§ Order of the Day for the House to be put into Committee read.
§ Moved, That the House do now resolve itself into Committee.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.
§ House in Committee accordingly:
§ [The EARL OF ONSLOW in the Chair.]
§ Clause 1 agreed to.
649§ Clause 2:
§ Vice-President of Court of Appeal.
§
2.—(1) Subsection (4) of Section six of the principal Act shall have effect as if at the end thereof there were inserted the words following, that is to say—
and may appoint to be Vice-President of that Court one of the Lords Justices of Appeal who shall preside when sitting and acting in any Division of the Court of Appeal if no ex officio Judge of that Court is sitting in that Division.
§ (2) For the purposes of giving effect to the provisions of the last foregoing subsection the amendments specified in the second column of the Schedule to this Act shall be made in the provisions of the principal Act specified in the first column of that Schedule.
§
THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT SANKEY) moved, to add to the clause:
(3) The provisions of this section shall not affect the persons holding office as Lords Justices of Appeal at the date of the passing of this Act and accordingly those persons shall have rank and precedence in all respects us if this Act had not been passed.
The noble and learned Viscount said: Your Lordships will remember that a difficulty arose with regard to the seniority of the present Lords Justices of Appeal if Clause 2 of this Bill remained as drafted. We were greatly indebted for a satisfactory solution of this difficulty to a suggestion made by the noble Marquess, Lord Reading, and I promised to put down an Amendment to secure the desired result. This is the Amendment which I am now proposing for your Lordships' acceptance. May I be permitted to add that it is a very happy ending, and one which gives me certainly great personal pleasure, that the names of the noble Marquess, Lord Reading, a former Lord Chief Justice, to whom we are so much indebted, and of Lord Howart, the present Lord Chief Justice, are coupled with my name in support of and in putting down the Amendment?
§
Amendment moved—
Page 2, line 39, at end insert the said new subsection.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
650§ Clause 2, as amended, agreed to.
§ Remaining clauses agreed to.
§ LORD MERRIVALEMy Lords, may I ask, in view of the urgent necessity of this Bill, whether it cannot be passed through its remaining stages to-morrow? The adjournment is on Friday, and if the Bill is passed through its remaining stages here to-morrow it can be sent to the other place in time.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORI am much obliged to the noble Lord. We propose to do as he suggests, and I hope the Bill will be sent to the House of Commons by Friday.