COMMONS AMENDMENT. (Hansard, 19 July 1938)

LORD ALNESS

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment. This is the clause which deals with nullity, and I am informed that there was very strong feeling in the Scottish Grand Committee against the retention of the clause in the Bill. Its deletion will not in any way affect the main purpose of the Bill, which is to reform the law of divorce, and I may also add that this provision in Clause 4 was not in the original draft of the Bill as I had the honour of introducing it in your Lordships' House. It appeared in the second edition of the Bill which was introduced and passed through your Lordships' House after Mr. Herbert's Bill had gone through. That Bill contained a similar provision to that which I am moving to omit. However, it was obviously the view of the majority of the Scottish members in Grand Committee that this clause should disappear, and in that view, if I may say so, I entirely acquiesce.