Lords Sitting of 9 May 1935

Preamble
The House met at eleven of the clock, The LORD CHANCELLOR on the Woolsack.

THE ROYAL JUBILEE: ADDRESS TO HIS MAJESTY.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (VISCOUNT HAILSHAM): My Lords, before moving that the House do now adjourn to Westminster Hall for the purpose of presenting an Address to His Majesty, it may be for the convenience of your Lordships if I indicate very briefly the procedure. It is impossible, owing to the brief interval between the hour of the meeting of the House and the hour fixed for the presentation of the Address, to marshal the House in the precedence usually adopted in processions of the House. The time for seating the House is a short one as the doors leading into Westminster Hall have to be closed by 11.40. I would therefore ask the House to observe as far as possible the order indicated in the notice already circulated to your Lordship's by the Clerk of the Parliaments. After the Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition will come members of the Government and ex-Cabinet Ministers, all of whom have had special plans as to the seating arrangements: then the Bishops' Bench, headed by the two Archbishops, and then the House in the order of precedence, Dukes, Marquesses, Earls, Viscounts and Barons. The plans circulated to the House bear letters against the rows of seats allotted for the various ranks, and corresponding letters will be found on the rows of seats in Westminster Hall. I would ask your Lordships to leave the House by the gangways on each side of the Table and as we get into the Peers Lobby to form up in rows of four abreast and to proceed in that order by St. Stephen's Hall to Westminster Hall.
In Westminster Hall I would ask you to divide into two streams, one passing down the centre gangway and one down the side, so that the rows of seats may be filled from either side and the seating accomplished as expeditiously as possible. I have been informed that His Majesty desires that we shall remain
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seated while he delivers his address. Therefore your Lordships will bear in mind that we need not rise for His Majesty's address. When their Majesties have left Westminster Hall the Lord Chancellor will be returning with the Mace to the House. After the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker have left, the Judges' procession will leave the Hall. It will not be necessary for your Lordships as a body to return to this Chamber as there will merely be a formal adjournment during pleasure in order that we may transact our normal business at the usual hour this afternoon. I move that the House do now adjourn to Westminster Hall.
Moved, That the House do now adjourn to Westminster Hall.—(Viscount Hailsham.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
House adjourned to Westminster Hall accordingly, for the purpose of presenting to His Majesty an Address of congratulation in accordance with the Resolution of yesterday. The Commons also assembled in the Hall for a similar purpose.
The Address from the House of Lords, read by the Lord Chancellor (Viscount Sankey), was as follows:
"Most Gracious Majesty,
"We, Your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, beg leave to offer to Your Majesty our most heartfelt congratulations on the completion of the twenty-fifth year of Your Reign. With every one of Your Majesty's subjects, whether within the United Kingdom or in the most distant corners of Your Majesty's Dominions, we give thanks to Almighty God for the blessing and protection bestowed upon Your Majesty during these five and twenty years; and we pray that for many years to come Your Majesty may continue to rule over us in health and strength and happiness.
"This City of Westminster, this Hall wherein we meet, tell the story of the growth through centuries of civil liberty and the rule of law, of that ordered freedom which is the pride and heritage of our race. In comparison with these long centuries, twenty-five years may seem but a short span of time. They have been years of struggle and anxiety as well as of resolute

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achievement. Into them have been crowded the fierce ordeal of the most desolating war in history, the toil of rebuilding the shaken structure of our common life, the slow and arduous endeavour to regain prosperity and to establish peace. Elsewhere Thrones and Constitutions have failed to outlast the strain. Yet in this Realm the development of public rights and liberties has not been arrested but has been made wider and more sure. More truly than any of Your illustrious ancestors Your Majesty rules over a Nation of free citizens. Yet in spite of, nay rather because of, this wide extension of government by the people, the Throne stands more firmly than ever before as the centre of the national life.
"Beyond the seas there have been other, perhaps even greater, changes. During Your Majesty's Reign free institutions have sprung into being and have flourished throughout Your Empire and in Your Parliament of Westminster Your Majesty has marked the growth of Your self-governing Dominions by the declaration of their authentic place in that association which we know as the British Commonwealth of Nations.
"Your Majesty's own personality has made the Throne not merely a symbol but a loved and living reality. For in the Sovereign Your subjects have discerned a man who by simply being himself has commanded their respect and appealed to their hearts. In time of war the standard-bearer of the national spirit, in the anxious years which followed a counsellor wise and steadfast, seeking not Your own but ever mindful of the needs and cares of all Your people, avoiding no hardship and shrinking from no sacrifice, Your Majesty- has called forth a loyalty and love which have given a new meaning to the name of King.
"We venture also to offer our loyal homage and respectful congratulations to Our Gracious Queen, who has shared with Your Majesty the toils and triumphs of these five and twenty years. By her unfailing interest in the lives and homes of the people Her Majesty has won a place of Her own in their affection. When we see gathered round Your Majesties Your
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sons, always and in every part of the world active in the public service, we have a sure confidence that, when this generation has passed and the bright pageantry of this week has become a distant memory, the House of Windsor will still reign over a loyal and united people.
"In no formal manner but from the depth of our hearts we pray—God bless Your Majesty."

HIS MAJESTY'S REPLY.
His Majesty's gracious Speech in reply was as follows:
"My Lords and Members of the House of Commons,
"I thank you from my heart for your loyal Addresses and for the words of devoted affection which you have used in speaking of myself, of the Queen, and of our Family.
"Your presence here to-day, accompanied by the Prime Ministers of the Dominion of Canada, the commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand and the Union of South Africa, gives rise to many memories and many thoughts. The Mother of Parliaments and her children grown to full estate stand now upon equal terms in common allegiance to the Crown. The unity of the British Empire is no longer expressed by the supremacy of the time-honoured Parliament that sits here at Westminster. The Crown is the historic symbol that unites this great family of nations and races scattered over every quarter of the earth.
"The United Kingdom and the Dominions, India, the numerous Colonies and Dependencies embrace such wide varieties of speech, culture and form of government as have never before in the world's history been brought into a Commonwealth of Peace. In these days when fear and preparation for war are again astir in the world let us be thankful that quiet government and peace prevail over so large a part of the earth's surface and that under our flag of freedom so many millions eat their daily bread in far distant lands and climates with none to make them afraid. I especially welcome here to-day representatives of my Indian Empire.
"This, my palace of Westminster in the mighty heart of our Empire, is the very cradle of our envied Parliamentary institutions. Here is the anvil whereon our common law was forged to become the joint inheritance of the United States of America and our own community of peoples.
"Beneath these rafters of mediaeval oak, the silent witnesses of historic tragedies and pageants, we celebrate the present under the spell of the past. It is to me a source of pride and thankfulness that the perfect harmony of our Parliamentary system with our Constitutional Monarchy has survived the shocks that have in recent years destroyed other empires and other liberties.
"Our ancient Constitution ever adaptable to change has, during my Reign, faced and conquered perils of warfare never conceived in earlier days, and has met and satisfied new democratic demands both at home and overseas. The system bequeathed to us by our ancestors, again modified for the needs of a new age, has been found Once more as of old the best way to secure government by the people, freedom for the individual, the ordered strength of the State, and the rule of law over governors and governed alike. The complex forms and balanced spirit of our Constitution were not the discovery of a single era, still less of a single Party or of a single person. They are the slow accretion of centuries, the outcome of patience, tradition and experience constantly finding channels old and new for the impulse towards liberty, justice and social improvement inherent in our people down the ages.
"When my grandmother Queen Victoria, of illustrious memory, rejoiced with her people on the occasion of her two Jubilees she gave thanks for a long period of unbroken prosperity. Such periods cannot always recur. In looking back over the twenty-five years of my Reign the thankfulness that I feel to-day is chiefly for escape from danger greater than ever before threatened our land. I can never forget how the peril from without at once united all Parties, classes, Governments, and races of the Empire. Men and women played their parts; the
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ranks were closed; and, in the issue, strength upheld the free. Let us not in this hour of thanksgiving fail to remember those who gave their lives or who live now maimed or blinded that we might continue to enjoy the blessings of life.
"Through later years our path has led uphill. In the aftermath of war, in a world exhausted by its ordeals and impoverished by its destruction, we set ourselves to resume our normal ways, to recreate the structure of our industry and commerce, and to respond to the urgent desire to improve the conditions of life. We were treading unfamiliar and broken ground, for there had been far-reaching changes, especially in economic conditions. Everywhere a feeling of uncertainty and lack of confidence hung like a shadow over human endeavour. But we have made headway by the earnest good will, prudence and stability of my people, and to-day the country has attained to a measure of industrial success which gives it confidence in the future.
"I am very conscious that these years have brought hardship and often disappointment, and I have been moved with profound admiration for the great-heartedness of my people and for the steadfast fortitude and unbending will to overcome which they have ever shown in their anxieties. I sympathise deeply with those who have endured the sadness and burden of unemployment. It is a source of comfort to me to feel that from these times of trial there has grown up throughout our community a stronger feeling of fellowship one with another.
"I have been blessed in all my work in having beside me my dear Wife, of whom you have spoken so kindly.
"I give thanks to Almighty God Who has thus far sustained me and my people, and I pray that we may continue to pursue the cause of freedom and progress in a spirit of peace, tolerance and understanding."
House adjourned to the Chamber of Parliament.
House adjourned during pleasure.
House resumed at a quarter past four of the clock, the LORD CHANCELLOR on the Woolsack.
The Viscount Portman—Sat first in Parliament after the death of his father.

THE ADDRESS TO HIS MAJESTY.
THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT SANKEY): My Lords, I have to acquaint your Lordships that, in pursuance of the Resolution of the House, I presented to His Majesty an Address on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of His Reign and His Majesty was pleased to make a most gracious reply.
BOURNEMOUTH GAS AND WATER BILL. [H.L.]
Read 2a.
GLAMORGANSHIRE CANAL COMPANY BILL.
Read 2a, and committed.
BECKENHAM URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL BILL.
Read 2a, and committed: the Committee to be proposed by the Committee of Selection.
LONDON MIDLAND AND SCOTTISH RAILWAY BILL.
Read 2a, and committed: the Committee to be proposed by the Committee of Selection.
SEVERN NAVIGATION BILL. [H.L.]
Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
EXETER CORPORATION BILL. [H.L.]
Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
FRIMLEY AND FARNBOROUGH DISTRICT WATER BILL. [H.L.]
Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
STOKE-ON-TRENT CORPORATION BILL. [H.L.]
Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
GLOUCESTER CORPORATION BILL. [H.L.]
Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
COUNTERFEIT CURRENCY (CON- VENTION) BILL. [H.L.]
House in Committee (according to Order): Bill reported without amendment.
VAGRANCY BILL.
Read 3a (according to Order), and passed.
THE HIGHWAY CODE.
Laid before the House (pursuant to Act) for affirmative Resolution, and ordered to lie on the Table.

HARROGATE ELECTRICITY EXTEN- SION ORDER, 1935.
Special Order in respect of the City of Ripon, the rural district of Ripon in the West Riding of the County of York, and part of the rural district of Wath in the North Riding of the County of York:
Laid before the House (pursuant to Act) for affirmative Resolution and referred to the Special Orders Committee.
House adjourned at twenty minutes past four o'clock.