§ 2.35 p.m.
§ THE LORD PRIVY SEAL (VISCOUNT ADDISON)My Lords, I have the honour to present a Message from the King signed with his own hand. His Majesty's Message is as follows:
"The Emergency Powers Act, 1920, having enacted that if it appears to His Majesty that any action has been taken or is immediately threatened by any persons or body of persons of such a nature and on so extensive a scale as to be calculated by interfering with the supply and distribution of food, water, fuel, light or with the means of locomotion, to deprive the community, or any substantial portion of the community, of the essentials of life, His Majesty may, by proclamation, declare that a state of emergency exists: and the cessation of work in certain sections of the dock industry having, in His Majesty's opinion, constituted a state of emergency within the meaning of the said Act:
His Majesty has deemed it proper, by proclamation made in pursuance of the said Act and dated the twenty-eighth day of June, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, to declare that a state of emergency exists."