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Clause 7, page 8, line 43, at end insert:
("(3) Where the Admiralty, the Army Council, or the Air Council are satisfied, on the application of a person in charge of a theatrical performance, that such a firearm as aforesaid is required for the purposes of the performance they may, if they think fit, not only authorise that person to have possession of the firearm but also authorise such other persons as he may select to have possession thereof while taking part in the performance.
In this subsection the expression 'theatrical performance' includes a rehearsal of such a performance and the production of a cinematograph film.").
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Page 9, line 8, at end insert:
("(5) The conditions specified in an authority as aforesaid shall include such conditions as the Admiralty, the Army Council, or the Air Council, having regard to the circumstances of each particular case, think fit to impose for the purpose of securing that the prohibited weapon or prohibited ammunition to which the authority relates will not endanger the public safety or the peace.")
THE EARL OF FEVERSHAMMy Lords, I move that we agree with the Commons Amendments to Clause 7. Clause 7 provides that "continuous firearms," that is machine guns and sub-machine guns, shall be prohibited weapons—that is, that they shall not be manufactured, sold, purchased or possessed without the authority of the Defence Departments. I believe that in connection with certain cinema productions prohibited weapons such as machine guns or sub-machine 194 guns are sometimes used. Under the clause as it originally stood it would have been necessary for each individual actor who uses such a weapon to obtain an authority from one of the Defence Departments to cover the possession of such a weapon. The object of the proposed new subsection (3) is to avoid the necessity of issuing authorities to individual actors, and it is proposed that the Defence Departments should have the power to authorise by a single authority not only the person in charge of the performance to acquire and possess the weapon, but also such actors as he may select to have possession of the weapon while taking part in the actual performance.
§ Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons it the said Amendments.—(The Earl of Feversham.)
§ LORD MARLEYMy Lords, may I ask with regard to that whether ammunition is expressly excluded from this? I can understand that a machine gun may be used in a cinema performance in making pictures, but I cannot sec that they would want ammunition, yet I notice that in the new subsection (5) ammunition appears to be included.
THE EARL OF FEVERSHAMMy Lords, theatrical producers and performers will not be able to obtain ball ammunition unless they are authorised to do so by a firearm certificate granted by a chief officer of police. It is, of course, very unlikely that such an authority will be given to those persons under that category save in the most exceptional circumstances.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.