Lords Sitting of 16 April 1929

Preamble
Reassembling after the Easter Recess, the House met at a quarter past four of the clock, The LORD CHANCELLOR on the Woolsack.
METHODIST CHURCH UNION BILL.
Read 2a.

ARMY AND AIR FORCE (ANNUAL) BILL.
Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
VISCOUNT GAGE: My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend the Duke of Sutherland I beg to move the Second Reading of this Bill. As your Lordships are aware, the current Act expires on the 30th of this month as regards Great Britain and Ireland and the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and therefore it is necessary that this Bill should be passed before the end of this month. There are two technical amendments which the Bill introduces but they involve no important question of principle and are, I think, fully explained in the notes to the clauses. I believe it is not
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usual to discuss this Bill at any great length in this House and I therefore do not propose to say anything more unless any noble Lord desires it.
Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(Viscount Gage.)
LORD PARMOOR: My Lords, I agree with the noble Viscount opposite that this is not a Bill which requires any discussion in this House. I have looked carefully through the proposed amendments, which are very well explained in the Memorandum attached to the Bill and do not involve any question of principle. So far as we are concerned there is no opposition whatever and I think the noble Viscount has adopted the right attitude.
On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.

BASLE TRADING COMPANY.
VISCOUNT TEMPLETOWN: My Lords, I rise to ask His Majesty's Government what is being done to reach a satisfactory settlement of the Basle Company's claims for return of their property in India.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (VISCOUNT PEEL): My Lords, I dare say my noble friend will pardon me if my answer is almost as short as

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the speech which he has delivered, because for some months discussions and conversations have been going on between the Government and the India Office, the Trading Company and the Commonwealth Trust. I cannot assure him at the moment that any very definite results have arisen out of these conversations, but I hope he will appreciate that as the matter is under discussion I am unable at the present moment to make any statement on the subject. I hope, therefore, he will excuse me from giving a more detailed answer at this stage.

THE GOLD COAST.
VISCOUNT TEMPLETOWN: My Lords, I rise to ask His Majesty's Government if they will have the Despatch of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, No. 657, dated 31st July, 1928, issued and circulated as a White Paper.
THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR DOMINION AFFAIRS (THE EARL OF PLYMOUTH): My Lords, there does not, so far as the Government have been able to discover, appear to be any very great demand that this Paper should be issued and circulated, and the Government hardly think there is sufficient reason why that should be done, particularly as this Paper has been issued as a Paper on the Gold Coast and is procurable by those interested in this matter.
VISCOUNT TEMPLETOWN: Of course, I do not question the accuracy of the noble Earl's reply, but my information is that on the Gold Coast not another copy of that Paper can be obtained for love or money. However, I take it from what he says that it is, in fact, procurable.

DEAD SEA SALTS CONCESSION.
VISCOUNT TEMPLETOWN: My Lords, I beg to ask His Majesty's Government whether they have received any recent communication, by cable or otherwise, from the Supreme Moslem Council and the Palestine Arab Executive, prote-
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sting against the choice of Mr. Novomeysky for the Dead Sea concession.
THE EARL OF PLYMOUTH: My Lords, in November, 1927, the Secretary of State for the Colonies received through the High Commissioner for Palestine a letter from the Executive Committee of the Palestine Arab Congress asking that the concession for the extraction of salts from the Dead Sea should not be granted to any company controlled and financed by "Zionist foreign capitalists," but that this undertaking should be kept in the hands of the Palestine and Trans-Jordan Governments and "thus nationalised for the benefit of all inhabitants alike." In reply to that letter it was explained to the Executive Committee of the Congress that the Palestine and Trans-Jordan Governments some months previously had decided in principle to grant the concession to Major Tulloch and Mr. Novomeysky provided that suitable terms and conditions could be agreed upon, and that satisfactory financial guarantees were furnished. It was also pointed out that the extraction of salts from the Dead Sea was not an enterprise which could be properly undertaken by the local Governments, since it was an undertaking of a highly technical and commercial order involving the expenditure of considerable sums of money and the risk of losing that money.
No communication from the Congress or the Supreme Moslem Council has since been received by His Majesty's Government, but on March 18 last both the Executive Council of the Congress and the President of the Supreme Moslem Council addressed telegrams to the Lord Chancellor protesting against the grant of the concession to Mr. Novomeysky and urging the request that the natural resources of the Dead Sea should be developed by the local Governments. These telegrams were acknowledged, but they were not officially answered. Had any reply been sent, it would have been in effect a repetition of that previously given.
VISCOUNT TEMPLETOWN: I am much obliged to the Government for the reply. I must say it is about the limit of shortness.