion to-night. I know your Lordships have been summoned here this afternoon in the hope and expectation that this matter would be discussed, but if your Lordships are in agreement with me that it would not give to the matter that consideration which it deserves, I would ask permission to postpone it until Thursday of next week, when I hope there will be a better opportunity of discussing it.
THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR AIR (LORD GORELL)My Lords, I am entirely in your Lordships' hands. I quite realise that there has intervened a some-what long discussion on an important matter, and if it is the general feeling of the House I have no objection to the course which the noble and learned Lord proposes to take.
§ Motion postponed until Thursday, April 6.