§ Order of the Day for the Third Reading read.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT SANKEY)My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a third time.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 3a.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ On Question, Bill read 3a.
§ Proof and effect of foreign, Dominion and Colonial registers and certain official certificates.
§ (4) In this section the expression country "means a Dominion, a British
488§ liberties, because for a long time it has not been exercised. The man who will declare that occasion for its exercise will never arise in the future is bolder than I care to be. Unless your Lordships are satisfied in your minds that it is right to take away from these people a right which they would otherwise enjoy if they came over here, you will support this Amendment, and I must press it to a Division.
§ On Question, Whether Subsection (3) shall stand part of the clause?
§ Their Lordships divided:—Contents, 14; Not-Contents, 8.
§ I Colony or Protectorate, a foreign country, a colony or protectorate of a foreign country, or any mandated territory:
§ Provided that where a part of a country is under both a local and a central Legislature, an Order under this section may he made as well with respect to that part, as with respect to all the parts under that central Legislature.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR. moved, in subsection (4), after "Dominion," to insert "the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands." The noble and learned Viscount said: My Lords, I am going to ask your Lordships to make one small Amendment to this Bill. You will remember that the Bill deals with a very technical matter—namely, the proof of certain documents made in our Dominions, in our Colonies and in foreign places. By a small drafting mistake the power of extending Clause 1 to the rest of the Empire does not apply to the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. The 489 earlier draft did apply, but when subsection (4) was redrafted to meet the views of my right hon. friend the Secretary of State for the Colonies the new wording failed to cover the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The omission has, fortunately, been discovered by my right hon. friend the Secretary of State for Home Affairs. These Islands are included in the Evidence Act, 1851, under which judgments are admissible in evidence both ways, but unfortunately documents such as birth certificates are only admissible one way. For example, a Jersey birth certificate is not evidence in the United Kingdom. There is, therefore, a point of substance in making the clause applicable to the Islands. The proposed Amendment will rectify the omission. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 3, line 7, after ("Dominion") insert ("the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands").—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.