§ 2.37 p.m.
§ LORD HAILEYMy Lords, I beg to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, having regard to the statement made by them in reply to a Question in this House on 27th February, 1952, they are now prepared to place on a statutory basis the undertaking given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 18th June, 1951, in respect of the relief to be given to former members of the Indian services following on the levy of Indian income tax on the pensions payable to them in this country.]
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMONWEALTH RELATIONS (VISCOUNT SWINTON)My Lords, Her Majesty's Government cannot at present add anything to the answer given by the noble Marquess, my predecessor, to the similar Question by the noble Lord on February 27, 1952. In the meantime, provision will be made in the Estimates and in the Appropriation Act to cover expenditure in 1953–54.
§ LORD HAILEYI am grateful to the noble Viscount for the assurance that provision will be made in the Appropriation Act for the year 1953–54.I know that the noble Viscount himself will sympathise with the anxiety of the pensioners concerned for some definite termination of this longstanding question. Of course, their anxiety does not refer merely to the fulfilment of the Chancellor's undertaking during the next two or three years. There are many who, owing to the early termination of their service in India, have to look forward to drawing a pension for thirty or forty years, and it is natural that they should ask for that kind of security for the future 770 which can be obtained only through an Act of Parliament.
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONMy Lords, I am not quite sure whether those remarks were in the form of an interrogatory on a declaration. I can assure the noble Lord that I share his anxiety and desire that this matter may be finalised, but he knows well that very complex questions are involved, and I think he also knows that they are being considered as quickly as possible.