Sitting of 13 February 1947

Preamble
The House met at Half past Two o'Clock
PRAYERS
[Mr. SPEAKER in the Chair]
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
  HOUSING

    Excessive Rents (Recovery)
    Mr. William Shepherdasked the Minister of Health what arrangements exist under his regulations for the reclaiming of back rent when rent tribunals decide that an excessive amount has been charged.
    The Minister of Health (Mr. Aneurin Bevan): None, Sir. The Furnished Houses (Rent Control) Act, 1946, under which these tribunals are set up, does not authorise the reclaiming of back rent.
    Mr. Shepherd: Would the Minister consider it desirable to make provisions where gross overcharges are involved?
    Mr. Bevan: This was discussed when the Bill was before the House, but as there is no legal way of knowing what amount of back rent would be involved, that cannot he done.

    Condemned Houses
    Mr. W. Shepherdasked the Minister of Health the number of people now living in houses which have actually been condemned, and the number living in houses which would be condemned if the normal standards were being observed.
    Mr. Bevan: The information is not available, but of the 480,000 houses in England and Wales included in prewar slum clearance programmes some 98,000 are. still in existence and occupied.
    Mr. Shepherd: Is the Minister able to say when he will remove these houses and rehouse the people?
    Mr. Bevan: These slums accumulated before the war, but they will not exist as long after the war they did before the war
    Mr. R. S. Hudson: May I ask whether these houses are included in the Minister's estimate of 750,000 houses required to meet immediate needs?
    Mr. Bevan: No, Sir.
    Mr. Alpass: Is the Minister aware that in my constituency there are large numbers of persons living in houses which were condemned 40 years ago?
    Mr. Bevan indicated assent.
    Mr. David Eccles: Is the Minister aware that a lot of these condemned houses need some first-aid repairs, and that it would be a reasonable use of materials and labour to make arrangements for those first-aid repairs to be done? At present they cannot be done.
    Mr. Bevan: I am very well aware that these houses have needed first-aid repairs for very many years, but this House is not a confessional.

    Cast-iron Components
    Mr. Bossomasked the Minister of Health to what extent builders are held up due to the inability to obtain the cast-iron ingredients required in their housing programme.
    Mr. Bevan: I have no precise information as to the numbers of cases. Supplies of certain cast-iron components still fall short of requirements, but articles in various alternative materials are increasingly available and have been recommended to housing authorities.
    Mr. Bossom: Could the Minister give a list of those in the OFFICIAL REPORT tomorrow?
    Mr. Bevan: Tomorrow?
    Mr. Bossom: Yes, in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
    Mr. Bevan: It would be very difficult to extract these this afternoon, but, if we have an opportunity of discussing the housing programme we will be able to give the further particulars needed.
    Mr. Bossom: Would the Minister consider sending me the instructions he has sent to the public authorities?
    Mr. Bevan: Certainly, Sir

    Wall Ties
    Mr. Bossomasked the Minister of Health to what extent local authorities have been authorised to permit the use of galvanised wire as wall ties in housing work; and whether the usual wall ties are available or in short supply.
    Mr. Bevan: Local authorities have been instructed to specify wall ties in accordance with British Standard 1243/45 for their housing work, and this permits the use of zinc-coated wire ties. No shortages of the standard types of wall tie have been reported to me.
    Mr. Bossom: Is the Minister aware that only yesterday the Parliamentary Secretary admitted that there was a shortage of these very items?
    Mr. Bevan: Where? Not at the moment.

    Temporary Houses (Dampness)
    Mr. Stanley Prescottasked the Minister of Health what complaints he has received regarding dampness in recently-erected prefabricated houses; and what action has been taken.
    Mr. Bevan: Some complaints have been received from tenants of recently-erected temporary houses. They are found to be due in some cases to the tenant's failure to observe the official advice for the avoidance of condensation. Where remedial measures are necessary, they have been undertaken.
    Mr. Prescott: Is the Minister aware that in many instances in the case of the newly-erected prefabricated houses in Bolton there have been justifiable complaints of very great dampness, and can he say whether the cause was as indicated in his answer or was due to other factors?
    Mr. Bevan: Even traditional houses in a climate like this suffer from condensation. If the people occupying these prefabricated houses just managed to open the windows for a little while during the day, condensation would be avoided. Where there are structural defects, we are having them remedied.

    Midwives
    Mr. Kingasked the Minister of Health whether housing authorities have power to allocate living accommodation to midwives on new housing estates; whether he is aware that the shortage of midwives
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    and district nurses in Cornwall is being aggravated by lack of accommodation; and whether he will encourage local authorities to give them some degree of priority.
    Mr. Bevan: Yes, Sir, I am sending my hon. Friend a copy of a circular dated 8th May which was sent to local authorities on this subject.
    Mr. Beechman: Will the Minister make arrangements for a greater use of local builders and local materials, especially in remote rural areas, where the services of district nurses and midwives are so badly needed?
    Mr. Bevan: I can hardly see the relevance of that observation to the Question on the Paper. We are making provision which will result in more accommodation for midwives and, where it is possible to use local materials, they are being used, but it is always a slower rate of building.
    Mr. King: Is the Minister aware that provision for midwives is a service which may reasonably be described as vital?
    Mr. Bevan: Yes, Sir.

    Radcliffe-on-Trent
    Mr. S. Shephardasked the Minister of Health if he is aware that, although a compulsory purchase order in respect of land at Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, was confirmed on 12th March, 1946, tenders for the building of houses have not yet been advertised; and what steps he proposes to take to push forward housing development in this area.
    Mr. Bevan: Yes, Sir. The council are about to invite tenders for 40 houses.
    Mr. Shephard: Can the right hon. Gentleman say where the blame for this delay lies? The people of Radcliffe-onTrent believe that it is his Ministry; can he refute that or not?
    Mr. Bevan: I am not aware that in this matter there has been any delay on the part of the Ministry, but if the hon. Gentleman will look at the Housing Returns, he will see that there are far more houses in tender than the building industry will be able to manage, and therefore the blame cannot be put on the administration.
    Mr. Shephard: But not in this particular village.

    Hutted Camps
    Mr. John Morrisonasked the Minister of Health how many families are accommodated in converted Nissen Service huts; and what is the average rent charged.
    Mr. Bevan: On 31st January approximately 12,280 families were accommodated in hutted camps under the control of local authorities, but I cannot say how many huts in those camps are converted huts, or what rents are charged for such huts.
    Mr. Martin Lindsay: Does the Minister appreciate that he is asking local authorities to levy an average rent of 7s. 6d. a family, which is quite incomparable with the amount of facilities that they get in these circumstances?
    Mr. Bevan: The average rent is not the same as the particular rent. The local authorities in these cases have charged the rent which they consider to be reasonable in the circumstances. If the hon. Member has instances of unreasonable rents being charged, and he will let me know, I will inquire into them.
    Mr. Lindsay: But is it not a fact that the Minister insists on an average of 7s. 6d. a family?
    Mr. Bevan: It may be reasonable that in some instances more should be charged, but if there are instances of excessive charges, I will have them inquired into.
    Mr. Quintin Hogg: Is the right hon. Gentleman trying to withhold information from the House or assisting us to learn the truth?

    Squatters (Rents)
    Mr. M. Lindsayasked the Minister of Health whether he will reduce the rental of 7s. 6d. per week required of squatting families, in view of the discomfort that many of them are living in.
    Mr. Bevan: These rents are fixed by the local authorities managing the camps. If the hon. Member has any particular case of hardship in mind I will make inquiries.
    Mr. R. S. Hudson: Has the right hon. Gentleman issued any instruction or circular to local authorities giving them directions?
    Mr. Bevan: Yes, Sir.
    Mr. Hudson: Will he be kind enough to put a copy in the Library?
    Mr. Bevan: Certainly, Sir.
    Mr. Eccles: Is it not a fact that the right hon. Gentleman has told certain local authorities, that the rent should cover the costs of the services provided? If that is so, is he aware that, working on that basis, the Calne and Chippenham Rural District Council had to charge the squatters at Hardenhuish Camp 12s. a week for huts in which there was only one window and no decent accommodation at all?
    Mr. Bevan: I will certainly make inquiries into those cases if the hon. Member will let me have details.
    Mr. James Glanville: Is it not a fact that if hon. Members opposite had built as many houses after the first world war as the Labour Government have built, squatting would never have occurred?

    Requisition, Exeter
    Mr. Heathcoat Amoryasked the Minister of Health on what grounds the appeal of Mrs. French against the requisitioning by the Exeter City Council of her house, 4 Wrentham Estate, Exeter, was rejected by his Department, seeing that this house was never untenanted, that it was only unoccupied for 16 hours and was not requisitioned during that period; and whether he will take immediate steps to have the requisitioning order terminated.
    Mr. Bevan: I am informed that the house was vacant when it was requisitioned by the city council for urgent housing needs, and has in fact been let by them to a building operative with four children. In all the circumstances I do not think I should be justified in reversing the decision.
    Mr. Amory: Is it not a fact that two weeks' notice should be given in these cases before requisitioning, as stated in the Ministry of Health's Circular No. 138, and as this does not seem to have been done in this case, will the Minister look into the matter again if I send him further information?
    Mr. Bevan: I will certainly have it inquired into.

    Rent Control, Paddington
    Captain Fieldasked the Minister of Health whether he has considered a communication from the Paddington

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    Borough Council regarding the Rent Restrictions (Furnished Premises) Act, 1945, and what was his reply.
    Mr. Bevan: Yes, Sir. I am sending my hon. and gallant Friend a copy of my reply.

    Tenders and Costs
    Mr. Derek Walker-Smithasked the Minister of Health whether it has been possible to assess, in respect of local authority houses, the average amount by which the final cost exceeds, or is likely to exceed, the approved tender prices; and what is the amount per house and per superficial foot.
    Mr. Bevan: I regret that information is not yet available upon which such an assessment could be made.
    Mr. Walker-Smith: Could the right hon. Gentleman say when he expects to get this information, which is of vital concern to the country in assessing the real cost of houses today?
    Mr. Bevan: This will probably emerge when we are discussing the subject with the local authorities, and then we shall have much more precise information.
    Mr. Walker-Smithasked the Minister of Health the average price per superficial foot of approved tenders for local authority houses, assessed at the latest convenient date.
    Mr. Bevan: I would refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Wallasey (Mr. Marples) on 18th July last, of which I am sending him a copy.
    Mr. Walker-Smith: Is the House not entitled to know what these figures are, in order that they can see two things; first, how far the approved tender price has risen since the right hon. Gentleman assumed his present office, and, second, how far the actual cost of houses is above the approved tender price?
    Mr. Bevan: The average price of tenders would be misleading, because circumstances vary in different parts of the country. It is easy to obtain from the reports of local authorities what is the level of their tenders in their particular areas Averaging the tenders would not contain any significant information. Furthermore, I do not believe it is in the interests
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    of the nation at the moment that we should state this figure, because building contractors would have a tendency to make it a floor, and not a ceiling.
    Mr. Walker-Smith: Is it not a fact that the right hon. Gentleman's secrecy is far more motivated by a desire to conceal the failure of his own policy in this regard. than by the national interest?

    Agricultural Workers
    Mr. J. Morrisonasked the Minister of Health if, in publishing future figures of new houses completed, he will give totals of those occupied by agricultural workers.
    Mr. Bevan: Yes, Sir.
    Mr. Morrison: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that unless the ratio of new houses in agricultural districts is increased considerably, it is a very poor lookout for agricultural areas?
    Mr. Bevan: It is a very much rosier outlook than they have ever had.
    Mr. M. Lindsay: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that so little confidence have the people in the Government building houses at all, that a constituent of mine has already entered his daughter's name for a house, although the daughter is only three years of age?
    Mr. Bevan: The hon. Member's presence in this House is an indication of the intelligence of some of his constituents.

    Under-Occupied Premises
    Mr. George Wallaceasked the Minister of Health if he will give powers to local authorities enabling them to requisition parts of occupied properties not fully utilised as living accommodation.
    Mr. Bevan: No, Sir, but I am prepared to consider making a special delegation of my requisitioning powers in appropriate cases in respect of premises which are seriously under-occupied.
    Mr. Wallace: Would my right hon. Friend explain if this provision will apply to rooms which are kept absolutely bare of furniture and are not utilised to any degree?
    Mr. Bevan: No, it is necessary that the house should be proved to be under-occupied, but it is not desired to make

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    unnecessary hardship by putting in some families on top of other families.

    Shepperton
    Mr. J. H. Hareasked the Minister of Health the causes for the delay in the erection of houses on the Rose Acre Estate, Shepperton.
    Mr. Bevan: I am not aware of delay in the erection of the 12 houses for which licences were issued.
    Mr. Hare: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the foundations of many of these 12 houses have already been completed, and that they are now overgrown with weeds? In addition to that there are materials available on the site, and if I give him the information, will he please undertake to look into the matter, and see why progress has not been made?
    Mr. Bevan: The foundations of a good many houses started are overgrown with snow. If the hon. Member can see the weeds at the present time, he is very lucky.

    Homeless Families (Public Assistance)
    Mr. Sparksasked the Minister of Health if he will give a direction to the appropriate authorities that homeless families admitted to public assistance institutions shall not be regarded as destitute persons, and so treated, but that a family shall be accommodated together, and not separated.
    Mr. Bevan: I have no power to issue such a direction. If my hon. Friend will give me particulars of any case in which a family was needlessly separated, I shall be glad to make local inquiries into it.
    Mr. Sparks: Is my right hon. Friend aware that I have already submitted cases to his Department? Is he also aware of the anxiety these families suffer when, in addition to being evicted, they have to degrade themselves to the status of paupers before they can obtain accommodation?
    Mr. Bevan: I am indeed very anxious to avoid hardship and humiliation of this kind.
    Mr. Wallace: Is my right hon. Friend aware that some public assistance autho-
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    rities will not proceed in these matters because they say that a man earning a decent wage is not in fact destitute, yet these people are unable to get any accommodation?
    Mr. Bevan: A public assistance authority is not entitled to refuse assistance to people in necessitous circumstances of that sort.
    Mr. Lipson: On whose authority do the families go to the public assistance authority?
    Mr. Bevan: I suppose it sometimes happens, if there is an eviction and no alternative accommodation, that it is physically difficult to accommodate the family together in a building, but that ought always to be temporary.

    Rural Housing (Report)
    Mr. Amoryasked the Minister of Health when he expects to publish the Report on Rural Housing from the Central Housing Advisory Committee.
    Mr. Bevan: It is expected that the Report will be published towards the end of the month.
    Mr. Amory: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the delay in bringing this forward is already leaving people in the countryside with the feeling that he does not mean business?
    Mr. Bevan: The delay in making the report has had no effect at all on the position in the countryside, because, as the hon. Member knows, there is no possibility whatever of legislation this Session.

  WATER SUPPLIES

    Broadwell Grove Camp
    Mr. Dodds-Parkerasked the Minister of Health what arrangements he is making to take over from the Service Department responsible the water supply at Broadwell Grove Camp in order to make it available for general purposes in the area as well as to the camp.
    Mr. Bevan: I am informed that the supply can be transferred to the Witney Rural District Council and I am communicating with them as to the terms on which it can be acquired.

    Bingham
    Mr. Sidney Shephardasked the Minister of Health what progress has been made in the negotiations between the Nottingham Corporation and the Bingham Rural District Council for the provision of piped water in the rural district of Bingham.
    Mr. Bevan: I am informed that agreement has been reached between the two authorities for the provision by the corporation of piped water over the rural district and that the details of the scheme are now being prepared.

    Luddenham, Kent
    Mr. Percy Wellsasked the Minister of Health when a decision regarding a water supply to the village of Luddenham, near Faversham, which has been awaited for many months, can be expected.
    Mr. Bevan: The scheme has not yet been formally submitted to me. I understand that the council are awaiting the observations of the Kent County Council, who are considering the question next week.
    Mr. Wells: Is my right hon. Friend aware that at a recent meeting of the Luddenham District Council it was reported that he was responsible for holding up this scheme?
    Mr. Bevan: I would not be surprised at all.

  LOCAL GOVERNMENT

    Barrow Council (Committee Membership)
    Sir Ian Fraserasked the Minister of Health under what authority the Barrow Town Council removed by vote Alderman J. W. Herdman and Councillor J L. Best from all committees of the council on account of their political views; and if he will hold an inquiry into the grounds of this action.
    Mr. Bevan: Local authorities have full discretion in appointing and removing members from their committees and I have no power to intervene.
    Sir I. Fraser: Would the right hon. Gentleman discourage this tendency which, if left unchecked, would lead to one party only in local government?
    Mr. Bevan: I have no power at all to intervene in a matter of this sort. Local authorities have full power.
    Mr. Hogg: Can the right hon. Gentleman say to what party the majority who excluded these two gentlemen belong?
    Mr. Bevan: As I have no power whatever to intervene in this matter, I have no interest in it.
    Mr. Hogg: Does the right hon. man know?
    Mr. Godfrey Nicholson: Does the Minister think he would exceed his duty if he expressed his opinion in this House that he regretted these acts?
    Mr. Bevan: Hon. Members are continually urging the Minister of Health to interfere with the prerogatives of local authorities.

    Civil Building Control (Expenses)
    Commander Maitlandasked the Minister of Health (1) what action he proposes to take to repay local authorities costs incurred by them in connection with the licensing of civil building;
    (2) whether he will consider repaying the expenses of local authorities incurred by them when their own officials or employees carry out investigations and the presentation of cases in court, in connection with Ministry of Health Circular 8/47, dated 20th January.
    Mr. Bevan: The necessary work which local authorities are carrying out is closely linked with the execution of their housing duties and, after consultation with the associations of local authorities, I think that the arrangements for reimbursement which are set out in Circular 8/47 are appropriate to the circumstances.
    Commander Maitland: But does not the right hon. Gentleman think that, now local authorities' powers are being progressively reduced and their expenses progressively increased, this is a great pity and that the Ministry ought to pay for what they want done?
    Mr. Bevan: The financial relations between the local authorities and the Exchequer will be dealt with in the revised block grant, and I advise the hon. and gallant Gentleman to await its publication.
    Commander Maitland: Can the Minister say whether this particular item will be included in the block grant?
    Mr. Bevan: No particular item is included in the block grant. The block grant is designed to divide the financial burden between the rates and the Exchequer.

    Boundary Commission (Consultations)
    Commander Maitlandasked the Minister of Health if he will take steps to ensure that county A.E. Cs. are consulted by the Boundary Commission, who are now considering the rearrangement of local government boundaries.
    Mr. Bevan: The Local Government (Boundary Commission) Regulations, 1945, leave entirely to the discretion of the Boundary Commission the question of the bodies with whom they will consult. I will, however, bring to the notice of the Commission the suggestion made by the hon. and gallant Member.

    C.W.S. Bank (Deposit Rates)
    Brigadier Mackesonasked the Minister of Health what deposit rates have been paid by the Co-operative Wholesale Society bank to local authorities during the past three years; and what increases or decreases there have been in the rates concerned.
    Mr. Bevan: The terms on which a local authority's moneys are deposited with its bankers are a matter for arrangement between the parties concerned, and I have no information on the point raised by the hon. and gallant Member.
    Mr. H. Hynd: Will my right hon. Friend issue instructions to all local authorities that, for the financial benefit of the ratepayers, they should bank with the C. W. S.?
    Captain Crookshank: While considering that point, will the right hon. Gentleman consult the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and see if his policy is the same as that enunciated by his right hon. Friend?

    POPULATION (ROYAL COMMISSION)
    Mr. Randallasked the Minister of Health when he expects to receive the
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    Report of the Royal Commission on Population Problems; and if evidence and submissions can still be forwarded.
    Mr. Bevan: I am informed that the Royal Commission on Population hope to complete their Report this year. They have now received all the evidence which they invited, but they will be pleased to consider any further evidence submitted to them.

  PUBLIC HEALTH

    Hearing Aids (Elderly Persons)
    Sir Robert Youngasked the Minister of Health whether old people who are not National Health Insurance pensioners are entitled to hearing-aid hand sets or other similar devices; and, if so, under what conditions will these be supplied, regarding use, cost and return.
    Mr. Bevan: No, Sir, not until the National Health Service comes into operation. Meanwhile, public assistance authorities have power to help the necessitous deaf, and blind welfare authorities the blind deaf.

    Lunacy (Certification)
    Mr. W. J. Brownasked the Minister of Health why, while normally the signatures of two doctors are necessary to certify that a person is insane, in the case of persons in public institutions one certificate is held to suffice; and whether he will ensure that the occupant of a public institution is not worse situated in this respect than the ordinary citizen.
    Mr. Bevan: The number of medical certificates required under the Lunacy Act is determined not by the nature of the institution to which the patient is admitted but by the Section of the Act under which proceedings are taken. The Lunacy Act has, however, been amended by the National Health Service Act, and when this comes into operation the procedure involving the use of two certificates, which hitherto has applied only in the case of private patients, will be available in all cases if the relatives desire to avail themselves of it.
    Lieut.-Colonel Sir Thomas Moore: How many doctors are required to certify the Government of the right hon. Gentleman as insane?

    Tuberculous Meningitis
    Dr. Stephen Taylorasked the Minister of Health how many persons were certified as dying from tuberculous meningitis during the latest 12-month period for which fiures are available.
    Mr. Bevan: The number of deaths provisionally assigned to tuberculosis of meninges and central nervous system in the 12 months ended 30th June, 1946, was 1,724

    Streptomycin Tests
    Dr. Taylorasked the Minister of Health if he will inform the medical profession of the hospitals at which the Medical Research Council tests of streptomycin are being carried out, so that they can send patients who may possibly be of benefit to them for inclusion in the test series.
    Mr. Bevan: Appropriate hospitals and clinics in the areas in which the tuberculosis trial centres are situated have already been informed, and the particulars will be circulated more widely if it is found advisable to draw upon larger areas for the limited number of cases of suitable type with which it is possible to deal.

    Sewerage Schemes, Swale
    Mr. P. Wellsasked the Minister of Health when the Swale Rural District Council can expect to receive consent to proceed with urgently-needed sewerage schemes in the villages of Iwade and Conyer.
    Mr. Bevan: The council were authorised on 29th January to proceed with the scheme at Iwade, and to obtain tenders for the scheme at Conyer.

    CASUALS (EX-SERVICEMEN)
    Mr. Lipsonasked the Minister of Health if he will give, for the last available date, the numbers of men staying in casual wards and say how many of these are ex-Servicemen.
    Mr. Bevan: The number of casuals relieved on the night of 27th-28th December, 1946, was 1,193. I do not know how many of these were ex-Servicemen, but of all the casuals relieved in the quarter to 31st December, 37 per cent. were ex-Servicemen.
    Mr. Lipson: Is it not a fact that these figures show a considerable increase? Will the right hon. Gentleman say what steps he is taking to deal with this matter?
    Mr. Bevan: I do not quite follow what the hon. Member means I do not know whether these men were ex-Servicemen or not. Over this period, in most parts of the country, there was plenty of employment.
    Mr. Nicholson: Is it not a fact that a date up to Christmas would not give a fair figure?
    Mr. Bevan: I do not think it does.
    Captain Marsden: In order to be sure whether they are ex-Servicemen, are they asked for identity cards?
    Mr. Bevan: I will make inquiries.
    Mr. Vane: Does "ex-Servicemen" mean men who at any time have served in His Majesty's Forces, or who served in the last war?
    Mr. Bevan: At any time.

  EDUCATION

    Burnham Committee (Constitution)
    Mr. John Lewisasked the Minister of Education if he is now prepared, after further consideration, to permit the representation of the National Association of School Masters on the Burnham Committee.
    The Minister of Education (Mr. Tomlinson): This question has been discussed fully with representatives of the National Association of Schoolmasters, and further consideration has been given to it on several occasions during the past 12 months. After considering all the arguments, I can hold out no hopes that the constitution of the Committee will be altered in the manner suggested.
    Mr. Lewis: While congratulating my right hon. Friend on his new appointment, in which I think all hon. Members of the House wish him much success, might I say that his answer will not be regarded as satisfactory? Will he be good enough to look into this matter once again to allow what I think will he regarded as a justifiable claim on the part of the Association?

    Rural Schools (Centralisation)
    Mr. Osborneasked the Minister of Education if he will make a statement on the resolution of protest against the closing of 40 Lindsey village schools passed by the Caistor Rural District Council, of which a copy has been sent to him; and if he will reconsider the policy of centralising rural schools in the light of its unpopularity amongst the village population.
    Mr. Tomlinson: The resolution referred to in the Question has not reached the Ministry, nor has the instalment of the Lincolnshire Education Authority's development plan for the Caistor area. Apart from any action which may be taken on the plan under Section 11 of the Education Act, 1944, any proposals by the local education authority to discontinue the maintenance of existing schools will necessitate the publication of notices under Section 13 of the Act, and at that stage each case will receive careful consideration by the Ministry before approval is given.
    Mr. Osborne: Would the Minister say where the resolution has got to, since it was sent to his Ministry some weeks ago?
    Mr. Tomlinson: I have not the slightest idea.

    Awards and Scholarships (Maintenance)
    Mrs. Leah Manningasked the Minister of Education whether any difference is made in the value of university supplemental awards when the scholarship holder lives at home.
    Mr. Tomlinson: The standard figure of maintenance for the holder of a university supplemental award, or of a State scholarship, is lower for a student who lives at home than for one who lives during term in college, hostel or lodgings. When the family income is small, an additional maintenance grant may be paid to enable the student to contribute towards the cost of his board.
    Mrs. Manning: Is my right hon. Friend aware that as a result of the acute shortage of students' housing accommodation, especially in London. a large number of students have to live at home and travel long distances, and that they are not only deprived of the great advantages of close
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    connection with the student body, but also have to pay far more money than they would otherwise have to? Will he give this matter his attention, in view of the changed circumstances?
    Mr. Tomlinson: If cases can be sent to me, I will certainly look into them.

    Direct Grant Schools (Candidates)
    Mrs. Manningasked the Minister of Education if he will inform heads of direct grant schools which have preparatory departments that, in deciding the entries to the senior department for next September candidates from the preparatory department must compete on equal terms with candidates from grant-aided primary schools; and if he will instruct His Majesty's inspectors to see that this condition is observed.
    Mr. Tomlinson: The point raised by the hon. Member is already adequately covered by Regulation 44 (a) of the Primary and Secondary Schools (Grant Conditions) Regulations. I have no evidence to suggest that this regulation is being infringed, or that a special communication to the schools is necessary on the point.
    Mrs. Manning: If I provide my right hon. Friend with evidence that, in spite of the regulation, this is going on, will he take steps to inquire into the circumstances which I send him?
    Mr. Tomlinson: Certainly, Sir.

    Secondary School Accommodation
    Mr. Toucheasked the Minister of Education if he has considered that a unanimous resolution has recently been passed by the southern division of the Surrey Education Executive, of which a copy has been sent to him, to the effect that the raising of the school age will so accentuate the shortage of places in secondary schools within the area that only half of the boys and girls over 11 years of age can be accommodated in secondary schools of any type; and what action he is taking in the matter.
    Mr. Tomlinson: Proposals by the authority to erect prefabricated huts to supplement the school accommodation in the Southern division of the county when the compulsory school age is raised, have

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    been approved by my Department and every effort is being made to secure their provision on time. New secondary schools will be built as soon as labour and materials become available. As an interim measure, I understand the Surrey local education authority are considering whether some temporary reorganisation can be effected.
    Mrs. Manning: Will my right hon. Friend exercise the influence which he used to have over his old Department to see whether some special hutments can be sent and be congregated in one place, so as to make secondary accommodation for these young people?
    Mr. Tomlinson: I will keep in mind the experience I have gained, and see if it can be used.

    PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS
    Mr. Boyd-Carpenterasked the Attorney-General if he will state the number of cases in which courts of law have, since the end of hostilities with Germany, criticized the initiation or conduct of charges brought against private citizens by Government Departments.
    Mr. Hector Hughes: On a point of Order. Is not this Question inadmissible for the reasons set out in paragraphs (23) and (28) on page 338 of Erskine May?
    Mr. Speaker: I did not exactly gather the point of Order. Do I understand it to be a submission that the Question is inadmissible?
    Mr. Hughes: I am suggesting that this Question is inadmissible for the two reasons set out on the page of Erskine May that I have mentioned.
    Hon. Members: What are they?
    Mr. Hughes: One is that it seeks information which is easily accessible in published documents, and the other is that it is trivial and vague.
    Mr. Speaker: I will have a look at the matter. I cannot answer off-hand. I had not really studied the Question in advance.
    The Solicitor-General (Sir Frank Soskice): So far as the Director of Public Prosecutions is concerned, for whose prosecutions my right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney-General is directly respon-
    518
    sible, no representations have been received by him since June, 1945, criticising the inception of any prosecution. In four cases during that period his attention has been drawn to some feature of the conduct of the prosecution, and on each occasion full inquiry has been made and appropriate action taken. My right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney-General is not responsible for prosecutions instituted on behalf of other Government Departments, but I am informed that as a general rule, no separate and special record is kept by the prosecuting Departments of comments made by the courts on the subject of prosecutions, and to ascertain the particulars asked for would necessitate a search of the file of every prosecution.
    Mr. Boyd-Carpenter: In view of the large number of such observations which are reported in the Press, will the Solicitor-General use his restraining influence on his more impetuous colleagues?
    The Solicitor-General: I do not accept the implication of the question that they are impetuous. They are most prudent and cautious.
    Mr. Hogg: Will the Solicitor-General see that the Departments of his colleagues follow the careful practice which he has described in regard to his own?
    The Solicitor-General: They invariably do.

    MATRIMONIAL CAUSES RULES (REDRAFTING)
    Mr. Ronald Mackayasked the Attorney-General the names of the persons connected with the Divorce Division of the High Court who are at present considering the procedural reforms recommended in the Second Interim Report of the Denning Committee with a view to reporting thereon to the Lord Chancellor; when the report of these persons will be published; and whether such report will be referred to the Denning Committee for such observations as that committee may desire to offer.
    The Solicitor-General: There seems to be some misunderstanding about this matter. As my right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney-General stated last week, the task of redrafting the whole of the Matrimonial Causes Rules in light of the recommendations in Part II of the

    519
    Second Denning Report is a formidable matter. After consultation with my noble Friend, the President entrusted to Mr. Justice Hodson, Mr. Justice Barnard, Mr. Pereira, a Registrar of the Divorce Division, Mr. Pownall, a District Registrar and Mr. Skyrme, the Secretary of the Denning Committee, the task of drafting the new rules for submission to the rule-making authority, and they are still engaged on this work. Under these circumstances the second and third parts of my hon. Friend's Question do not arise. My noble Friend the Lord Chancellor is anxious that the new rules should be published at the earliest possible moment.

  EMPLOYMENT

    Alien Domestic Workers (Germans)
    Mr. Symondsasked the Minister of Labour if he will consider including German women among the aliens allowed to enter this country on a temporary basis as domestic workers in such cases where they have relatives in this country who need temporary domestic help, otherwise unobtainable, at times of confinement, illness, etc.
    The Minister of Labour (Mr. Isaacs): Under existing arrangements permits are not granted for German women to come to this country for domestic employment, and I do not feel that an exception can be made in these cases.
    Mr. Symonds: Can the Minister say why, if these women are known to be anti-Nazi, there should be any objection to their coming to this country?
    Mr. Isaacs: I would not like to state all the reasons, but there are some who have suffered from Nazism to whom we are giving preference.

    Prisoners of War
    Mr. M. Lindsayasked the Minister of Labour whether, in view of the general manpower shortage, he will now offer some inducement to German prisoners of war in Britain to defer their repatriation.
    Mr. Isaacs: I have nothing to add to the reply which I gave to the hon. Member on 19th November and that given him by the Secretary of State for War on 28th January.
    Mr. Lindsay: Is the Minister aware that the reply of the Secretary of State for War, to which he refers, stated that no inducements whatever are being offered to German prisoners of war. Are we to understand from the Minister's reply that it is a matter of complete indifference to him whether or not this valuable source of labour dries up?
    Mr. Isaacs: No, Sir. It is not a matter of indifference to the Government. There are others who are entitled to preference over the prisoners of war, and they will get it.
    Mr. Edelman: Will my right hon. Friend invite ex-prisoners of war to come to work in this country as voluntary workers under contract for a stipulated time?
    Mr. Isaacs: No, Sir, not at this juncture.
    Hon. Members: Why not?
    Mr. Isaacs: I have heard a good deal, during the last two or three, days, about finding work for the Poles. We will find work for them before we start finding work for some of these others.
    Mr. Hogg: Has it not begun to dawn on the right hon. Gentleman that there is a shortage of manpower of such a character that we can afford to take all these people?
    Mr. Chetwynd: Would it not be more desirable to bring some of our troops back from Germany?

    Civil Aviation
    Air-Commodore Harveyasked the Minister of Labcfur how many persons are working in the civil aviation industry.
    Mr. Isaacs: I regret that the information is not available.
    Air-Commodore Harvey: Is the right hon. Gentleman satisfied that the level of this industry as outlined by the President of the Beard of Trade some time ago is being maintained?
    Mr. Isaacs: The trouble is that the hon. and gallant Gentleman looks upon this as a civil aviation industry. In fact it covers metal work, upholstery, coach work, electrical fittings, and so on. If the hon. and gallant Gentleman wants us to try to get a figure of the number of persons engaged in the collective industry we will try to get it.
    Air-Commodore Harvey: Will the right hon. Gentleman try to give information relating to aircraft and aircraft engine manufacture?
    Mr. Isaacs: I will try to get it. It will be very difficult, but I will try.

    Non-Union Lorry Drivers
    Mr. George Wardasked the Minister of. Labour (1) whether he is aware that, on 24th January, 1947, Mr. Taylor, the driver of a lorry belonging to Messrs. Bailey and Turner (Haulage) Limited, Worcester, was refused permission to load up with tomatoes ex ss. "Banadereos," at Canarf Wharf, West India Dock, because he had no union card; and although Mr. Taylor produced a completed application for joining he was still refused his load; that the Transport and General Workers' Union office at Poplar would not allow Mr. Taylor to join the union at that office and the lorry was forced to return to Worcester empty; and what steps he is taking to avoid a similar occurrence in the future;
    (2) whether he is aware that on 23rd January, 1947, Mr. Bennett, a driver of a lorry belonging to Messrs. Bailey and Turner (Haulage) Limited, of Worcester, was refused permission to load up with tomatoes ex ss. "Banadereos" at Canarf Wharf, West India Dock, because his union card was out of date; that although Mr. Bennett offered to pay off the arrears immediately he was still refused his load and the lorry was forced to return to Worcester empty; and what steps he is taking to avoid a similar occurrence in the future.
    Mr. Isaacs: I am aware of recent difficulties caused by the refusal of dockers employed at certain London wharves to load lorries manned by nonunion drivers. The action of the men was unofficial and I understand that the situation has now improved following appropriate action on the part of the union concerned.

    Aberdeen
    Mr. Hector Hughesasked the Minister of Labour the population of the city of Aberdeen, in 1919, 1939 and 1945, respectively; and what is being done to maintain it by discouraging migration to the South.
    Mr. Isaacs: I am informed by the Registrar General for Scotland that the
    522
    population of Aberdeen city was as follows: 1919, 167,000; 1939, 180,000; 1945, 161,000. With regard to the last part of the Question, it would be wrong to discourage unemployed workers in Aberdeen from taking up productive employment elsewhere.

    Factory Inspectors, Coventry
    Mr. Edelmanasked the Minister of Labour how many factory inspectors were permanently attached to the Coventry district on 1st February, 1942, and 1st February, 1947.
    Mr. Isaacs: Two at each of the dates in question.

    Labour Control (Agriculture)
    Mr. Goochasked the Minister of Labour if he will remove the Control of Engagements Order and the Essential Work Order from agriculture and thus encourage recruitment to the industry.
    Mr. Isaacs: My right hon. Friends, the Minister of Agriculture and the Secretary of State for Scotland and I, are agreed that it is necessary to retain the Control of Engagement Orders as applied to agricultural workers, and we anticipate that it will be necessary to retain them until the end of this year. We are, however, agreed that the Essential Work Orders should be removed from the agricultural executive committees, and I am giving three months' notice of such withdrawal forthwith.
    Mr. Stephen: Can the Minister say whether this order applies to prisoners of war?
    Mr. Isaacs: No; it applies to our own nationals who are covered by these orders.
    Captain Crookshank: Will the Minister go a little further and tell the House exactly why it is necessary? It is all very well to say that it is, but could we know why?
    Mr. Isaacs: For very much the same reason that somebody is asking why we cannot have some of these people retained. We want to keep these workers on the land for as long as we can.
    Mr. Gooch: Does not my right hon. Friend agree that, by reason of their fine war record, the farm workers of the country have earned their freedom?

  NATIONAL FINANCE

    Prime Minister's Salary (Taxation)
    Mr. Scott-Elliotasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement with regard to the treatment for taxation purposes of the expenses which have to be met by the occupant of the post of Prime Minister, having regard to the changed conditions since the salary of the post was fixed by Statute in 1937.
    The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Dalton): Yes, Sir. An additional £5,000 a year was added to the salary of the Prime Minister in 1937 in order to enable him to discharge the public duties indispensable to his office and to his residence at No. 10, Downing Street. While there has been no reduction in these duties, the effect of taxation has been to reduce the net salary to about the same sum as before the increase. It has, therefore, been decided that £4,000 of the salary of the office should be treated as an expenses allowance which will be deducted for Income Tax. I am sure that the House will agree that the arrangement is a fair and reasonable means of ensuring that the Prime Minister may be able to fulfil his duties with dignity and efficiency.
    Hon. Members: Hear, hear.

    Fat Ration (Cost)
    Mr. Osborneasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the annual cost of the domestic fat ration; how much comes from abroad; and the separate proportions and amounts from the main sources of supply.
    Mr. Dalton: £84 million. 97 per cent. of the fat ration is imported. I am circulating in the OFFICIAL REPORT a number of statistics relating to the last part of the Question.
    Mr. Osborne: Will the Chancellor say, in regard to imports from America, whether they have been cut down in any way because of the lack of dollars?
    Mr. Dalton: If the hon. Member will read the figures, I think he will get a clear picture of the position up to the end of the year. We are constantly watching, of course, for any opportunity to substitute a cheaper for a more expensive source of supply. That goes on continuously.
    Following are the statistics.
    The distribution is:

    £million

    Butter

    46.0

    Margarine

    25.6

    Compound

    5.7

    Lard

    7.0

    84.3

    Butter. 48 per cent. of our 1946 imports came from New Zealand, 31 per cent. from Australia, 21 per cent. from Denmark. 5 per cent. of the ration is from U.K.
    Margarine and Compound. Some of the imported oils are used for soap and other industry, and some goes to the catering trade. The combinations of these oils are so varied that it is impossible to segregate the uses to which oils from each source are put. But over the whole range of edible oils, 56 per cent. of our imports in 1946 came from British West Africa. 14 per cent. from India and Ceylon, and 13 per cent. from South Atlantic whaling.
    Lard. 85 per cent. of our 1946 imports came from U.S.A. and 15 per cent. from Argentina.

    Blocked Sterling Balances
    Colonel Crosthwaite-Eyreasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the total of blocked sterling balances as at 31st December, 1945, and 1946, respectively, showing the amounts owed at each date to each creditor country.
    Mr. Dalton: I am considering bringing up to date the information on this subject published in December, 1945, in Cmd. 6707.
    Colonel Crosthwaite-Eyre: Can the Chancellor say how soon he will give this information, which would be of great assistance?
    Mr. Dalton: I am anxious to publish it soon. It is a question of getting the best arrangements.
    Mr. Walter Fletcher: Will the Chancellor publish the terms and conditions under which the sterling balances were created. because they vary very considerably?
    Mr. Dalton: I will have to look at that; it is a different matter.
    Colonel Crosthwaite-Eyreasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give an assurance that no agreement for

    525
    the settlement of the blocked sterling balances of any creditor country will be finalised until it has been submitted to and approved by this House.
    Mr. Dalton: No, Sir.
    Mr. W. Fletcher: Does not the Chancellor realise that this answer is similar to the very evasive answer which he gave me the other day on another Question? It leaves great doubt in the minds of the people regarding the negotiations now going on in India regarding the sterling balances there; and before a final conclusion is reached, this House should know what is happening in the matter.
    Mr. Dalton: I do not think that "No, Sir" is an evasive answer. I am following here a very excellent practice which previous Governments have followed in this respect. Where negotiations take place on such a matter, His Majesty's Government take the responsibility to settle them. Then they report the settlement to the House of Commons, the settlement can be debated and, if the House disapproves, the Government can be removed from office. [Hon. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."] There are a number of hypothetical elements in that. We cannot possibly slow up the work of government in order to bring things here before we settle them. We will settle them first, and take the judgment of the hon. Member afterwards.
    Mr. Fletcher: Does not the Chancellor agree that this answer is quite different from the one he gave me the other day. when he said that before a final settlement was made there would be placed before the House details of what happened during the negotiations?
    Mr. Dalton: We will keep the House informed, but we will take our own responsibilities on our own shoulders

    War Costs (Distribution)
    Colonel Crosthwaite-Eyreasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations have been made by His Majesty's Government to U.N.O. to ensure a more equitable distribution of war costs between its members, particularly in view of the late date at which several members entered the war.
    Mr. Dalton: None, Sir. Peace settlements are excluded from the scope of U.N.O

    War Damage Value Payments (Report)
    Mrs. Middletonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has now received the Report of the War Damage Commission on the increase of value payments; and what decision tie has reached.
    Mr. Dalton: Yes, Sir, I have received the Report and I am grateful to the War Damage Commission for their quick response to my request. I have decided to accept the Commission's recommendations and shall publish the Report and submit the necessary Order for the approval the House in the near future.
    Mrs. Middleton: Could the Chancellor give us a further statement upon the matter?
    Mr. Dalton: I am going to publish it. I think it would be a mistake for me to try to summarise it. It is rather complicated I think the hon. Lady, who follows this very closely, will soon find what she wants in the Report.
    Mrs. Middleton: When can we expect it?
    Mr. Dalton: Very soon.
    Mr. Michael Foot: In view of the hardship which many people bombed out in 1940 and 1941 suffered, and in view of the great complexities to which the Chancellor has referred, can he use his influence to persuade the Leader of the House to arrange a Debate on the whole of this subject in regard to town and country planning and the War Damage Commission, before the recommendations of the Commission are finally accepted?
    Mr. Dalton: Business, of course, is not a matter for me. I should have thought the better course was for the Debate to take place on the Order which I am required to present to the House dealing with this problem. It would be better not to mix it up with a lot of other subjects.
    Mr. Foot: Will the Chancellor take into account, that under an Order made under the Town and Country Planning Act, which dealt with a similar class of people who were bombed out, we were precluded from discussing matters of War Damage Commission payments, whereas on this Order we shall be precluded from

    527
    comparing it with Sections of the Town and Country Planning Act? Will he take into account the fact that this is a similar class of people who are victims of the same difficulty, and is it not much better to have a discussion on the whole subject?
    Mr. Percy Morris: Can the right hon. Gentleman tell us if the Report refers to these victims of the war?
    Mr. Dalton: I would prefer that the hon. Gentleman should read the Report first. I think he will find that it advises a certain escalation.

    OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS. GLASGOW
    Mr. Rankinasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if he is prepared to provide an office for the sale of His Majesty's Stationery Office and other Government publications in the city of Glasgow
    The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Glenvil Hall): The Stationery Office has arrangements with a principal bookseller in Glasgow to give special attention to the sale of Government publications, and other leading booksellers in the city are also large customers for official publications. The establishment of a special sale office in Glasgow would involve a use of manpower which could not at present be justified by increased sales or increased conveniences to the public.
    Dr. Taylor: Is it not a fact that the Stationery Office will not allow these publications to be sold on the basis of sale or return by these booksellers, and does he not think that the sale of these publications by ordinary booksellers is greatly curtailed because of that fact?
    Mr. Glenvil Hall: I certainly accept that that is so. Nevertheless, we cannot have a Stationery Office office in every town in the country and we have to limit ourselves to some of the large centres at the moment.
    Dr. Taylor: Is not that a very good reason for having the sale of these publications based on sale or return?
    Mr. Rankin: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that Glasgow is one of the largest centres in the country?
    Mr. Glenvil Hall: I am aware of that

  TRADE AND COMMERCE

    Wine Casks (Import Licence)
    Mr. Hector Hughesasked the President of the Board of Trade in view of the representations made to him by Messrs. John Robertson and Sons, Aberdeen, whether he can now see his way to grant them a licence to import sherry and plain wood casks and cooperage and, if not, what are the prospects of such a licence being granted in the near future.
    Sir T. Moore: On a point of Order. Does not this Question suffer from the same disabilities as the hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for North Aberdeen (Mr. Hector Hughes) described in regard to Question No. 41—that it is trivial?
    Mr. Speaker: I do not think that is a point of Order. It is a point of repartee.
    Sir T. Moore: With respect, Mr. Speaker, I am following upon the point of Order raised by the hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for North Aberdeen, which you accepted, and I am asking whether this Question is not subject to the same disability as to which the hon. and learned Gentleman the Member referred in regard to that other Question—that it is trivial?
    Mr. Speaker: I said that I did not know, and that I would have a look at it later.
    The President of the Board of Trade (Sir Stafford Cripps): My hon. and learned Friend will by now have received a letter on this matter, which was sent to him on 8th February.
    Mr. Hughes: Does the Minister realise that this correspondence has been going on since May, 1946, and now Messrs Robertson have been referred to the Import Licensing Board, and as the matter is urgent for them, will he do something to allow them to get on with their business?
    Sir S. Cripps: We are taking the necessary action.
    Mr. James Hudson: Does not the right hon. and learned Gentleman realise that on account of the absorption of good currency, good labour and good shipping space, it is an entirely trivial request on the part of anyone to ask for further imports of this type of commodity?

    Works, Glasgow (Tenancy)
    Mr. Formanasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that the Ministry of Fuel and Power propose to terminate the use of factory space allocated to them at Germinston Works, Glasgow, on 31st March, 1947; and what steps he proposes to take to allocate the factory space so vacated at these works.
    Sir S. Cripps: Yes, Sir. My Department is in touch with a number of suitable firms with a view to the continued use of this factory for heavy engineering, and no opportunity will be lost of finding a new tenant.

    Clothing Coupons (Service Personnel)
    Mr. George Jegerasked the President of the Board of Trade when he expects to be in a position to make an announcement on the supply of clothing coupons to the forces to enable them to procure civilian clothing to wear when off duty.
    Sir S. Cripps: I have just received the views of my colleagues in the Service Departments and will consider them immediately.
    Mr. John Lewis: May I ask if my right hon. Friend is aware of the increasing dissatisfaction in the Forces with the fact that, while they are permitted to wear civilian clothing off duty, they are not allowed any coupons with which to buy that clothing?
    Sir S. Cripps: I could not consider the proposals before I received them, but I propose to do it now.

    Football Pool Forecasting (Paper)
    Mr. Nallyasked the President of the Board of Trade what records are kept by his Department of the paper consumption of football pool forecasting organisations; and what steps have been taken by his Department to control paper sales to such organisations by printers or other holders of supplies.
    Sir S. Cripps: No records of the actual consumption of paper by any user are kept by the Department but before any paper is licensed for delivery to the football pool promoters they are required to give an undertaking that they will not supplement their allocation by purchases from merchants and others, and, as my
    530
    hon. Friend was informed on 16th October last, it is the practice of the Department to institute checks from time to time where such undertakings are given.
    Mr. Nally: Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that this Question does not refer to football pools at all, but to football pool forecasting organisations, which are entirely different things? Is he not aware that, altogether, there are scores of these firms in operation at the moment offering winning schemes, and that many of them are issuing weekly booklets? Will he not go into this matter?
    Sir S. Cripps: I was not aware of all the facts mentioned by the hon. Member.

    Furniture Imports
    Mr. Thurtleasked the President of the Board of Trade why it is his intention to import a large quantity of furniture from Italy; if he is aware that such furniture could be manufactured in Britain if the timber was made available; that considerable numbers of furniture makers are already unemployed or working short time; arid if any attempt was made to import timber from Italy rather than the manufactured articles.
    Sir S. Cripps: Imports of furniture from Italy as from other countries are intended to help meet the pressing needs of the public. The answer to the second and third parts of the Question is "Yes, Sir," but for the reasons indicated in the answer given to the hon. Member for Darwen (Mr. Prescott) on Tuesday I cannot accept the suggestion that these imports prejudice the position of our own industry. The answer to the last part of the Question is that Italy is an importer of softwood and utility hardwoods and has no surplus for export. We are however buying plywood in Italy and the furniture was bought in addition to and not instead of plywood.
    Mr. J. Lewis: Is it not a fact that many countries are not prepared to sell timber, but are only prepared to sell manufactured furniture?
    Sir S. Cripps: That is perfectly true; they wish to provide employment for their own people.

    Fuel Supplies (Representations)
    Mr. Butcherasked the President of the Board of Trade how many hon. Members have made representations to him since 1st October, 1946, on behalf of their

    531
    constituents, in connection with fuel supplies.
    Sir S. Cripps: Ministers in my Department have received 56 written representations in all.

    Development, Midlothian
    Lord John Hopeasked the President of the Board of Trade, with reference to industrial development in the development area of the county of Midlothian, why the site at Camps Quarry, which had been approved by the Department of Health for Scotland, was not acquired; and whether factory construction has started yet anywhere in the area.
    Sir S. Cripps: The owner, having levelled, ploughed and seeded the site for agricultural use, is unwilling to sell. The employment needs of this district are therefore being met by the construction of seven new industrial buildings on other sites, of which I am sending the noble Lord a list. Building operations on four of these have already started. In addition, a Government factory erected during the war at Broxburn has been allocated for civilian production.

    Industrial Coupons (Roundsmen)
    Mrs. Ridealghasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will give consideration to the issue of a few additional clothing coupons to milk and bread roundsmen who have special need of protective clothing to face adverse weather conditions.
    Sir S. Cripps: The industrial ten supplement is available for workers including roundsmen who are engaged for a minimum of 22 hours a week in the distribution of food. I regret that I cannot make any further grant of coupons.

    Individual Output
    Mr. Scott-Elliotasked the President of the Board of Trade whether figures showing the output per worker are available in respect of industries other than coalmining; and whether he will cause these to be published at regular intervals.
    Sir S. Cripps: Apart from the information published in the Monthly Digest of Statistics as to the numbers employed in the principal industries and the output of various products. there are no figures available.
    Mr. Scott-Elliot: Would the right hon. and learned Gentleman consider making some arrangement to obtain the figures?
    Sir S. Cripps: When we, get the Census of Production, we may be able to have some more figures.

    Artists' Brushes
    Commander Nobleasked the President of the Board of Trade how many licences to import artists' paint brushes from the Continent have been granted since VE-Day; and whether he will give consideration to increasing these imports.
    Sir S. Cripps: Four licences to import artists' brushes from France to a value of £1,000 have been granted since the beginning of 1946. Artists' brushes are also among the goods which can be imported under the token import scheme, but up to date no applications for licences under the scheme have been received.

    Credit Sales (Charge)
    Mr. Wyattasked the President of the Board of Trade whether it is proposed to allow traders to make a small charge on credit sales.
    Sir S. Cripps: I am now considering this matter and hope to arrive at a decision very shortly.

    Census of Production (Chemists)
    Lieut.-Colonel Bromley-Davenportasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware of the burden which is imposed on manufacturing chemists by the 28-page questionnaire, containing 1,500 questions, which has been sent to them for completion during recent weeks; and whether arrangements will be made to postpone the date by which this form must be completed until the present shortage of manpower and fuel is disposed of.
    Sir S. Cripps: I fully appreciate the difficulties some firms may have in completing the questionnaires issued in connection with the Partial Census of Production for 1946, but the hon. and gallant Member should be aware that of the 1,500 entries mentioned only a proportion will need to be answered by any one firm. If firms have not maintained records in a form which enables them to provide answers to questions without involving them in an inordinate amount

    533
    of trouble, they should complete the form to the best of their ability, making estimates where necessary. When returning the forms to the Census of Production Office they should explain the position, and the missing details will not then be pressed for. The date by which the form must be completed has been extended by one month, as announced on 21st January in the Debate on the Statistics of Trade Bill.
    Mr. Churchill: Is no estimate forthcoming of the net less to the public—the cost to the public—of this extremely elaborate inquiry into matters which have not previously called for any such inquiry?
    Sir S. Cripps: There has always been a Census of Production, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, but it has not been taken since 1935, and this is the first occasion since then. The partial Census of Production is being undertaken to facilitate the full census when it is taken and to find out how it could be done most conveniently.
    Mr. J. Lewis: On a point of Order. I think, Mr. Speaker, your guidance has been sought before on this matter, but hon. Members who find themselves quite unable to hear what Questions are being asked or what supplementaries are being put to Ministers, would really be grateful if other hon. Members would not talk during that time, as it is quite impossible to hear the answers.

    Country.

    1936.

    1946

    Quantity.

    Value.

    Quantity.

    Value

    Th. Lbs.

    £000.

    Th. Lbs.

    £000.

    Southern Rhodesia

    …

    …

    14,960

    603

    23,192

    4.300

    Nyasaland

    …

    …

    …

    13,057

    620

    10,898

    1,159

    British India

    …

    …

    …

    13,740

    450

    17,692

    2,031

    Canada

    …

    …

    …

    …

    9,289

    600

    9,351

    1,167

    Turkey

    …

    …

    …

    …

    392

    35

    3,070

    818

    United States of America

    …

    214,061

    14,607

    365,803

    55,168

    Cuba

    …

    …

    …

    …

    622

    1,150

    60

    18

    Other Countries

    …

    …

    …

    6,242

    424

    3,367

    961

    Total

    …

    …

    272,363

    18,489

    433,433

    65,622

    FUEL OIL PURCHASES
    Mr. Stokesasked the Minister of Fuel and Power how much fuel oil is purchased by the Petroleum Board from the
    Mr, Speaker: I do not think I have heard very much talking today, and I certainly heard all the supplementaries except one.

    Tobacco Imports
    Mr. Osborneasked the President of the Board of Trade what was the cost of tobacco imports to the United Kingdom for 1936 and 1946, respectively; and the weight and value from each of the principal exporting countries for both years.
    Sir S. Cripps: The value of imports of tobacco was £18.5 million in 1936 and £65.6 million in 1946. With the hon. Member's permission, I will circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT information as to the principal sources.
    Mr. Osborne: Could I ask the Minister if he does not think it would be wise to use a few more scarce dollars to buy fats rather than tobacco?
    Sir S. Cripps: That is a matter of opinion.
    Mr. Mikardo: Is my right hon. and learned Friend aware that there is a considerable supply of tobacco available in the Indonesian Republic if only we could stop the Dutch blockading the ports and preventing the free access of our ships?
    Dr. Taylor: Does my right hon. and learned Friend not think that there is a good case for tobacco rationing, and will he. look into the matter as a possible alternative to sweet coupons?
    Following are the principal sources tobacco:
    Anglo-Iranian Oil Company; and what proportion of the total fuel oil imported into Great Britain does this quantity represent.
    The Minister of Fuel and Power (Mr. Shinwell): According to The Trade and Navigation Accounts, which combine fuel oil and Diesel oil, the quantities of these two products imported into the United Kingdom during the last three months of 1946, amounted to 341,468,000 gallons, of which about 50 per cent, was purchased from the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
    Mr. Stokes: May I ask my right hon. Friend why it is not possible to buy more from the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and thus make more oil available in this country, and, at the same time, spend less dollars?
    Mr. Shinwell: Because we export from the Iranian oilfield a large amount of oil to dollar sources.
    Mr. Stokes: Is my right hon. Friend aware that the production capacity if the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company could be enormously increased, and could, in fact, supply all our demands?
    Mr. Shinwell: So it could, but we export oil from that area to dollar currency countries.
    Mr. Erroll: Does not the Minister realise that, among industrialists, there is great uncertainty about fuel oil because of the evasive nature of his answers?
    Mr. Shinwell: That has nothing to do with fuel oil at all. There is quite a large amount of fuel oil in this country, and if industrialists wish to convert to oil they can do so.

    BUILDING WORKERS (UNEMPLOY MENT BENEFIT)
    Mr. Driberg (By Private Notice)asked the Minister of National Insurance whether he is aware that 15 building trade workers at Maldon, Essex, have been entirely without pay or unemployment benefit for two weeks, and are now, in their third week, in the same condition because their employers are not members of the Master Builders' Federation and, therefore, do not consider themselves bound by the national agreement for a guaranteed week, while the local officers of the Ministry of Labour have no authority to pay benefit to men in an industry covered by such an agreement; and if he will take immediate steps to rectify this situation.
    The Minister of National Insurance (Mr. James Griffiths): I am awaiting a reply to urgent inquiries which I have made, and will inform my hon. Friend of the result as soon as possible.
    Mr. Driberg: Would my right hon. Friend bear in mind that some of these men were, ostensibly, not stood off on account of the weather, but sacked on the pretext that there was no work for them to do? Are they not, therefore, entitled to draw unemployment benefit as a right, rather than be referred to the Assistance Board?
    Mr. Griffiths: I am sure, having had some experience of these matters, that my hon. Friend will appreciate the principle here involved. The employers are claiming that they are not bound by the national agreement because they are not members of the employers' organisation. That is a very important point indeed. If these men are admitted to unemployment benefit, it may involve a very important principle.
    Mr. Driberg: But what are my constituents to do this weekend—their third week without any money?
    Mr. Griffiths: That is another question. There is other assistance available to them. The question involved here is one about which I must take great care because it raises the important principle whether employers can say that they are not members of the employers' association and are, therefore, not bound by the national agreement.
    Mr. Lennox-Boyd: Will the right hon. Gentleman take equal care to protect the interests of men who lose their employment because they will not belong to a particular union?
    Mr. George Hicks: Will my right hon. Friend ask his right hon. Friend the Minister of Works whether, in the event of an employer in the building industry not subscribing to the conditions negotiated between the employers and the operatives in the industry, their certificate of building should be withdrawn?
    Mr. Griffiths: I made urgent inquiries into this matter, which is of very great importance, as to whether particular employers are bound by the national agreement. I must have full information from both sides of the industry before I can decide the question.

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
Mr. Churchill: May I ask the acting Leader of the House if he will tell us the Business for next week?
The Lord Privy Seal (Mr. Arthur Greenwood): Yes, Sir. The Business for next week will be as follows:
Monday, 17th February— Report and Third Reading of the Civic Restaurants Bill.
Tuesday, i8th February—Committee stage of Navy and Army Supplementary Estimates, 1946–47, and of Civil Supplementary Estimates, beginning with Law Charges.
Wednesday, 19th February—Second Reading of the Forestry Bill [Lords] until about 6 p.m.; Committee stage of the Supplementary Estimates for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Home Office, the Ministry of Education, and other outstanding Votes.
Thursday, 20th February—Committee and remaining stages of the Polish Resettlement Bill, Isle of Man Harbours Bill [Lords], and Naval Forces (Enforcement of Maintenance Liabilities) Bill.
Friday, 21st February—Second Reading of the Air Navigation Bill [Lords] and Committee stage of the necessary Money Resolution.
Mr. Stokes: Will my right hon. Friend say whether an opportunity will be given before the Foreign Secretary goes to Moscow for a Debate in this House on policy in Germany, as distinct from administration? We have had no Debate on policy since the Potsdam Agreement, and, in the opinion of many hon. Members, it is about time that such a Debate took place.
Mr. Greenwood: I thought it was the wish of the House that, before my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary left for Moscow, there should be a Debate on foreign affairs, but I cannot promise to compartmentalise it that way.
Mr. Churchill: Am I right in understanding that the Prime Minister is going to make a short statement on the fuel situation, and might I ask the acting Leader of the House whether we can be given an undertaking—perhaps the Prime Minister will give it in his statement—that he will keep us informed of the position from time to time, during the period of this special tension and crisis?
The Prime Minister (Mr. Attlee)indicated assent.
Mr. Oliver Stanley: May I ask when the Government are likely to make a statement on Palestine?
Mr. Greenwood: I hope that a statement on Palestine may be made in the course of next week, but is very difficult to say at the moment when.
Mr. Stanley: Is it the intention to provide an opportunity for a Debate?
Mr. Greenwood: Yes, Sir. I think that I gave that pledge last week, or the week before. Certainly there will be such an opportunity, and, if it should be necessary to rearrange the Business of the House, I am quite prepared to consider that
Mr. Ellis Smith: Is my right hon. Friend aware of the growing interest in the economic position of the country—[Hon. MEMBERS. "Oh"]—due to generations of neglect—and, if so, will he, between now and when we debate the White Paper, consider the advisability of allocating at least three days to this matter, so that hon. Members may devote sufficient time to it?
Mr. Greenwood: I really cannot give a pledge to my hon. Friend at this moment as to the number of days we shall give to that Debate. Of course, the undertaking which was given, that we would discuss the White Paper when published, still holds, but that can be discussed only later through the usual channels.
Mr. Churchill: Does the acting Leader of the House remember that I did press that, when the economic Debate took place, we should have a three-day discussion? I thought that that might be a means by which we could avoid the moving of a direct Vote of Censure, and that we could move a reasoned Amendment instead. Will the right hon. Gentleman, therefore, consider our request for a three-day Debate on that subject? I hope that the Debate will not take place until some little time has elapsed after the publication of the White Paper, and that our request for a three-day Debate will stand.
Mr. Greenwood: With regard to the first part of the right hon. Gentleman's question, I remember the statement he made, and I remember thanking him for trying

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to save Government time, for which we are very grateful. I have not closed my mind to three days but, as I have said, I do not want to give an undertaking for a three-day Debate at this stage. However, I can give the assurance that there will be ample time for discussion between the publication of the White Paper and the Debate. I might inform the House that I hope the White Paper will be in the hands of Members by the end of next week.
Mr. Kenneth Lindsay: Will the acting Leader of the House try to find time for a Debate on the universities, in view of the publication of the Barlow Report, the Parliamentary and Scientific Reports, the changed circumstances of students, and the implications of the welcome increase of grants by the Chancellor of the Exchequer?
Mr. Greenwood: I have every sympathy with the hon. Gentleman in this matter, but I would have thought that was a subject which could quite appropriately have been dealt with on one of the Supply days.
Colonel Ropner: With regard to the Business for next Wednesday, the Forestry Bill is very important even if it is short, and 2½ hours to debate a Bill of that nature seems a very short allocation of time. May I ask if there has been any arrangement through the normal channels for the Debate to be finished at 6 o'clock? Do the Government propose to move the Closure even if the number of Members desirous of speaking show that the Debate should be continued considerably longer?
Mr. Greenwood: I had not heard any objections to this course, and I think the hon. Gentleman is probably wrong, subject to your Ruling, Mr. Speaker. The discussion on the Forestry Bill from the House of Lords will be narrow and, so far as I can see, there cannot be a very wide Debate involving the whole field of forestry. I would have thought that about 6 o'clock would have been ample, but I am prepared to discuss through the usual channels an alteration of the time. If right hon. Gentlemen opposite feel that that time is inadequate we will certainly try to readjust it, but my impression is that the Debate may be so narrow that we might finish it in 2½ or 3 hours.
Captain Petal: In view of the fact that on Wednesday the time for a Debate on education will be limited, will my right hon. Friend give consideration to the possibility at some later stage of a Debate on education from a wider point of view than was referred to by the hon. Member for the Combined English Universities (Mr. K. Lindsay)?
Mr. Greenwood: The Debate next Wednesday arises on a Supplementary Estimate and concerns a very narrow field of education. The appropriate time for a wider Debate would be a Supply day.
Captain John Crowder: Would the right hon. Gentleman consult with the Prime Minister on the advisability of suspending for a week or two the sittings of Standing Committees upstairs where, I understand, 12 Ministers are engaged, so that they can be in their Departments at this very vital time to deal with the fuel crisis?
Mr. Greenwood: I am very grateful for the sympathy which the hon. and gallant Gentleman has shown for Ministers, but I can hold out no hope of a suspension of Standing Committees.
Colonel Gomme-Duncan: Could the right hon. Gentleman now give an answer to the question which was asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Montrose Burghs (Mr. Maclay) a fortnight ago, on what the Government propose to do to simplify and solve the hopeless tangle in which Scottish Business is at present, owing to these Committees all sitting at the same time? It is a very vital point from the point of view of Scotland.
Mr. Greenwood: This is not a new tangle. It is a very ancient one. During the last 25 years I have heard on many occasions this question raised about the overworked condition of Scottish Members who must attend their own Standing Committees and who are naturally interested in attending other Committees. If they have to work overtime it is very difficult, but there can be no solution to that problem so long as Members serve on more than one Committee, as indeed they must.
Mr. Churchill: If a Scottish Member is on two or three Committees, he cannot be in two or three places at the same time. He is not a bird.
Mr. Greenwood: No Member, as far as I know, is ever asked to attend three Committees at the same time.
Mr. Churchill: How can he attend two at the same time?
Mr. Greenwood: The only persons aggrieved in this connection are those Scottish Members who are likely to be interested in questions other than Scottish questions. They agree to serve on these Committees, and it is for them to settle in their consciences which meeting they should attend at a time when two or three are sitting.
Mr. Sparks: Is my right hon. Friend able to grant time for an early discussion upon the housing programme for 1947? I think he will remember that last week he rather hinted there would be a possibility of an early Debate on that subject.
Mr. Greenwood: At this stage in the Session, one must fall back on utilising Supply days for purposes of this kind, and there can be an early Supply day to debate the housing situation. If that should be so, we would be delighted to accept any challenge that might be made.
Mr. Speaker: I know it is very difficult because hon. Members have to ask many questions, but it should be remembered that we are really concerned with the Business for next week. Many of these questions which hon. Members are now asking concern the Business for the whole of this Session.
Mr. Pickthorn: In view of the right hon. Gentleman's last answer but, I think, six in reply to the question that was asked by the hon. Member for the Combined English Universities (Mr. K. Lindsay) about a Debate on university education, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman upon what Supply day he thinks that would be appropriate; and, secondly, whether he does not think we ought to consider very carefully the constitutional disadvantages there might be of discussing university questions on a Supply day?
Mr. Greenwood: No, indeed not. Supply days can hardly be used for legislation. The appropriate occasion would be on the Treasury Vote.
Mr. J. Hudson: With regard to the Business for Monday of next week, does not the acting Leader of the House agree
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that to expect to get the Report stage and the Third Reading of the Civic Restaurants, Bill is asking a very great deal, in view of the great amount of controversy in the country on that question? Is he taking into account the fact that the discussion on Monday will be of a more important character than usual, as the Government are flying directly in the teeth of the position already taken by the majority of one of the Committees of the House?
Mr. Greenwood: I should think it would be quite reasonable for the House to dispose of the Report stage and the Third Reading of the Civic Restaurants Bill in a day. So far as I understand, there is only one point of controversy outstanding. People's views are perfectly clear about it, and I would not have thought that we need spend more than a normal working day on the remaining stages of this Bill

FUEL AND POWER CUTS
The Prime Minister (Mr. Attlee): As a result of the restrictions imposed on monday, there had by Wednesday been a total saving of 78,000 tons of coal at power stations. At power stations in the three restricted areas the percentage saving in coal consumption compared with the corresponding days last week was 33 per cent. on Monday, 36 per cent. on Tuesday and 36.7 per cent. on Wednesday. In the three restricted areas generally, power stations' stocks stand at about nine days' consumption for average weather, without the present restrictions. But in the six big London power stations there is only about a week's consumption. Coal stocks at gas undertakings are also giving cause for anxiety, particularly in London, where stocks in general amount to about nine and a half days' consumption, but are considerably lower at some stations.
The rebuilding of stocks to a safety level depends on the movement of coal by sea and rail. Ships are now moving. Twelve ships carrying 21,000 tons of coal reached London in the last 24 hours. Between noon on Tuesday and noon on Thursday 51 ships in all left the North-East coast ports for London carrying 104,000 tons. A further 30 ships carrying 25,500 tons left the North-East coast for other ports. There are still six ships

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held up in North-East coast ports, and a further 31 are loading today. The railway companies expect a bigger movement of railborne coal today as a result of the very drastic cutting of passenger services announced last night. Although the very cold weather is expected to continue, the latest forecast is that there will be no gales and no fog. This means that, though loading of wagons and ships is slow and difficult, we should be able to keep seaborne coal moving.
The position should improve, provided that production at the pits is not held up through lack of wagons. The danger, spots are the North-East and Midlands districts. The situation, however, remains critical and, as the House will be aware from the statement issued last night, His Majesty's Government have been obliged to take further measures to meet the emergency. As from this morning restrictions on the consumption of electricity for domestic purposes are being applied to the whole of England, Scotland and Wales. In the South-West, including South Wales, the restricted hours are from 9 a.m. to 12 noon and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. In the mid-East and North-East of England and throughout Scotland, they are from 8.30 a.m. till 11.30 a.m., and from 1.30 p.m. till 3.30 p.m An order has been made prohibiting, with effect from this morning, the consumption of electricity for domestic purposes during the periods of restriction. His Majesty's Government have also decided to prohibit, as from today, the consumption of any form of fuel for dog racing.
The increase in unemployment this week in the regions where the use of electricity for industrial purposes has been restricted is estimated at about 1¾ million. Of these, about one million have not claimed unemployment benefit. The total is about one-third of the number of insured workers employed in manufacturing industries in those regions, and rather more than one-quarter of the corresponding number in the country as a whole. The Ministry of Labour and National Service have standing emergency arrangements intended for dealing with sudden large increases in the volume of unemployment. These have worked satisfactorily, and thanks are due to the co-operation of both employers and workers in assisting in the operation of these emergency
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schemes. So far, there has been no serious congestion at exchanges, and with the continued co-operation of employers and workers it is hoped that this situation will be maintained.
It is my desire to keep the House fully informed of developments in the situation and, to this end, I propose to make further statements from time to time.
Mr. Gammans: There are two questions I wish to ask the Prime Minister. First, are the Government going to do anything about summer time; and, secondly, could the right hon. Gentleman arrange for supplies of paraffin to be more widely distributed throughout the country, so that people who have no other means of keeping warm or of cooking when the electricity is turned off can at least do so with paraffin?
The Prime Minister: The question of summer time is under consideration, but one has to consider whether by the introduction of summer time we will not lose at one end what we gain at the other. Obviously, I think hon. Members would agree that this would not be a time to introduce summer time. The steps suggested by the hon. Member with regard to paraffin have been taken.
Mr. Gammans: Does that mean the Government will be able to provide paraffin without any difficulty? Because my information is the exact opposite.
The Prime Minister: We are providing more paraffin wherever it is necessary.
Mrs. Middleton: In view of the incidence of unemployment, and the fact that owing to the three days' waiting period many homes will be without income this weekend, is something being done to enable these people to draw unemployment allowances, not on Friday of next week, as is usual. but on Friday of this week?
The Prime Minister: Perhaps the hon. Lady will put that question to the Minister of Labour. Arrangements are being made, as far as we can possibly make them, to see that no one shall suffer.
Mr. Maclay: Is the Prime Minister satisfied that the inter-Departmental arrangements, both on a Ministerial level and otherwise, are now such as to obviate any risk of another situation arising such as arose over the night of Thursday-Friday of last week in connection with bunker coal?
The Prime Minister: The inter-Departmental arrangements are satisfactory.
Mr. Oliver Stanley: Are emergency arrangements being made for the abnormal repayments under the P.A.Y.E. scheme which will be necessary owing to the large unemployment?
The Prime Minister: I understand my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer is issuing a statement on that subject.
Mr. Stanley Prescott: The Prime Minister has told the House of certain savings which have been effected as a result of these cuts. Is it now possible for the Government to give any estimate of how much, and for what period of time, it will be necessary to close industry down? Secondly, would the Government make a statement as to what advice they give to employers of labour? Many employers have gone on paying the men, and have acted in a most co-operative manner. It is obvious that many industries cannot go on like that indefinitely. Has the right hon. Gentleman any observation to make on the suggestion that, after a certain period, employers should dismiss the men, but should pay them a certain sum over and above their unemployment benefit to make it up to their previous wages?
The Prime Minister: With regard to the last point, that matter is under consideration: and there have been conversations with individual employers about what should be done. With regard to the first point, it is impossible to say at the present time when we shall be able to get back to the supply of electricity for industry. That must be the first thing to be done as soon as we have piled up the necessary stocks. It does depend, not only on the weather in London, but on the weather in the North-East, and also on the sailing of ships, as to how soon we can pile up sufficient stocks. We must have sufficient stocks before industry reopens.
Mr. Gallacher: In view of the magnificent accomplishment of the Minister of
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Fuel and Power in the production of coal, and the fact that the immediate difficulty lies in another direction, why has there not been an official repudiation of the violent Tory and Press attacks on the Minister of Fuel and Power? I would like an answer.
The Prime Minister rose —
Mr. Speaker: Mr. Keeling.
Mr. Gallacher: I would like an answer from the Prime Minister, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker: I do not think that question really deserves an answer.
Mr. Keeling: Why will it still be legal to use electric light domestically from 12 noon to 2 or from 11.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.—a time when there is less need for artificial light than at any other period of the day?
The Prime Minister: That is the time when people cook
Mr. Keeling: I said "light."
Mr. Gallacher: On a point of Order. When I had asked my question the Prime Minister rose to his feet and then, with the hubbub and you rising, sat down. I want to know where it appears in Erskine May, or anywhere else, that when the Prime Minister is about to answer Mr. Speaker should intervene.
Mr. Speaker: I can certainly point out to the hon. Member where it appears in Erskine May, that when a Member has been asking too many supplementary questions the Speaker has refused to allow him to ask another question after that. That is in Erskine May. The hon. Member for West Fife (Mr. Gallacher) must not expect that he will always get his own way
Mr. Gallacher rose —
Hon. Members: Order.
Mr. Speaker: The hon. Member will now resume his seat, and the Clerk will proceed to read the Orders of the Day.

ORDERS OF THE DAY

  INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION BILL
  Order for Second Reading read.
  4.0 p.m.
  The President of the Board of Trade (Sir Stafford Cripps): I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."
  This Bill is designed to provide methods for enabling private enterprise industries to bring themselves up to date, and to make themselves as highly efficient in the production and in the distribution of their products as is possible. One of the de, fects most obvious to anybody who examines our industries, is the inequality of standard between different industrial units. Some of those units are large enough and progressive enough to provide themselves with all the services essential to modern industrial development and progress—in the fields, for instance, of research, design, statistics, organisation, personnel training, and all those other matters which add so greatly to the efficiency of industry. Other smaller units very often, have not the resources to do these things by their own effort, and in many industries the units which have not those resources, in fact represent a very large proportion of the total output of the industry.
  In modern circumstances, the efficiency of the industries of the country is not the concern merely of those whose capital is invested in the industries, or even of those who contribute their work to those industries. The people of the country as a whole are deeply interested, because we simply cannot afford to waste any of our manpower or our other resources, through inefficiency, wherever that inefficiency may be. Indeed, as we all realise now, our standard of living depends upon the efficiency with which we can produce in all the many units of production throughout the country, and the amount of hard work that is put into that production. It was because of the obvious need to do our utmost to increase the productivity of our industries, both in quantity and in quality, that, immediately this Government came into office in the autumn of 1945, we initiated inquiries into the efficiency of those industries, particularly those which supplied consumer
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  goods, and which had, consequently, suffered from concentration or, indeed, in some cases, practical eclipse during the war. We did that in order to get the best possible advice on how we should set about assisting to improve these industries, and helping them, not only to get back to their former prosperity, but to become even more efficient than they had been before.
  I should like to remind the House of the composition of the working parties, which were then set up, because I think it has a considerable bearing upon the provisions of this Bill. As to two-thirds of their personnel, those working parties consisted of representatives of the industry that was being inquired into, one-third being employers and one-third employees. The remaining third consisted of persons not directly connected with the industry, but having some professional qualifications in a field which could be particularly helpful to the industry—economists, accountants, engineers, architects, designers. These various qualifications were to be found among the so-called independent members; and they were able, therefore, to give the advantage of their particular technical knowledge to the working party as a whole, and, also, to have regard to the consumers' point of view.
  It is, perhaps, surprising to some people, in view of the difficulties that existed, as we know, between the different elements in industry, that, in the great majority of the matters affecting those industries that have been inquired into, the working parties have reached unanimous conclusions—it is really a very remarkable thing—despite the obviously different approaches of different members to the problems which came under examination. Perhaps, when one looks at it a little more closely, it is not so much to be wondered at that these groups of sensible and intelligent men and women, confronted with the detailed facts and difficulties of the various situations in industry, should have agreed on the measures necessary to assist industry to get out of those difficulties. There has certainly never before, so far as I am aware, been such an opportunity for so thorough a review of the circumstances of various industries, and for the examination, too, in many cases, of their counterparts in other countries. As the House will be aware, a number of delegations have gone from the working parties

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  to visit industries in various other countries of the world, particularly the United States of America, but also including Sweden, France and Switzerland, and other countries, so that they might be well informed on the comparative circumstances of those other industries, before arriving at their final recommendations. It is right to say that these working parties have done a great service to industry and to the country, and have produced reports which are really a mine of information, and upon which we can, I hope, base the future progress of the industries that have been inquired into.
  Many of the recommendations that have been made in these reports are, of course, already being acted upon either by the industry itself, or by some Government Department, or other body concerned. But, as appears from the reports, there is a need, in many of these industries, for some new type of central body to undertake the execution of the various recommendations, to see to their supervision, and to secure the production of certain common services for the industries, which, as I have mentioned, are sometimes available to large organisations, but not to the smaller organisations.
  I want to make it clear that this Bill deals with only one aspect, and that is this general aspect, of the working parties' reports. It does not pretend to deal with all the many detailed recommendations that have been otherwise put forward. Great importance is attached to many of those recommendations and we are seeing to them in other ways, through other channels. All that has been done, and is being done, for instance, to help the cotton industry is a good example of how other recommendations are being followed up. To give one other example, the problem of new machinery for the hosiery industry is a matter of great importance to that industry, which is being followed up through other channels. In following up these other recommendations we have found that organisations such as the Cotton Board have been of the greatest help, and we are confident that similar bodies in other important industries would be equally helpful, both on the general approach and on following up particular lines of action recommended.
  Running through the principal reports of the working parties, is a recommendation that some central body should be set
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  up. The suggested composition of that body varies in different cases, as one would expect, according to the incidences of different industries, but in all cases the principle is accepted, that both employers and employees must be represented on the body, and that there should be some element, be it large or small, of outside membership. In practically all cases, it is also recognised that such a body must have some means of financing itself. It is no good creating a body of that kind, setting it up to do a job, and then asking it to rely merely on the voluntary subscriptions of those who are keen on the subject. The essence of the idea put forward is that the organisation should cover the whole industry, and, therefore, everyone should contribute to its support, as was done in the case of the Cotton Board and in some other organisations set up for other purposes. As to the functions which such a body should perform, that, of course, depends upon the particular industry; the suggestions put forward differ, though there are a number of common suggestions which run through the whole of the recommendations.
  I have said on earlier occasions that the policy of the Government is to assist, as far as possible, the implementation of the recommendations of the working parties. It is no use, in our view, and I am sure the House will agree, setting up inquiries, and asking distinguished and hard-working people to take part in them, if we are going to disregard the recommendations when they are made. This Bill is designed to produce the organisational structure for industry, which will best accommodate the recommendations of most of the working parties. There may still be some people who fear that this Bill is in some occult way, an introduction of nationalisation of industry. It is, of course, nothing of the sort. If and when we believe it to be in the national interest to bring other industries under national control or ownership, we shall act directly, and not by some ingenious subterfuge. This Bill is designed to reinforce and strengthen private enterprise industries, so that they can make the best possible showing in the national interest. If conditions were such in any industry today, that industrialists were not prepared for this kind of common effort to assist themselves in arriving at the highest possible degree of efficiency, it would, indeed, be a very

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  bad look out for that industry and fur the country. That is certainly not the deduction which is to be drawn from the conclusions arrived at by the leaders of both sides of industry, who have inquired into these matters in the working parties.
  Before coming to the detailed provisions of the Bill, I should like to say a word or two about the point which has, perhaps, been exercising the minds of some persons in industry. It has been suggested that these functions, which are proposed by the Bill, for development councils might be carried out by existing trade associations, and that, therefore, the new body is not necessary. Trade associations are, essentially, bodies representing employers only, just as trade unions represent employees only. For the purposes which we have in view, and which the working parties had in view, it is essential, as was pointed out, that both employers and employees should be represented on these development councils. It is, therefore, out of the question for anyone with an up-to-date realisation of the development of relationships in industry to imagine that any body could he acceptable for such a purpose, unless it included both employers and employees. That really emphasises the fact that the development councils will not in any sense supersede trade associations, any more than they will supersede trade unions They will be the forum in which the two bodies will meet, and no doubt much of the work they do will be done through their communications with those other bodies. They will provide a common meeting and deliberating ground for the topics which fall within their ambit, and the bodies of employers and employees will continue as before, to carry out their own particular functions.
  It is also generally agreed that it would not be wise or practicable to try to change over the machinery of the joint industrial councils to the purposes which this Bill has in view We are anxious to keep production and development matters separate from negotiations as to wages and conditions of work. For that reason. such matters as wages and conditions of work have been expressly omitted from the list of activities suggested for the development councils, so that they cannot impinge on what is properly the functions of the negotiating bodies as between employers and employees. This is very
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  largely the distinction that was drawn during wartime between the joint production councils and the bodies which were negotiating wages and other matters. It may, however, be very advantageous in some circumstances to have close liaison between the development councils and the joint industrial councils. They may both help in their work, and for that purpose we should make it a practice to appoint two members from the joint industrial council to any development council which is created.
  I should next like to deal with the Government's general approach to this problem of the organisation of private enterprise industry. We believe that there must be the greatest degree of flexibility in applying any organisational pattern. Industries differ enormously in their circumstances, and what is advisable for one small and easily defined industry, is, obviously, not necessarily desirable for some other great industry which spreads itself over a great many products. This merely imposes the necessity of the Bill in its present form being an enabling Bill. I do not suggest that all industries will prove suitable to be dealt with under this Bill. That is not our idea at all. Already, as the House knows, other forms of organisation have been developed, in, for instance, the shipbuilding industry, the motorcar industry and so on. The fact remains that there is a large number of industries to which, it seems to us, this flexible form of organisation might well be applicable.
  It would, clearly, he out of the question, if we are to make any real and rapid progress in dealing with industry, to do it by means of a separate Bill for each industry. That would be postponing for years the setting up of a central organisation for a number of industries which have already expressed their wishes to have such a body. The process would be far too long drawn out to be effective, and such a suggestion could appeal only to those who would rather see nothing of this kind developed. I can understand that suggestion being made as a form of blocking opposition. But as a practical method, if you want to get on with the job, there is no way of doing it except by an enabling Bill Of course, an enabling Bill must be administered with great care and understanding, and the first point of that understanding is the realisation that to do things by compulsion is far less

  553
  healthy and less effective than to do them by agreement. Even if agreement takes rather longer—as, of course, it must—it is, in the long run, more effective. Agreement must, wherever possible, be by both sides of the industry, and the majority of both sides.
  That is why we have inserted provisions in the Bill for consultations with both parties, employers and employees. If the working parties are any criterion, it should not be difficult to get a degree of agreement which will assure the successful launching of such a development council. It is not our intention to rush into this form of organisation for all industries at the same time, trying to cover the whole complex area of British industry. That is not our idea. But there are certain cases which undoubtedly call for immediate decision such as, for instance, the cotton industry, in which the system has already proved itself. There, the Cotton Board have done a good job indeed, but certain adjustments are required in the light of experience. It is, therefore, proposed to repeal the legislation—which never came into operation—for the setting up of a body of this kind, and to deal with the adjustment of the Cotton Board under an order made under this Bill. We hope that the benefit of the experience which the Cotton Board have had will be of great assistance to other industries which are considering the setting up of a similar council. We shall hope to take, first, those industries where a development council has already been recommended by the working party, and, after consultation with the parties, we shall hope to arrive at an agreed form for the development council, and agreement as to what functions they should have and other matters with which I will deal in a moment.
  The House will notice that the list of functions in the First Schedule which can be performed by the development council is a maximum list, subject to one point which I shall mention later. But it does not mean that all those functions will be given to any particular development council. What functions they have, will depend on the needs and desires of the particular industry, and will be a matter for discussion and, I hope, agreement with the two sides of the industry. I cannot, and I do not pretend to, give any undertaking that, in the last resort, in some special case, it may not be necessary to
  554
  impose a development council by order, without the consent of everybody concerned. I hope very much that that will never be necessary, but if it were so, this House, of course, would have complete cognisance of the fact and control of it, because in every case the order setting up the development council has to be passed by an affirmative Resolution of Parliament. What, I think, is essential is that we should regard our industries as integrated teams of producers, not in the light of isolated units of production, the strongest of which may have all the services necessary, while the weaker cannot have the help which is essential if they are to reach a high level of efficiency.
  It is noticeable in the working party reports that the deficiencies that are pointed out are almost solely connected with matters of common interest to the industry as a whole, and not to individual firms as such. Research, education, accountancy methods, salesmanship, and so forth, are all matters in which there is a common interest in industry, and it is in these matters of common interest that the development council will be able to help, though not compel, the individual units in industry. All the powers in the First Schedule of the Bill are powers to promote or undertake activities, but there are no powers to compel anybody to do anything under that Schedule. The only powers of compulsion are those in the actual Clauses of the Bill, dealing with the collection of statistics, the registration of persons in industry, and the collection of a levy, if it is authorised. The Bill provides for a very large measure of cooperation in the matters of common interest which I have mentioned, a co-opration open to all those within industry and it also provides a body with which the Government can work in full partnership—which is of great advantage to the Government. I know from my own experience of the Cotton Board, how invaluable that is when one is trying to make some kind of advance and progress.
  There is one obvious danger which I should mention, because I am sure it is in some people's minds. Bodies of this kind, which represent the entire industry, may be liable to try to adopt and encourage restrictive practices for the industry, practices which would be inimical to the consumer and, indeed. to the general national welfare. It is for that

  555
  reason that their functions in the Schedule are so limited as to exclude any power of imposing restrictions, either on entering into industry or on condition of the sale of goods manufactured, except in the matter of recommending the voluntary adoption of quality and other standards, and certifying marks. If it should become necessary, the Government will take active steps to stop any such encouragement of restrictive practices by a development council, even if it meant amending their powers or adopting other suitable measures which could be taken. It must be quite clear that such purposes are not the object for which development councils are to be set up, but if perchance they should stray into the area of restriction they would be brought back immediately to their proper function. I do not anticipate that anything of that sort will happen, but it is something against which we must guard.
  With those general introductory remarks, perhaps I may now rapidly run through the Clauses of the Bill itself. Clause r enables certain named Ministers to set up by Order a development council for any industry, and there is no definition of the term industry, which covers any form of productive activity, but does not cover distribution. It will not be possible, for example, to set up a development council for the wholesale textile or similar distributive trades. The Clause covers any productive enterprise, including agriculture. It enables a council to be set up in order to increase efficiency or production in the industry, to improve OT develop the service which it can render to the community, and to render such service more economically. The functions of a development council for this purpose are as set out in the First Schedule. They are the maximum function, and will not necessarily, each of them, apply to every development council.
  It may be asked why so many Ministers are named. The answer is that all the Ministers named are responsible for some form of production. The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Minister of Supply, the Minister of Food, the Minister of Works, the Admiralty, the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Minister of Fuel and Power, and the President of the Board of Trade are all responsible for some area of production. Within the area
  556
  for which they are responsible, they will be able to apply the Bill. Subsection (3) makes provision for consultation with organisations representing employers and employees.
  Under Clause 2, provisions are made for the constitution and membership of the development councils. The provisions lay down that in selecting members under Subsection (3) they shall come from three categories—persons representing employers, persons representing employees, and other persons being independent of those two elements. There is no definition of the number of members from each group specified. That is a matter which is left for negotiation according to the different industries. Clause 3 contains the provision that a development council may provide a register of persons carrying on business in the industry, but there is no power to restrict registration. It merely gives the council the power to ascertain who is operating within that industrial field. If we are to have any kind of development council which can raise a levy it is obviously necessary that they should know who are the constituents of the industry.
  Clause 4 deals with the question of levies. It enables power to be given to a development council to collect a levy to meet its expenses, either from the persons carrying on business in the industry, or persons dealing with any material used in the industry. That is because it is sometimes more convenient to raise a levy on raw material, as, for instance, cotton, than it is on the direct processes of the raw material as it passes through the industry. The order has to set out the maximum that can be raised by way of levy, but that does not mean that the development council have to collect that maximum when the time comes. If I am asked to state the likely amount of the levy, I can only cite the example of the cotton industry, in which a levy of £100,000 a year, is about one-tenth of 1 per cent. of the value of the industry's output.
  Mr. Cobb: Too low.
  Sir S. Cripps: That may be so, but I am only giving that as a measure, so that the House may know the figures which we have in mind. If the development council wants more money, it can always apply for an amending order to raise the levy. It is probably wiser to

  557
  start not too ambitiously, and to see how things work out, rather than to jump straight away into a very ambitious scheme.
  Mr. Cobb: May I ask the right hon. and learned Gentleman if he will bear in mind that the most up-to-date of our competitors intend to spend about two per cent. of their net sales, and that if we are to make headway I think that we shall want something higher than the figure suggested.
  Sir S. Cripps: I am aware that numbers of large industries spend very large proportions of their incomes on this wise purpose, but I think that it would be a mistake to try to launch these development councils on too grand a scale. The thing is to get them soundly launched, and to let them direct their own way and find out how great a service they can render, and if they require higher rates of levy, and the industry would like it later on, that can be put up. Clause 5 deals with the restriction on disclosure of information obtained by members of the staff. Its purpose is to see that particular information supplied by a firm is kept confidential, and does not get out to competitors or to persons who may misuse it.
  Mr. S. 0. Davies: Since a development council may cover an industry which is highly developed and another not so highly developed, are we to understand that no information which the development council may get from one firm will be passed to another firm, irrespective of how advantageous to the second firm it may be?
  Sir S. Cripps: No particular information will be passed over without the permission of the first firm, but general conclusions drawn from statistical information, may be circulated throughout the whole industry. It is exactly the same as with a census. Particular figures are not published, but the general conclusions drawn from those figures are published. What an industry wants to know are the general lines of conclusion, and not the particular statistics of an individual firm.
  Mr. S. 0. Davies: I did not have statistics in my mind. To be perfectly frank Are trade secrets enjoyed by one firm not to be disclosed irrespective of how advantageous they may he to other firms?
  Sir S. Cripps: No. The only power which a development council will have for asking for disclosure of anything is with regard to statistics. They cannot ask for a trade secret. It would obviously be quite wrong to do that, while we have the present structure of industry. It will be only possible to get disclosure of facts of that kind if that is agreed to by the person in possession of them. There can be no disclosure otherwise.
  Clause 7 deals with reports and accounts of development councils. These have to be rendered annually to the Minister responsible, and he has to lay them before Parliament. Clause 8 deals with amendments of the orders setting up development councils, and allows them to be operated or dissolved if a development council wishes to cease. Subsection (3) lays down that at a date not later than the expiration of three years from the coming into effect of a development council order, and at five yearly intervals thereafter, the Board or Minister concerned shall consult the council and the organisation of employers and employees on whether the council should continue in being, and, if so, whether variations should be made. That is inserted in order to make certain that we do not get a useless council, which merely clutters up the ground continuing in existence. If it is no good, we will be able to get rid of it, and, therefore, this periodical review has to take place compulsorily under the Bill to see that we do not get useless bodies continuing in office.
  Mr. David Eccles: Could the right hon. Gentleman tell us what led him to incorporate independent members in the development council? I can well understand that when an inquiry into an industry is being made, it is a good thing to have independent members, but surely these independent members, it they are members for several years, will, in fact, become experts in the industry, and so lose the one thing for which an independent member is valued—that he knows nothing about it.
  Sir S. Cripps: There are two reasons First, a number of working parties have recommended it. After examining the whole conclusions themselves, it likely arose out of their own experience. We can imagine them saying, "We are a jolly good body and we have done good

  559
  work. We should like to see a body like ourselves continuing in industry." Secondly, it is similar to what happens when the directors of a company want to get someone with a different type of experience, someone who is not permanently and wholly devoted to the industry. It may be a good engineer, who is associated with quite a different type of industry but whose knowledge would be a great advantage in assisting engineering development. It may be a designer or an accountant, who has experience of some analogous industry. I am sure persons of that kind can be of great assistance in helping to spread experience between different industries. Particularly where a chairman is concerned I think that every working party suggested that he should be an independent person.
  Mr. Edgar Granville: There is nothing wrong with an independent being accepted, so long as he is not representative of, elected by or appointed by one of the associations concerned in the industry.
  Sir S. Cripps: Under the Bill independent members must be persons
  "as to whom the Board or Minister concerned is satisfied that they have no such financial or industrial interest as is likely to affect them in the discharge of their functions as members of the council."
  [An HON. MEMBER: "What about consumers?"] A consumer can be an independent person from several points of view. We could put in a distributor or a wholesaler, because he has no interest in the manufacture or production of the goods of that particular industry. He is interested only in distribution and, therefore, there is nothing to prevent him, as a distributor, being an independent member.
  I was dealing with Clause 9, which is a matter outside development councils in the sense that there may be certain industries in which a development council will not be required, but which, on the other hand, would like to have the means of collecting a levy for research, for development, for design or for export as we have already found in a number of cases. In those cases, under this Clause it will be possible, without setting up a development council, to make provision within the industry, for a levy to support either scientific research, the promotion of export trade or the improvement of de-
  560
  sign. I will not go into the details of how the matters are to be arranged, but they are set out in the Clause.
  Under Clause 10, there are provisions for the disposal of certain accumulated funds and surpluses from cerain wartime organisations which were set up when exports were being encouraged, in the early stages of the war. Power is given to distribute those in the cause of advancing this general principle. Under Clause 11, legal power is given to do what has already been done in the Supplementary Estimate—to make a grant to the Council of Industrial Design, and to make grants to associated bodies of various kinds which have as their purpose the encouragement of design in any industry. It is rather similar power to the power exercised as regards the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. I do not think I need trouble the House with any of the other provisions except to mention again the Clause which deals with the repeal of the Cotton Industry (Reorganisation) Act. This Act will no longer be required. It has never come into operation and in any case its functions will be replaced by an order made under this Bill. I have I hope covered the main points. I have no doubt that hon. Members will have questions to ask. which the Parliamentary Secretary wil1 attempt to answer, when he replies.
  In conclusion, I should like to say that I believe that the provisions with which I have dealt, properly administered, win prove of great value to the industries of this country. They are not novel in their conception; they have been anticipated by the structure of the Cotton Board which is undoubtedly proving of great value. What we are seeking to do by this Bill is to make similar conveniences and advantages available for other industries, leaving it to Parliament to judge in each case, as it will have to, when each order comes up for affirmative approval. In the light of the actual treatment of the proposal, when it is submitted, it will be seen whether Parliament considers it desirable to consent to the adoption of the scheme for a particular industry—a scheme which will come up, of course, after having been formulated following full discussions on both sides of the in dustry. I feel that this is the least we can do to assist in carrying out the fundamental and organisational proposals which have ben put forward by the working

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  parties, and those reports in my view have been submitted after a most meticulous examination of all the problems of the industries concerned. It is because of our anxiety to get ahead and make rapid progress towards efficiency in all this wide field of private enterprise in dustry, that I ask the House today to grant a Second Reading to this Bill, and I hope to speed its passage thereafter.
  4.49 p.m.
  Mr. Oliver Lyttelton: It is always a great pleasure in this House to hear a skilful Parliamentary performance, and particularly one by the right hon. and learned Gentleman in an emollient mood. We have listened to a very sober recital of the advantages of the Bill according to the right hon. and learned Gentleman, but he has, with his customary skill, concealed the weakness of his case, skated over those things which go too far and generally has been in a mood of sweet reasonableness—apparently. Of course, no one in any part of the House would cavil at the objects which the Bill has set and the terms, however magisterial, in which the objectives are defined.
  The general object of the development councils is to increase the efficiency and productivity of their particular industries, and to enable them to render better and more economic services to the community. We would all say "Bravo" to that object, particularly if we were prepared to forget certain things that are happening at the present moment, but I must say that if the Government have any discernible qualities, those of a sense of timing and a sense of irony are certainly not among them. A week or two ago they were exhorting all sides of industry to produce more, and they actually issued the first economic White Paper—which ended by adjuring everybody to put their backs into it and produce more—on the very day that the first drastic coal cuts in industry were announced, making any exhortations futile. Now, this very week has been chosen to produce the present Bill, and it seems to me to be a most infelicitous moment. We should feel a great deal happier if the Government could show us a single instance where they could manage their own business, with even reasonable competence, before they embark on Measures to teach other people how to manage theirs. Nevertheless, as I have said, the objectives are
  562
  unexceptionable and we can all endorse them, but having said that—and I always go as far as I can with the right hon. and learned Gentleman—I must add that it is at this point that I depart very sharply from him. When we come to the nature of the legislation, and the methods to be pursued, that is the point at which we join issue with the Government.
  Let me deal first of all with the nature of the legislation. The right hon. Gentleman put up a very polite, bland and urbane excuse for this method of legislation. I recognise, as do all hon. Members, the great difficulties which attend the framing of legislation which has to deal with a confusing variety of problems and to cover the complex and interlocking nature of modern industry. It is, in fact. impossible to apply a single remedy or a single Act of Parliament, so that it is applicable to the almost infinite variations of the problem, and in some cases no legislation is really needed at all. There are, of course, two ways of dealing with a heterogeneous problem such as this. The first is by the constitutional and democratic method of making clear-cut and clearly-defined legislation where necessary so that it can solve a problem or a group of problems which may prove intractable to other methods. This is, as I shall show later, the type of legislation which is used to set up wages councils. It is a precise method and gives the greatest Parliamentary control, and surely, if we believe in the sovereignty of Parliament and parliamentary control, tins point should be among the first preoccupations or hon. Members in all parts of the House. This process of thought narrows the area of uncertainty, and points a keen and sharp instrument for a special and particular purpose.
  I entirely reject the right hon. and learned Gentleman's argument that this type of legislation of a rather ad hoc nature is inapplicable to the present problems. They can be grouped, and it would be perfectly possible to introduce specific legislation to deal with the groups of problems instead of asking for these unlimited powers. It must be acknowledged, of course, that this method involves the Ministers in certain processes of thought which are always rather tiresome. It also involves them in paying close attention to the problems of a number of different industries, in thinking

  563
  long and deeply about how they are to be assisted and the means to be adopted if they are required to foster a better organisation, and in deciding then, and only then, whether a number of Bills to fit the varying nature of the problems are indeed required. Naturally, where the Government have determined, as in cotton, to give financial assistance to an industry on a large scale, legislation of the kind I have mentioned is no doubt necessary, but it differs entirely from those cases where industries have trade hoards, wages councils and voluntary organisations. I will return to that point later.
  Whatever the arguments may be, the Government have not chosen this precise, constitutional and democratic method. They have chosen the other—the idle, perfunctory method of this Bill. The Government say, "Since we must produce Bills, and since we produce very little else, do not let us think precisely. That would waste time. Let us seek rather the widest and least defined of powers which could be issued and applied to almost anything, and when we have obtained these powers from a shaken but still docile Parliamentary majority, let us see afterwards what we are going to do with them."
  Mr. Mikardo: Does not the right hon. Gentleman wish that were true?
  Mr. Lyttelton: I only said "rather docile." Perhaps the hon. Gentleman is not a docile Member of the Parliamentary majority.
  Mr. Mikardo: Certainly not.
  Mr. Lyttelton: The Government say, "If anyone objects to the unlimited nature of these powers, we can always reply, as we did over the Goods and Services Bill, that the powers will not be used in that way. We have all these things, but we are very sensible people, and very sensible managers. Look at the production drive and how it is going today. We shall know just how much discretion to mix with the potion." But that is no kind of answer at all. The truth is that this Bill is the very worst type of delegated legislation, and I do not think that these statutory development councils are the right means of organisation to help industry where that is necessary. Nor,
  564
  as I have said before, do I think that any general remedy can be found within the framework of a single Act of Parliament without taking these almost unlimited powers which I do not think should be taken. I have said that this Bill could hardly seek wider or less defined powers, and if hon. Members doubt the justice of that phrase let them study three things in the Measure itself. I am afraid that I must trespass on the patience of the House by quoting two. First, Clause 8 (2) says:
  "At the request of the development council provision may be made by an amending order under this Section for assigning to the council functions for whose exercise by the council it appears to the Board or Minister concerned to be expedient to provide for any of the purposes mentioned in Subsection (1) of Section one of this Act, being functions of a kind similar to those specified in the First Schedule to this Act or such as appear to the Board or Minister concerned to be capable of being conveniently exercised in association with functions of a kind specified in that Schedule which have been assigned to the council or are to be assigned to them by the amending order."
  That Clause is the most extreme example of an "overcoat" Clause which I have ever seen in my short experience of Parliamentary life. One has to read it in conjunction with Clause 1 (4), which says:
  "A development council order may provide for any incidental or supplementary matters for which it appears to the Board or Minister concerned to be necessary or expedient to provide."
  Those are the two Clauses in the Bill to which I referred, and nothing could he wider.
  There is a third matter, to which I will refer later on. It concerns the First Schedule. Study of that Schedule will show that the functions there set out embrace almost all the activities of any industry, except the function to which the right hon. and learned Gentleman has referred, that of turning itself into a cartel —and except, of course, that of making a profit. That is a rather significant omission, but we all know how naughty it is today to try to make a profit, however glad the Chancellor of the Exchequer may be to take it away afterwards. The area of uncertainty, which is now a regular feature of the present Government's policy, will be spread far and wide, while we shall be left largely in the dark about the Government's intentions. The description of the Bill should be amended to read something like this: "A Bill to legislate first over the widest possible

  565
  field, and to start thinking afterwards." It appears to us on this side of the House that, if unamended, the Bill can carry Socialism in one form, with all the attendant mismanagement that that means, into any of the industries of the country. It is true that the Bill does not provide for State ownership or for compensation—or confiscation as it has now become—but it provides for unlimited State interference, or, if you like, intervention, with the slimmest and dimmest Parliamentary control.
  Sir S. Cripps: Would the right hon. Gentleman point out where the provision for State intervention is?
  Mr. Lyttelton: I come to that point later on The point I am making at the moment is that the Minister will be able, under these provisions, to place himself virtually in control of these development councils. That is where he gets his finger into the pie. I have dealt with the general nature of this legislation, which I say is delegated legislation of the worst kind. Enormous powers are sought. The right hon. and learned Gentleman tries to calm cur fears about the immense range of these powers by saying that they will he used with discretion. That argument is very poor, and unworthy of him.
  Now, let me pass from the general nature of the Bill in order to examine it in greater detail. I want to impress upon the House with all the force that I can, that the Bill raises a fundamental question of the utmost importance to industry. The fundamental question is whether we are to abandon the voluntary method of negotiation, and undermine the voluntary organisations which exist in this field, in favour of State machinery such as the development councils. I noticed that the right hon. and learned Gentleman skated very quickly over this point. He only said something which is quite obvious to all of us, that in dealing with industry you must deal with some body other than a trade association. He entirely evaded the point. I am on quite a different point. I am saying that these statutory bodies will tend to overload and overlap the voluntary organisations which exist in industry, such as those organisations representing trade unions and employers. This part of my subject falls into two parts. The first is the overlapping and overlaying of the functions of other Ministers, notably the Minister of Labour. I
  566
  cannot believe that much thought has been given to this subject, but if there has been a departmental battle, it is obvious that the Minister of Labour has lost it all down the line. We must turn to the First Schedule for illustrations of my point. Paragraph 2 uses these words, among others:
  "Promoting … inquiry … as to labour utilisation."
  That surely cuts across the province of the Ministry of Labour. Paragraph 3 relates to industrial pyschology. Paragraph 8 is concerned with promoting technical training. What does the Minister of Labour think of those paragraphs? There is even worse in paragraph 9, which cuts straight across the relations between trade unions and employers' federations, and other joint negotiating bodies. Then, look at paragraph 10:
  "Promoting or undertaking research into the incidence, prevention and cure of industrial diseases"
  This relates to a continuing and necessary piece of research which we can, at no time, afford to neglect; but is the development council the right medium? How far does the inclusion of this paragraph in the Schedule mean that the work of the development council cuts across the activities of bodies both national and international which are now functioning in this field?
  Mr. Attewell: Can the right hon. Gentleman give us the names of the bodies that are functioning in industry?
  Mr. Lyttelton: I cannot do so offhand, but I think it is within the knowledge of the House that there are bodies like the I.L.O which deal with these matters. Paragraph 12 also cuts straight across the functions of the Ministry of Labour. I am sure that the right hon. and learned Gentleman will recognise the justice of my remarks when I say that if, when I was Minister of Production in the Coalition Government, I had framed any such Schedule as this, it would have provoked a most violent and characteristic reaction from the Minister of Labour, now Foreign Secretary. I assure the House of my belief, that if the Foreign Secretary were now Minister of Labour, the Bill would never have seen the light of day. All these matters fall within the jurisdiction of the Minister of Labour and National Service.
  Mr. Kenneth Lindsay: Except one, which the right hon. Gentleman did not mention —physical training. That is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education.
  Mr. Lyttelton: I beg the hon. Member's pardon. There is certainly another Ministry concerned there. In individual industries, many of the matters fall within the jurisdiction of the joint machinery of employers and workers under which the terms and conditions of employment in various industries are negotiated. Well tried and highly organised machinery already exists, not only for dealing with these matters in individual industries between the two sides, but also to secure that the two sides have the necessary contact with the Ministry of Labour. The setting up of statutory development councils with terms of reference which bring them into the field of labour on so large a scale, can only lead to overlapping and a conflict of jurisdiction among Government Departments.
  Even more serious is the duplication of machinery and of jurisdiction which will arise in individual industries. That is again a point over which the right hon. and learned Gentleman very wisely skated quickly. He made a genuflexion over the difficulties by saying that he would, where it was desired, see that two members of the Joint Industrial Council were appointed to the development councils. That argument only serves to show that he realises there is a great danger of duplication and that, in fact, duplication must take place. The appearance of these statutory bodies will tend to break up the whole system of voluntary organisation.
  Mr. George Hicks: Does not the right hon. Gentleman know that the development councils are to be composed of one-third representatives of the employers and one-third of the operatives in the industry; and will not these people be careful of the needs of the industry and refuse to allow themselves to be intimidated by the other one-third?
  Mr. Lyttelton: These are statutory bodies, and the independent members will be subject to all kinds of Ministerial control—here I am rather anticipating my later argument. These independent members will be introduced into the statutory bodies which will, undoubtedly,
  568
  abrogate the functions now exercised by the trade unions on the one hand and the employers' federations on the other. That is my sincere opinion.
  I turn aside for one moment to consider what this machinery is to do, and to what numbers of those employed in industry it applies. First, there is the voluntary joint negotiating machinery set up by the employers' organisations and trade unions themselves. Secondly, there is the statutory machinery which is a development or evolution of the trade boards now known as wages councils, which applies to those industries where the negotiating machinery between employers and employees was considered to be inefficient and where wages were deemed to be particularly low. I remind the House that in the original Act setting up the trade boards, a public inquiry had to be held to determine whether those two conditions obtained. That has been altered by the Wages Councils Act of 1945, but the Minister has still to satisfy himself that those two conditions obtain before he sets up a wages council. So, the public inquiry has now been dispensed with. There are 52 of these wages councils in existence, and there are other similar bodies, with which the House will be familiar, which have been set up under special Acts of Parliament such as the Catering Wages Board and the Road Hauliers Wages Board and so forth.
  According to the figures with which I have been supplied, voluntary machinery covers about 12,500,000 persons employed in industry. Joint negotiating machinery other than the joint industrial council covers about 7,500,000. These are cases in which there is no written charter between the trade unions and the employers' organisations. Then there are industries, employing 5 million workers, with written charters, covering the joint industrial councils. That makes up the 12,500,000 covered by voluntary organisation. Then there is the statutory machinery which I have already mentioned covering about 3,500,000. The total covered by these arrangements, the bulk of which are voluntary, is therefore about 16,000,000, and I suggest to the House that the present proposal for setting up development councils, is entirely redundant as far as labour questions are concerned.
  Mr. Bechervaise: It does not deal with conditions of employment.
  Mr. Lyttelton: The hon. Gentleman has not followed the Schedule
  Mr. Cobb: Yes, we have.
  Mr. Lyttelton: I do not want to go through it all again—
  Mr. Bechervaise: The right hon. Gentleman might point out where wages are mentioned.
  Mr. Lyttelton: I started by referring to the utilisation of labour.
  Mr. Bechervaise: Labour utilisation here really means the better application of the machinery to secure better use of the labour available. It has nothing whatever to do with the right hon. Gentleman's interpretation, and I suggest that he is going much too far.
  Mr. Lyttelton: All the things I have mentioned deal directly with labour questions, but if hon. Members imagine— [Interruption.] I think I am entitled to be heard, I am speaking with the greatest sincerity, and I shall be only too glad to be proved wrong. If, I say, hon. Members, particularly those who have been trade union officials, imagine that development councils can be set up to deal with all this paraphernalia set out in the First Schedule, without encroaching upon the field of wages and conditions, they will prove to be utterly wrong. It is impossible to cover these matters without overlaying and overlapping the machinery that exists. It is impossible and hon. Members will one day remember what I have said.
  I now turn to the question of training and entering into industry and how these bodies overlap. These subjects have been discussed continuously by both the Federation and the T.U.C. through the Joint Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Labour and internationally at the I.L.O. conferences. Indeed, the Joint Consultative Committee in December, 1945, issued a report both to the organisations of employers and to trade unions throughout the country laying down the standards on these matters. I cannot see how the development councils can be prevented from abrogating these functions in the process of time. The President of the Board of Trade shelters to some extent behind a statement that none of these councils will be formed except after consultation with industry.
  570
  That is in Clause 1 of the Bill, but it does not carry us nearly far enough. In fact, he made things worse by saying in a very charming voice, that he hoped he would never have to use compulsion, but that he must tell the House that if people did not come along quietly, there existed behind his emollient phrases, this power which he proposed to apply. It was, however, better for people to come along quietly than for him to impose those powers on them afterwards. We can follow him as far as that, but can we have a definite assurance that the Government will consider an amendment to the Bill, stating that these councils will not be set up unless, after consultation, the Minister is satisfied that there is a majority of the industry in favour?
  Sir S. Cripps indicated dissent.
  Mr. Lyttelton: The right hon. and learned Gentleman shakes his head, which shows that the provisions in Clause 1 about consultation are not worth the paper they are written on.
  Sir S. Cripps: How would the right hon. Gentleman arrive at the majority? Would he give each employer the same vote as each employee?
  Mr. Lyttelton: I did not ask for that at all.
  Sir S. Cripps: The right hon. Gentleman said a majority of the industry. How would he ascertain the majority? Would he give each employer the same right to vote as each employee in order to find the majority?
  Mr. Lyttelton: I imagine that in these cases the Minister would consult the working parties which have been set up under his own aegis. On the working parties there are a certain number of employers and a certain number of representatives of the trade unions, and all I am asking is that the Minister should be satisfied that a majority of the two sides of the industry are in favour of setting up a development council, because if they are not, I can tell him straight away that they will not work, and everybody with practical knowledge of these matters knows that that is true. He says that the development councils which he proposes to set up ab initio under this Bill have in fact—it is one of his own arguments—fulfilled the condition which I now ask he should

  571
  apply in other directions. He said that the working parties had unanimously recommended these development councils in certain cases. Therefore, we know that the right hon. and learned Gentleman, however difficult he may find it to ascertain a majority, is still able to ascertain unanimity. I am asking whether we can have an assurance that a majority will be ascertained before these statutory bodies are imposed on industry.
  Mr. Cobb: How does the right hon. Gentleman define a majority?
  Mr. Lyttelton: I want now to record my opinion in no uncertain terms that by transferring these labour questions from the machinery built up partly under the Ministry of Labour, and more generally by voluntary bodies, to the new statutory machinery of development councils, the prestige and efficiency of voluntary negotiating bodies, in which both sides of industry have implicit confidence today. will be needlessly thrown away. Is there any hon. Member, trade unionist or employer, who really thinks that this is the time to start setting aside voluntary organisation? I cannot say how strongly I feel that these statutory development councils are the thin end of the wedge, and that eventually the negotiating machinery, in which we have great pride on both sides of industry, will be overthrown by this new and ill-thought-out legislation. I remind hon. Members of what the present Foreign Secretary, when he was Minister of Labour, said in the House on the Wages Councils Bill, on 16th January, 1945. Referring to the voluntary machinery, he spoke of
  "the most priceless thing in this country, something which has carried us through the war witnout loss of our liberties, the great voluntary system of negotiation in the industries of this country.—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 16th January, 1945; Vol. 407, c. 71]
  There are one or two less important points with wish I wish to deal.
  Mr. Mikardo: There cannot be any.
  Mr. Lyttelton: If the hon. Member for Reading (Mr. Mikardo) wishes to interrupt me, let him rise to his feet. I turn now to the question of the so-called independent members. To earn the title "independent," members must have
  "no such financial or industrial interest as is likely to affect them in the discharge of their functions."
  572
  Expressed in less elegant language, the qualification is that the member knows nothing whatever about the industry in which he is about to perform the duties of schoolmaster and adviser. [Interruption.] I know how distasteful it is to hon. Members opposite if I expose some of the weaknesses of the Bill. They must get accustomed to understanding that there are two sides to these questions, however distressing that may be to them. There is another curious provision as regards independent members. Just at the time when the new Companies Bill seeks to prevent compensation for loss of office, I think quite properly, or gratuities being paid to directors of joint stock companies on retirement, the Bill gives the Minister and the councils the right to pay gratuities and pensions to the retiring members. This is yet another piece of patronage given to a Minister over an undefined area, and of course, it is a very powerful weapon to prevent the independent members from becoming too independent. This is one of the means by which Ministers are seeking to influence in the direction in which they wish the deliberations of these councils. I can see the reason for the chairman being appointed by the Minister from outside the industry, even if it does mean perpetuating the system under which the Government consider it right to appoint the Adjutant-General as chairman of the Linoleum Board. I quite agree that we have swallowed some of these things, but I see little except disadvantage—
  Sir S. Cripps: Is not the right hon. Gentleman being offensive to the person concerned?
  Mr. Lyttelton: I said that I did not mind the perpetuation of a system by which the Adjutant-General becomes chairman of the Linoleum Board. It emphasises that the chief qualification of independent members must be that they know nothing of the industry concerned. I see little but disadvantage in the appointment of other so-called independent members. In the first place, it gives the Minister virtual control, if he chooses to exercise it, over the development councils where the two sides of the industry are not in agreement. Secondly, the development councils, when they are set up, will have to spend, as working parties have done, the first six months or year of their operations in teaching the independent members the

  573
  simple facts about the industry, without which obviously no recommendations can be made. These development councils will, furthermore, place a very severe strain on the personnel of other industries from which, according to the terms of reference, the independent members have to be drawn. Industrial relations have been governed by bodies representing employers and trade unions, without the introduction of independent members, for a very long time, and I think this machinery should not be altered.
  There are two more subjects to which I wish to refer. The first is scientific research. I yield to none in my advocacy of scientific research and development as an aid to industrial prosperity, and the Government are now beginning to recognise that. Here, as in other places, they acknowledge its importance. I welcome that heartily, but I must turn aside for one moment to give the House an example—and this is entirely within my own experience—of how the Government's protestations on research worked out in practice. My own company, which I think I may claim has always been in the forefront of industrial research and development, is attempting to expand its fundamental research, particularly in those aspects of nuclear physics which may have application to peaceful use. The company owns a large country house near Reading, suitable for a research station. The property was requisitioned during the war and it has been virtually empty—one or two people at the most have been in it—for nine months. For nine months we have tried to get it released, and have had to look on at the usual battledore and shuttlecock between Government Departments, and still we cannot get our own unoccupied property back. Of course, when we do get it back, the usual battle over licences will begin. This property has been unoccupied for nine months, it is required for research, and we cannot get it released. I mention this to show how the Government promote research. I suggst that they set up a development council of their own to co-ordinate the activities of requisitioning Departments, and if they believe in this machinery, they will find the battledore and shuttlecock can be cut down by months and months. I would like to see a little more practical approach to the question of research and fewer protestations.
  574
  The last subject to which I want to refer is the levy. It has some significance in relation to research and development. Suppose that there are a hundred firms in an industry, and 75 of them are progressive and spend a large amount of money on research, and suppose that there are 25 backward firms. Under this Bill, as framed, a levy could be raised from the 75 firms in order to set up research and development for the 25 firms. This is what I think would commonly be called an injustice, and something which puts a penalty upon efficiency. I very much fear that the effect of these proposals will be the opposite of what the Government think. The tendency will be created for people to sit back and wait until the research can be paid for under these arrangements by the industry as a whole. I think that these provisions are extremely dangerous and not beneficial, because research is the last subject which should be regimented and centralised in the way proposed. This part of the subject has not been thought out at all in this Bill and the provisions are harmful.
  Lastly, there is the matter of principle involved in this right of imposing a levy. There used to be an old constitutional slogan: "No taxation without representation." In the process of time, it is quite true that we have given representation to many who are not taxed at all or are very lightly taxed, but that does not detract from that old slogan. Under this Bill it is possible for a council to impose a levy on unwilling members of an industry. There is far too little recourse to Parliament which is one of the few remaining rights left to the taxpayers in this kind of matter. I trust that this part of the Bill can be amended, so that a levy will not be imposed unless a substantial majority in the industry is in favour of it.
  Mr. Scott-Elliot: Would the right hon. Member be a little more precise about one point which is troubling me? He has used some phrase like "direct contact between industry and the Government." Would he say more precisely if he feels this might be done by means of trade associations, joint industrial councils, or what?
  Mr. Lyttelton: My general approach would be to use the existing machinery, which is the Joint Industrial Councils plus the other voluntary organisations, and, in the case of the wages councils, the statu-

  575
  troy bodies. If any of those are felt to be inadequate to the purpose, or not to cover a wide enough field from the point of view of either side of industry, the right way to approach the subject is to try to evolve from those bodies something which would operate adequately over the whole field. That is my point of view, and I would not try to replace them by this new fangled statutory development council.
  To sum up, this Bill represents delegated legislation of the worst type. It overcomes the difficulties inherent in the varied nature of the problem by seeking unlimited, overriding, enabling powers—and the right hon. and learned Gentleman admitted that. That can be seen in the First Schedule and in Clauses 8 and 1 (4). The whole Bill pays only lip-service, and the right hon. and learned Gentleman has emphasised that fact, to the principle of consultation. Secondly, it is designed—that is not the right word—it will have the effect of destroying the voluntary machinery for negotiation between the two sides of industry. Thirdly, many of the paragraphs in the First Schedule give eight Ministers and Ministries powers to cut across the functions of the Ministry of Labour. Fourthly, the independent members other than the chairmen appear to be redundant. Fifthly, the Bill sets up a new bureaucracy, widens the range of patronage to the Government and gives power for the retiring members of the council to be paid pensions and gratuities. Sixthly. it gives the council power to impose taxes on members of an industry whether they like it or not, and violates the principle of "No taxation without representation." Lastly, it is an insidious means of giving eight Ministers overriding powers to control and regiment any industry in the country over the heads of either the trade unions or the employers' federations. For all these reasons, we propose to vote against the Bill.
  5.33p.m
  Mr. Cobb: I wish to take up one point emphasised by the right hon. Member for Aldershot (Mr. Lyttelton)— the question of independent members. Was the right hon. Gentleman being quite open in his objections to the appointment of independent members? Let us take the case of some trade associations Let us for the sake of argument take the Electric Lamp Manu-
  576
  facturers' Association, in which the right hon. Gentleman is interested. Let us consider the method of operation of this particular body as an example, and see why they would object to an independent member on one of these bodies poking his nose into this particular association's activities—
  Mr. Lyttelton: I am sure this is a very interesting line, which the hon. Member always likes to pursue, but it is quite without application to the particular argument. I was talking of a body on which the employers and the trade unions were represented. The particular body he is talking about is only an employers' body. What he is saying, although it may be of general interest elsewhere, has no reference whatever to the argument I was advancing.
  Mr. Cobb: The right hon. Gentleman did say that these bodies which the Bill seeks to set up would to some extent interfere with the operations of some trade associations—
  Mr. Lyttelton: I must interrupt the hon. Member again. I know quite well that he is trying to introduce personal matters into this discussion, but I may say straight away that I have never advanced that point at all. I was talking of independent members where employers and employed are already represented. If the hon. Member will confine himself to the points I made, and not try to demolish the points I did not make, we shall get on better.
  Mr. Cobb: I understood the right hon. Gentleman to make the point that he did not like the appointment of independent members. He advanced one reason, but I have the impression that it was a manufactured reason and that the real reason for his objection was something far more —
  Mr. Lyttelton: On a point of Order, Mr. Deputy-Speaker. Is the hon. Member in Order in imputing to me insincere statements on a matter of this kind?
  Mr. Deputy-Speaker (Major Milner): I do not know whether that was the suggestion, but perhaps the right hon. Gentleman will allow the hon. Gentleman to develop his argument in his own way and we shall then see what he has to say.
  Mr. Cobb: I do not think I am making imputations. Let us leave what the right hon. Gentleman said, and examine the operations of some trade associations in this country, of which the Electric Lamp Manufacturers' Association is one. Let us see why this particular association might object to independent members on the new body which might be set up for that section of the electrical industry. The Electric Lamp Manufacturers' Association, if it is not a cartel, is almost a cartel. They have not done a great deal of research in this country. They meet together and decide the selling prices of lamps. They fix the discount to the retailers and to the wholesalers, and they have never disclosed the manufacturing costs. In fact they never disclosed them to the Ministry during the war. They rejected any effort at costing. It will not have escaped the House that the question of costing is mentioned here. I have no doubt that it has not escaped the attention of the right hon. Member for Aldershot. The Electric Lamp Manufacturers' Association rejected costing. It is rather significant that they maintained their prices throughout the war, and that instead of increasing them when costs began to go up at the end of the war, for some mysterious reason—which may have been due to pressure from the Ministry of Supply—they reduced their prices to the public by 20 per cent. It is on the cards that an association like this might be very reluctant to have independent members poking their noses into operations of this description. I can well understand it.
  For instance, they might not like it at the moment if the glass supplies for the lamp industry were to be investigated. I wonder whether an independent member would not. start asking questions why some of the independent lamp manufacturers who are not in the ring, find it difficult to get glass bulbs when the only manufacturers who make them are in the ring. Why is it that these independent manufacturers are not getting all the glass bulbs they want?
  Mr. Sidney Shephard: On a point of Order, Mr. Deputy-Speaker. Is the hon. Gentleman speaking to the Bill?
  Mr. Deputy-Speaker: The hon Member was dealing with the question of independent members. An hon. Member is entitled to make his speech in his
  578
  own way, and is responsible for what he says.
  Mr. Benson: The consumer's point of view.
  Mr. Deputy-Speaker: The hon. Member's remarks must be relevant to the Bill.
  Mr. William Shepherd: Would the hon. Gentleman name any concern in this country which is able at the present time to carry all the supplies of glassware it would wish in order to carry on its business?
  Mr. Cobb: Because the glass manufacturers of this country, including the members of E.L.M.A., are so hopelessly inefficient, as compared with their competitors in America, they cannot supply all the glass. The example I was quoting was of an independent lamp manufacturer, whose factory is shut clown in an area of unemployment due to the fact that he cannot get bulbs, and the only source from which he can get bulbs is his ring competitor, namely, E.L.M.A. I am suggesting that this Bill has been brought forward to set up independent members on the organisation proposed in the Bill, so that these things can be looked at. It is to the public interest to see that they do not happen in the future. Not only do we want organisations to promote research, but we want the public to know the facts for once, so that the free wind of public opinion can blow through some of these boardroom doors which have remained shut so long. I know it is very awkward for some hon. and right hon. Gentleman opposite who have kept these things secret for so long, that hon. Members on this side of the House should have had the sense to allow hon. Members to be elected on this side of the House for once who know something about these things.
  I leave that particular point because there are one or two other matters in which I should like to touch. Strange as it may seem, I have sympathy with some of the points put forward by the right hon. Member for Aldershot. I have some sympathy with him, but not entirely, because the eloquent speech of my right hon. and learned Friend the President of the Board of Trade has convinced me that, with regard to one or two views I had, I may have been barking up the wrong tree.
  Mr. Lyttelton: Oh, no.
  Mr. Cobb: It is true that a large part of British industry could benefit by greater activity in the fields enumerated in the Schedule. There, we are probably completely in agreement, but I wonder whether the method chosen is the right one. Could not they be re-formed—I trust my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary will mark that I said "reformed"—with trade associations together with trade anions? Trade associations at the present moment generally represent only employers. The distributor interests, generally, are not represented on these trade associations, neither is the consumer interest represented. I wonder whether a trade association could by some reorganisation have distribution and consumer interests properly represented, to make sure that the small manufacturer is adequately represented? I realise that my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade put forward the most persuasive reasons why that should not be done, but I would like the Parliamentary Secretary, when he replies, to enlarge upon that to some extent. I feel that we have far too little managerial talent in this country, and that the setting up of these new tripartite bodies may point, to some extent, to waste of managerial and trade union time. It is only a query in my mind, but it might be advantageous if it were examined.
  There is another point which will arise when we come to the question of the small manufacturers, and that is whether you use the machinery of existing trade associations, or set up these new tripartite bodies. As one with some practical experience of the operation of this, I have in mind that the real grass roots of industry, the small manufacturer, the man who really works on the job and knows it, is not touched by these vast high level organisations. Officials of Ministries can, and do, deal with the chief executives of big manufacturers, but let us remember that before the war, there were only about 1,000 companies in this country with more than 1,000 employees. There are some 40,000 small manufacturers. My constituency is a remarkable example of a cross-section of these. Take out two or three manufacturers in Elland and Brighouse in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and the rest, honest-to-God, small manufacturers, have never heard of the Regional Council. of the Ministry of
  580
  Supply, or of the Board of Trade. It is impossible for officials to go anywhere near them. That is the great defect of whatever organisation is set up. Whether you have trade associations re-formed as I have suggested, whether you have these new tripartite organisations, will they get down to these people?
  I want to recommend to my right hon. and learned Friend one good maxim: that if you want to get results, you have to make calls. Let me quote the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to show what I mean. Here you have an admirable Government body, set up to do research for industry but, good as it is, that body has never got down to the small manufacturer. I have suggested several times that the D.S.I.R. should put technical commercial men on the road to call on the small manufacturers, talk to them, and make them aware of what is being done. No matter how this Bill is operated, if you are to get down to the real background, the real roots of British industry, the small manufacturer—who, in many cases is antagonistic to research; scientific and engineering research have never been sold to him yet—you will never do it by writing to him, by holding highbrow technical lectures in London or in the main towns of the country. You will only do it by arguing this matter out with the man on the spot. When your technical commercial salesman first calls, he will probably be thrown out on his ear, but he will have to find, as every salesman has to do, ways and means to get in and sell his product. In this case, it is science and research and developmental engineering.
  I am sure this has to be done, and am convinced that whatever kind of organisation we set up, unless it is taken to the consumer, it will not be used. That is one reason why I am not happy about this proposal. I am not happy about it for a different reason from that of the right hon. Member for Aldershot. If I were a small manufacturer—and I have a lot to do with a small manufacturing company—I would object to the compulsory levy, because I would feel that it would organise me out of business, instead of competing me out of business. Also organisations such as those of the right hon. Member for Aldershot have considerable advantages over the small manufacturers. I do not blame him, and I do not mind if he competes me out of

  581
  business. But I would mind if he organised me out of business, by an organisation for which I have to help pay. Unless I can get the benefits of this research, for which I have to pay, the benefits go to the big company, which is put in a better position to organise me out of business. In other words, the benefits of the research, which have to be paid for by everyone in the industry, are going to the big companies, the dominant dozen in the industry, the people who already use their organisation, and dominate the position in trade associations, but can organise a small competitor out of business. If we do not see that the benefits of this work go right down to the small manufacturer, and is sold to him, the big man will be benefited to the detriment of the small man.
  The Bill sets out to do a lot of things. It provides pools of research, but how are we to get the people in industry to drink from them? Nothing is said about that. I suppose we have to fall back on what the President of the Board of Trade said—that it depends very much on how the Bill is operated. There I agree with him. We have to do the research, but we ought to make sure that the people in industry know about it, and provide persons with degrees to enable this information to come into the factories. There could be one man with a B. Sc. degree in a factory, or, where there are a number of factories, one such man for a small group. In my constituency there are several small manufacturers. It may be that not one could afford a man with a B. Sc. degree on the staff, but, possibly, five could afford to engage him. In practice, the present arrangement is that the big manufacturer can afford to have such people going backward and forward between the research establishment, and his own establishment. Subconsciously, the research establishment does the work that the big company wants to be done. Unless we can get qualified men attached to small factories, we shall not get an adequate flow of knowledge from the research establishments into the small manufacturer's premises.
  As to this proposed dichotomy between production and distribution, I was surprised to hear the President say that when the research organisations are set up, they will apply to production problems only, and not to distribution
  582
  problems. If there is anything in this country that needs research, it is distribution. Over the last century, for every pound spent on research into production problems, I do not suppose twopence has been spent on distribution. The skilled industrial manufacturer solves many of his production problems in the sales field, and many of his sales problems in the factory. This is a wellknown practice, and to draw a line between distribution and production is a thoroughly bad thing. I hope the President will have another look at this point. Perhaps he will deal with distribution in some way later on. I believe distribution and production ought always to work hand in glove, and be closely geared one to the other.
  The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (Mr. Belcher): I think my hon. Friend misunderstood my right hon. and learned Friend's reference to distribution. What he said was that there was not to be a development council for distribution as an industry. But there is nothing to stop a development council for a particular industry inquiring into problems of distribution, such as my hon. Friend has mentioned. If my hon. Friend looks at the First Schedule, he will see paragraph 5 which specifically refers to the
  "production and marketing of standard products."
  Mr. Cobb: I am much obliged to my hon. Friend. I have read the Bill, and it was because I had read it that I was surprised to hear the President say what I thought he said. I hope that when the President comes to operate the Bill, and to appoint people, he will see that they are not all trade unionists, or production people, but that someone with knowledge of distribution will be appointed, so that we can get closer collaboration between production and distribution in each one of the councils which are set up. If that is done, I think it will mean that we shall get some very good results from the operation of the Bill.
  5.56 p.m.
  Mr. I. J. Pitman: It is always a pleasure to listen to the hon. Member for Elland (Mr. Cobb). He is one of the pillars of the modern "managerial revolution" and he has an outstanding record in management. I think, however, that for the first part of his speech he ought to have read his Bible a little better. There

  583
  is a fine passage in Ecclesiasticus which says:
  "Speak to thy friend: peradventure he did it not: and if he did it, that he do it not again."
  Over the Electric Light Lamp Manufacturers, and over my right hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot (Mr. Lyttelton) I think he has been extremely unfair. I know he did not intend it, but he was. Surely the issue is this. Industrialists and the right hon. Member for Aldershot among them are saying, "We are perfectly prepared to throw open our books and information to the development council consisting of representatives of the trade unions and even, I imagine, to representatives of consumers. We have no secrets of which we are ashamed. All that the right hon. Gentleman for Aldershot in fact complained about was the unnecessary presence of the independent member who was in effect capable of being a Government stooge. It was to his presence that he objected, not to the information being available outside the board room doors.
  I speak in three capacities. First, as an ex-Director of Organisation and Methods of the Treasury. It seems to me that this Bill is really applying the idea of "organisation and methods" which have been adopted by the Civil Service at the request of this House, to industry generally. In passing, let me say that my experience is that the Civil Service has adopted the idea of organisation and methods very well. Let me also pay a tribute to the President of the Board of Trade in that since my departure, the O. & M.—Organisation and Method Section—at the Board of Trade—has progressed enormously. I attribute that largely and gratefully to his personal interest and practical support.
  I am, however, sorry not to see the name of the Chancellor of the Exchequer backing the Bill, because I think if it had been referred to the Chancellor then the Treasury's O. and M. Section would have put this Bill right and in many respects. It seems to me that this Bill violates the one principal and cardinal factor upon which successful organisation and methods work can be conducted. I see the hon. Member for Reading (Mr. Mikardo) in his seat opposite. I know from personal experience that both in industrial consultants and in the O. and M. Departments of the Civil Service the
  584
  application of brain and infinite capacity for taking pains to problems of human effort whether in matters of organisation or of method yields colossal dividends in material benefits, and also, because after all we are all human beings, in spiritual benefits as well. But the very strength of the Treasury O. and M. Division, and the very strength of the consultant in a business, is that it is a free association in what is a most delicate and personal relationship.
  There are three parties in any O. and M. work. There is the O. and M. worker, there is the management, which carries the responsibility, and, finally, there is the staff, who have to carry out the changes. At present any one of these three can walk out of that relation as freely as they contracted it, and it is the very essence of it, just as happiness in matrimony depends upon a relationship which is freely and willingly formed, and not upon something which is forced. So in the O. and M. relationship. Force by the Crown in its Legislature, in its judicature in deciding issues and in its Executive in supervising and in imposing penalties causes the free relationship to be vitiated and willing co-operation to be undermined. I say that the very presence of these three forces within an Act produces the very condition under which organisation and methods as now proposed must fail. I am quite convinced that the right hon. and learned Gentleman's only chance of succeeding is by operating organisation and methods voluntarily and willingly. I am sure that he could succeed using persuasion rather than force. I would like to ask the Parliamentary Secretary whether the President of the Board of Trade is really so despondent about his own ability, as a Cabinet Minister, whether he really fears that with his position, with the traditions of his Department, with all the knowledge and all the information he and his Department can get under his Statistics Bill, that he cannot successfully act as a catalyst to bring these three parties together voluntarily and so allow industry to work this 'Bill voluntarily, and relieve them from the certain failure which will come if he seeks to operate under duress.
  May I next speak in my capacity as a citizen? It seems to me that the Ministry of Labour has been very wise in avoiding and in continuing to avoid direct responsibility

  585
  for agreement between employer and worker over wages. The President of the Board of Trade would have done well to learn wisdom from that example and to have sidestepped the responsibility for efficiency of management in this country. I advise him this because, let us face it, the moment this Bill is passed, anybody who likes to get out of their own responsibility, whether as a manager or as a trade unionist, can with justification "pass the buck" by saying, "If we are doing wrong, surely it is up to the Government to get their own development council going and solve this. They have taken on the responsibility for solving this problem. Let them get on with it"
  Then may I next speak as an employer in the printing industry? That industry is one which has been extremely happy in its relationships, and has been so happy over a long period. Both sides of the industry, employers and employees, face a great problem at the present time. The problem is, how, voluntarily, can we make the transition from a period of unstable employment during which both sides agreed on restrictive practices, or connived at them, in order to make employment go round to a new period where there is no longer need to make the work go round. How can the two sides adjust past agreements to a new world in which there is the intention, and the high probability, of providing stable employment. Perhaps I might give instances of the sort of problem with which a development council in the printing industry will inevitably be faced and the Provinces, there is a most difficult problem within the field called in this Bill "labour utilisation." Whereas the printing machine minder in the country is supposed to be able to work not only a cylinder machine, but a platen machine, in London he is supposed to be able to work only one or the other and to be unable to work at all unless his own personal "feeder" leeds his sheets. I would make it quite clear that it is not really the case that the London minder is less experienced or able than the provincial minder. But nevertheless the position is that if a firm has two printing machines, one a cylinder and the other a platen then if the opposite people are absent through sickness or other cause. work on both those machines comes to a stop although at least one would be made to work in the provinces.
  Similarly, take the question of entry to the printing industry There is the whole
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  question of apprenticeship. A most pressing problem for a development council and remitted to them under paragraphs 11 and 8 of the First Schedule. Then there is the most difficult question of working pace. In the past deliberate restrictive practices by the trade unions in the printing industry have kept down working pace below that of other nations. It has no doubt been justifiable; at any rate it has been agreed to by the employers for conditions of under employment. But we have not and will not have those conditions but new conditions I believe firmly that the printing industry can face these new conditions and solve those and other difficulties. It has got a good spirit between employers and trade unions. The two parties if left to negotiate under the conditions of free will under which that spirit has won such outstanding progress and success will come to an arrangement but the educative processes will work only slowly. But submit those two to a situation in which the independent chairman and the independent member if they side with one side or the other, can virtually force agreement on the third and it will be like bringing the two sides together in battle.
  I ask trade unionists, because I am sincere in this, whether they know what they are letting themselves in for? I ask them to realise what will happen. This Bill can be used, by increasing the levy, as a form of duress to get employers to do what the trade union members and the independent members wish done. Similarly if the Government and the independent members side with the employers, then the development council can similarly force the hand of the trade unions, because I see that under Paragraph 2 of the First Schedule, one of the functions which are to be allowed to development councils is not only
  "promoting inquiry as to labour utilisation,"
  but
  "the conduct of experimental establishments and of tests on a commercial scale."
  I maintain that if a development council really desired to take over an existing works or form a new works and run it as a blackleg concern, to force the unions to do what the unions did not want, the trade union would indeed be on the spot, with the whole force of the Government and employers against it. I think it is wholly

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  wrong that industrial relations in this country, which have a fine record behind them, should be suddenly submitted to this brand new procedure, which makes each party capable of being subject to duress. It is negotiation under duress, and as every trade unionist knows that will not get anyone anywhere.
  Finally, I am surprised at the President of the Board of Trade for failing to apply his own principles. He is a man of great sincerity. He says he wishes to proceed by agreement. Let him proceed by agreement. As I say, willing relationship is the basis of all organisation and methods work, and no such work is really acceptable or successful unless it is founded on free relationship. Secondly, let him not gratuitously and dangerously accept direct responsibility for the efficiency of industry in this country. Finally, let him not inject these new procedures of duress into employer-employee negotiations but let him leave it to the two sides and to the joint industrial councils, and above all to the joint production committees of factories. That is where the good work goes on.
  I conclude with one small proverb which was mentioned by the hon. Member for Elland. It is that one man can take a horse to the water but twenty men cannot make him drink. If the President of the Board of Trade is to take to the water not a horse but Britishers, either employers or labour trade unionists, and force their noses into the pool, he will not only get no drinking but he will find such a mud and such a stink in the pool, that any hope of their drinking voluntarily later will have disappeared. I ask him to take this Bill away, to wash it in its own muddy waters, and to drown it or to let us have it back in quite different but much better form.
  6.11 p.m.
  Mr. Mikardo: I speak in this Debate as one who has been for almost the whole of his working life, in one capacity or another, in the field of industrial organisation, and who, therefore, has had a long and extremely close interest in the subject as a whole. I noticed with some interest not merely the case which as made by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Aldershot (Mr. Lyttelton), but the very fact that
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  he was selected to lead for the Opposition in this matter. It seems to me that this Bill is primarily about small-scale industries. My hon. Friend the Member for Elland (Mr. Cobb) pointed out, I think with the general approval of the House, that we tend to think too much in terms of the factories employing a couple of thousand people, which, in point of fact, employ only a comparatively small proportion of the working population. Conversely, we tend to neglect, in our view. the small man.
  The President of the Board of Trade, in the review which he had to make of the economic life of the country, made no such mistake. One of his first acts was to set up working parties principally in industries where the unit of manufacturing tends, on the whole, to be small. Since the working parties, for the most part, were in these industries, and since this Bill, so to speak, springs out of the working parties, it is clear that the intention is that a development council shall cover that sort of industry. Therefore, one would have thought that the Opposition would have selected as spokesman one of the many hon. Members whom they have, who has had direct experience of industry of this kind. Instead, the. objections to the Bill are voiced by a right hon. Gentleman who, I think, would not deny the charge that almost the whole of his industrial experience has been in big business—with a very big capital B and another big capital B. It seems to me that what the right hon. Gentleman was putting forward was not so much the case of industry against the Bill—I do not think that case would be a very strong one—but the case of big business, which is a very strong one. It is a strong case for the reasons given by my hon. Friend the Member for Elland, that the one thing which big business does not want is that small business should become efficient and, hence, cease to be the prey of big business which can knock it about all over the place.
  The right hon. Member for Aldershot began his speech very generously, I thought, with a tribute to what he called "a great Parliamentary performance" on the part of the President of the Board of Trade. I hope he will forgive me if I say, with great humility, that I thought that his own performance fell very much short of that description. I worked in factories during the war. Most of them were

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  very indirectly under the control of the Government Department then operated by the right hon. Gentleman. We used to conjure with his name in those days, as the name almost of an archangel. His name used to strike terror throughout that section of industry in which I worked. When one came as a new Member to this House, one expected to find that whenever the right hon. Gentleman gave vent to some opinion on industry it would be based upon the cold hard facts of the situation. Yet it seems to me that never have I heard, during my short acquaintance with this House, a thinner case more thinly put than that of the right hon. Gentleman. In particular, never have I known a case which seemed to carry with it—and I do not want to impute any motives—not merely less power to convince others, but less evidence of being convinced oneself. The right hon. Gentleman built up all sorts of bogeys in connection with what might happen under this Bill and the terrible things which the President of the Board of Trade might do. I think that if one got him alone, perhaps over a cup of coffee, and said, "Do you really believe all these nasty things will happen?" he would say, "No, I don't."
  Out of my own little experience of industrial organisation, I want to say a few words very strongly and most sincerely in support of this Measure. The act of the President of the Board of Trade in setting up the working parties was nothing short of an inspiration. The reports which the working parties have produced, whilst not uniformly good, are of a very high standard in general. As he himself said, they have been a mine of information. They have acted as a great stimulus in the industries which they have covered. One looks forward to the operation of the development councils with the expectation that they will carry that stimulus still further forward on practical grounds.
  There was one thing which the President of the Board of Trade said with which I did not completely agree when he dealt with the question why there should be set up special bodies for this purpose, and why this work should not be left to the trade associations. I thought that, with that kindness of heart and gentleness of speech for which he is so justly renowned, and for which he earned a tribute from the opposite side of the House,
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  he let the trade associations down very lightly indeed. There is a very short answer to the question, "Why should not we let the job be done by them?" That short answer is, "What stopped them from doing it before?" They have had endless time to get on with this job. The trouble is that they have been so busy subsidising inefficiency, that they have had no time to encourage efficiency. They have been so busy protecting the high-cost producer against that law of supply and demand which they always laud so loudly that they have had no time to reduce costs or to do anything about a reduction in costs. They have been so busy with political work—including price rings, cartelisation, and arrangements of that sort—that they have had no time to get down to their real responsibilities, and to see that their industries were so organised as to give efficient service to their community.
  Mr. Pitman: Before the hon. Gentleman leaves that point, I would like him to study that bit in Ecclesiasticus to which I previously referred. This is a pure ex parte statement. The trade association is not necessarily or even to his knowledge, behaving badly. I think the mere willingness of trade associations to enter into partnership with labour to improve organisation and methods is sufficient evidence that these alleged bad things do not exist. They are canards.
  Mr. Mikardo: I would like to say, in reply to the hon. Gentleman, that what I was saying follows the advice from Ecclesiasticus. It is true that that can be carried to any degree to which Members of Parliament accept responsibility, but the hon. Gentleman himself spoke of a restrictionist attitude of particular associations, as well as of other bodies, and I am sure that he would not dissent from the view that a great deal—far too much—of the time and energy of the people in trade associations has been taken up by purely political or neo-political, restrictionist and negative activities, rather than the positive activities laid down for the development councils in this Bill.
  May I quote one example which conies actually from the mouth of the accused himself? The hon. Gentleman will have read, as I did, the White Paper published in May last year by the Minister of Supply and containing reports by the British Iron and Steel Federation and the Joint Iron

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  Council to the Ministry of Supply, and will have read there of the enormous machinery and interlocking trade associations that there are in the iron and steel trades. If I remember rightly, the 1,079 firms in those trades are linked together in no fewer than 36 trade associations—16 national and 20 local—and yet that report, written not by a Socialist, not by a Minister or by a Government Department, but by the Joint Iron Council itself, pays testimony to the complete failure of these trade associations, for example, to do anything worth while about the standardisation of the end product, which, especially in that trade, and especially in the direction of ingot moulds, is the most crucial need of the industry. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman must know that this applies to a great number of trade associations.
  Mr. Pitman: I would like to ask the hon. Gentleman if he would admit that restrictionist practices can be good, and, secondly, if he has read the recent report from the Committee set up by the present President of the Board on the price regulation of the Association for Radio Valves, in which it was found that, on going into the whole thing, and all these allegations which have been made, there was no evidence for them?
  Mr. Mikardo: In regard to the second point, let me say that there are differences between these associations. The association connected with radio valves is a comparatively new one, and it has not the traditions of those older trade associations, which, in the past, have been restrictionist. On the first point, I say with respect that I could not disagree with the hon. Gentleman more. The question whether one thinks that these restrictionist activities in industry are good or bad depends upon what we believe to be the function of industry. If we believe the function of industry to be to provide profits or work at high wages for workers, then I agree that these activities can sometimes be good, but, in my view, the function of industry is to provide for the community goods and services of the best quality and at the cheapest prices, and, in that view, restrictionist activities can never be right.
  I have said all this in defence of the Bill, and I recognise that it has great
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  value. I hope the Parliamentary Secretary will appreciate what I have to say in criticism of these proposals is tempered by my very lively appreciation of the value, in general terms, which this Bill will be to the industrial community. These development councils are, undoubtedly, going to be good things in themselves, but I am just a little afraid that they are being added to a large number of other agencies all ploughing their own furrow in the field of industrial management or the organisation of in dustrial efficiency. without co-ordination and in substitution of a general overall plan. The hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Pitman), with whom I have been crossing swords on industrial matters, and for whose views on industrial questions I have a great respect, pleaded with the President to leave scientific management and the organisation of industrial efficiency to industry itself. I say that, because there is a terrible shortage of skilled personnel, to which, I think the hon. Gentleman assented, the one thing that we cannot afford to do is to have this personnel dissipated in a lot of little enclaves, all with separate organisations, and all of whom are doing some work which overlaps the work of other organisations, and wastes, to a very large extent, much of the activity of this personnel.
  The one thing I am afraid of is, that a great deal of redundancy of work will take place as between the development council for one industry and the development councils for other industries, if there is to be no overall planning and co-ordinating body. For example, the problems of an industry and of another industry which supplies the raw materials to the first industry, cannot often be separated from each other. There is the problem, for example, of the boot and shoe trade, which is in part, the problem of the leather trade as well, and the same thing applies as between engineering and steel, and as between furniture making and wood, and so on. There is also the case of textile machinery and textiles. Here, we have very close links, but we may have a development council in textiles and another development council in textile machinery each going their own way. It is significant, and, I think, a little disturbing, that the only point of contact between an industry and that industry which supplies it with its raw materials which

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  is laid down in the Bill is in Clause 4 (1), in which the development council for an industry is empowered to make a levy upon the people manufacturing materials for that industry, without, of necessity, giving any representation to that materials industry.
  Then, of course, we may have industries which are in a different case regarding their raw materials, but which have common problems of marketing and distribution, and I will quote, as a very simple instance, cups and saucers made of earthenware, on the one hand, and cups and saucers made of plastic compounds on the other. The marketing and distribution of these products is precisely the same problem but, when looked at by one development council for the plastics industry and by another one for the earthenware industry, there may be a great deal of overlapping. There has been already from these Benches considerable reference to what is the most interesting and significant part of the Bill —the First Schedule, which lays down 19 functions, some or all of which the development council is to take over. I would like to point out that no fewer than 12 of these 19 functions are functions which apply, either totally or substantially, over the whole field of industry, or, at least, over a large number of industries: these are Nos.1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 17 and 18. Take No. 17 as a good example. It instructs the development council to promote
  "The improvement of accounting and costing practice and uniformity therein, including in particular the formulation of standard costings."
  This is a technique which applies no matter whether you sell escalators or elephants, laundry service or liver pills, You will find that all the development councils will waste a great deal of work in giving what is a common service and in formulating what are, in fact, common techniques. If we look at No. 3 in the Schedule, which is concerned with promoting research into matters affecting industrial psychology, we find that that is a common thing, and 90 per cent. of it or more is common to all industry. In applying that to any industry, we are going to get overlapping between the development councils and bodies outside, to which I shall make some reference in a moment.
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  The same applies to the second of the 19 functions, which includes the very important factor of labour utilisation, a term which the right hon. Member for Aldershot completely failed to understand. Labour utilisation in that part of industry concerned with ancillary departments—managerial, and so on—is common to all industry. A wages office is the same wages office whether it is in a coalmine or in a furniture factory. Personnel management is a common technique. Progress chasing is a common technique, as is storekeeping. All these things are common to many industries. The real place to go for labour utilisation in industry is in the ancillary, rather than in the operative, departments. We have stood far too long over the fitter on the bench or the girl on the spinning machine with a stop watch in our hand, and have, without question, let all sorts of other people run round the factory with papers in one hand and a slide-rule in the other, and nobody asking them what they were doing, and without a check as to whether their labour was actually being utilised or not.
  If I may intrude a personal note, I can remember a few occasions on which I have had the unpleasant task of assessing very quickly the efficiency of a factory. One thing that I did was to go to some place in the middle of the factory where two gangways crossed, and stop all the citizens who were rushing by with papers, drawings and slide-rules. I asked each of them who they were and where they were going. Sometimes I received very rude answers. But, when I sorted out those answers, I discovered that while most of them knew who they were, and a few knew where they were going, only a very few knew why. I also found that people were rushing about because the stores were at one end of the factory and the job to be done at the other, that drawings and tools were elsewhere, and that there was not a proper internal telephone service, and so on. It is that sort of thing which is common to all industries, and in studying it there will be not only overlapping between one development council and another, but between development councils and outside bodies. There is the Organisation and Methods Division to which the hon. Member for Bath referred, and in which, notwithstanding his own modesty on the subject, he did very great work during the war. They have evolved some magnifi-

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  cent new techniques, and those techniques are not bruited abroad; they are kept within the Government service. In fact, I am not at all sure that they are passed all round the Government service as they should be.
  My right hon. and learned Friend the President of the Board of Trade has set up an efficiency service which is doing a good job. But his officers have no entrée; they can only advise when they are asked, and, of course, it is only the efficient people who ask, and the inefficient who do not. There are all sorts of other bodies, learned institutions, professional associations, and so on. I am very anxious that there shall not be this overlapping between one development council and another, and between them as a whole and bodies outside, and that we shall not think of this Bill as carrying out industrial organisation in toto, but only as one step towards the wider and more effective planning of industry, which is what the nation really needs.
  6.35 p.m.
  Mr. Harold Roberts: When speaking on any Measure brought forward by the right hon. and learned Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade, one is rather hampered by the absence of feeble humour from his make-up and his several other qualities, which are not universal in all men, and thus one hesitates to differ from him. However, I think that the proposal before us has to be regarded on its merits, without any regard to the charm and blandishments of the right hon. and learned Gentleman. It may, perhaps, be a sort of qualification that I, personally, have no, got those attributes possessed by several hon. Members who have spoken already. There is, I think, always room for the inquiring child to criticise the emperor's new clothes, and I should like to consider whence comes this Measure.
  In 1945, after the industry of this country had had a most exhausting five or six years of war, the President of the Board of Trade proceeded to appoint working parties. I am not aware that they have been of service to industry, although, naturally many people who serve on them have a belief that they do serve some purpose. It is human nature, when one starts on an enterprise of that
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  kind, not to admit that it is not wanted and could be done without. That has always been the case in any committee or sub-committee with which I have been associated. Therefore, I am not at all surprised to find that these working parties have made various recommendations in respect of the different industries, and, on account of that, this Bill falls short. The President of the Board of Trade has really advanced no argument for it, other than that. It is a remarkable thing that one or two hon. Gentlemen on the Benches opposite, the hon. Member for Elland (Mr. Cobb) and the hon. Member for Reading (Mr. Mikardo), who speak with much authority, are highly critical of the provisions of this Bill. In fact, it comes to this, that, if their criticisms are justified, the bad in the Bill is so great as to make it not worth pursuing, because the defects which they mention are vital.
  I was very impressed by the desire of the hon. Member for Elland to investigate the affairs of large cartels, to break their powers, and to stand up for the thousand or so small manufacturers in his constituency. If he would go into the Division Lobby against this Bill, which has the opposite effect, I should he glad to go with him. Does it never occur to people who want to plan and improve our industry, that the backbone of it is the rather unscientific, uncosted small manufacturer, who does not reduce his costing to a level which a skilled cost accountant would approve, and who does not evoke efficiency experts, but, strange to say, is very often able to treat his workmen well, to supply goods at a price which gives a headache to the combines, and, I regret to say, can trade at a profit and, when he dies, leaves a substantial fortune? That, I suppose, may be regarded by some people as a demerit; by others, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer, I should think, a merit, for such a man pays his quota in taxes while he lives and when he dies.
  This Bill will give very large powers indeed to the respective Ministers. I want to say one or two words about the alleged checks in the Bill. These schemes have to be passed affirmatively by both Houses of Parliament, and they have to be produced after consultation with the respective interests. As those things are. likely to be continually quoted, I think it as well to deal with them in very short

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  detail. First, they have to be approved by this House. What is that worth as a safeguard? During this Parliament, I have repeatedly heard the most damning criticisms by Back Benchers opposite of proposals which have been brought forward.
  But do they follow their consciences and go into the Lobby against the proposals? No, they know their place and keep it. Those who have offered severe criticism of this Bill will either abstain or vote for it. Therefore, a Resolution of this House is no check. I would also point out that a few months ago the Minister of Fuel and Power uttered dire threats as to what would happen in another place if it dared to thwart the will of the people. It is very unlikely that any responsible person there would provoke a constitutional crisis for the sake of voting against such a Resolution.
  Then there is the question of consultation with which much play has been made. In judging words like "consultation" it will not do to rely on the English dictionary. Words acquire what lawyers call a meaning of a term of art, and the word "consultation" enjoys that advantage. It was defined by the Minister of Health some seven or eight months ago. He was charged with not having had proper consultation with various interests prior to the introduction of the National Health Bill, and he defended himself with considerable vigour, pointing out that he had consulted a great many—20 in all—but that consultation did not mean negotiation. That is to say, he intimated to these various bodies what he proposed to do, but he left it at that, and declined to bargain with them. One might say that Adolf Hitler was misjudged by people who talked about the rape of Austria. There is no doubt he entered Austria, but he had a consultation with Herr Schuschnigg before doing so.
  Major Cecil Poole: Is the hon. Gentleman suggesting that consultation and negotiation are the same thing? If so, and he is taken with appendicitis tonight, he will consult his doctor, but will he also negotiate with his doctor as to whether his appendix should be removed or not?
  Mr. Roberts: If I consult my doctor or my solicitor, I do not necessarily take his advice, and that would be the narrow
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  answer to that question. The more practical answer is the one I have given. It is not for me to argue with my betters, and I respectfully adopt the definition of the Minister of Health, that consultation means a dictate, a statement by the Government of what they are going to do, and not a negotiation. These various safeguards are worthless. They mean that the Minister can set up these bodies, the industry will be in fetters and, according to hon. Members opposite who should know, not very useful or constructive fetters. I am one of those old-fashioned people who think that people can manage their own businesses better than other people can do it for them, and that to set up another body to formulate another plan, even if it is an overall plan, is not in the least likely to help trade recovery or assist manufacturers or industrialists. A very true word was uttered a week or two ago in this House by my colleague the hon. Member for King's Norton (Mr. Blackburn) when he pointed out the perils of bureaucracy. The truth is that powers of this kind must involve bureaucracy. There must be a bureaucracy if we are to have a regimented and ordered State. For my part, I have a direct mandate from my constituency, as I particularly stated in my Election address that I was determined to oppose schemes for planning and regulating everything and everybody. I have not heard from the President of the Board or anybody else in this Debate any promise of any advantage that is to be enjoyed by the country or by industry from this Measure.
  6.45 p.m.
  Mr. George Hicks: I am taking a different line from that which has been taken by every Member who has spoken so far, with the exception of my right hon. and learned Friend the President of the Board of Trade, in that I welcome the Bill. I have had a very wide experience of and in a very complicated industry—the building industry—and I think the bodies such as are proposed in the Bill will be of immense value. I, therefore, give them a very warm welcome. I cannot conceive of any organisation better suited to meet the needs of expanding industry. We are being out-moded and out-stepped by machine development, and we are barely able to keep in touch with things which are going on. Is there any hon. Member who knows how industry is progressing?

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  They may be familiar with some branch of their own industries, but they are not familiar with industry generally, and unless we have regional bodies such as these, which can keep in touch with scientific laboratory research and advise industry generally, how shall we get to know? We shall never be able to do so if we rely on any individual.
  I listened to one Member after another deriding this Bill and making my flesh creep. I was glad when the lights went on at 4 o'clock, because I was afraid of the many stories which had been told to me of the terrible tragedies which would overtake industry and our life generally. When the facts came out, I was a little relieved. We have a large number of bodies dealing with industry today and playing a part in our economic life. Many of them do not function as they should. Many are more bureaucratic than stimulating. If the proposed body does the work which it is intended to do and tackles it in a big way, it will be stimulating instead of bureaucratic. It is so easy to pass to the other fellow; I believe it is generally called "passing the buck." It is so easy to pass the job to someone else, and, when it is not satisfactorily performed, to make a row about it. I am certain that a body of this kind will have a different idea and a different purpose altogether. If the development councils performed their task with energy, drive and imagination they should accomplish work of vast value to the organisation of industry and, of course, to the wellbeing of the people.
  I do not propose to talk very long because there are so many others who want to speak, but I would like to speak from a different angle from that from which this subject has already been approached. I am not concerned with the mere fact of an adjustment here and there between one contractor and another, or a little manufacturer and another. I want to deal with the position of industry generally. As an old craftsman, I am tragically aware of the machine development that has taken place and of the inroads which have been made on craftsmanship. The work that used to be performed by craftsmen is no longer necessary, because it is performed by machines. The craftsman has to continue adapting himself to changing conditions. Every industry has been subjected to amazing mechanical progress, especially
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  the huge basic industries like mining, agriculture, textiles, iron and steel, engineering, building and shipbuilding.
  All these industries have been subjected to enormous changes during my own lifetime, and there will be a good many more affected before we get much further. If they are left to chance, who can grasp the significance of the developments which will take place, or the wizardry of inventions that may come along tomorrow, next week, or next month, as the case may be? Who is fully conscious of the implications of developments in land, sea and air transport, and the conquest of speed, and the annihilation of distance? In this age in which we live difficulties are being overcome every day, and we are proud to look to some of these. Developments—perhaps not too intelligently. There was a song made famous by an old music hall star, which went something like this:
  "E don't know where 'e are."
  I think there are still a large number of people who do not know where they are. Owing to the amazing development of industry we have not been able to see exactly what has happened. We have not the foggiest notion of the immense capacity of the resources and powers that this country has with all its machinery.
  By setting up the development councils I think we can encourage scientific research in industry and rid it of obsolete machinery. I think this marks the first real step, the first comprehensive approach towards the organisation of production and distribution, and to social progress. While we are making a comprehensive inquiry into the economy of our country, plans should be made for research by scientists, and every industry should be asked to respond. That has not yet been done. We have never yet asked industry, as industry, to respond to a particular plan and to a target. We have generalised for quite a number of industries, and said we would like this, that and the other. Today, we are praising our friends of the mining industry for the extra effort they have put in to provide the means of keeping ourselves warm. But I could not blame the miners who might ask, "Why cannot we have more clothes? Why cannot we have more food?" We cannot ask one section of industry to work hard in order to provide warmth and comfort for another section while neglecting many of their

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  human needs. I think the miners are quite entitled to ask for those extra comforts.
  Today, some industries are swollen, both in personnel and equipment, while others are below their requirements in those regards. I think the vigorous application of priorities is required, and required urgently. At the present time our economy is unbalanced. I am not one of those who say they know everything there is to know on God's earth— even in my own country. Who can look at our industry today and say it is balanced? Why are we in certain difficulties today? There must be some very definite reason. Yet we are just passively passing on some accident which took place last year, or the year before, associating it with our mining difficulties, without necessarily examining it to see whether it is the reason or not. It is said that we are short of workers. It is said we want a million more workers in industry. Just fancy that. We want a million workers; and some bright people are saying we ought to bring in a lot of foreigners. That is their answer to the problem, without any examination of the present state of industry, as to whether it is balanced or unbalanced. If in any given industry a certain number of vacancies are offered but are not filled, there is sure to be someone who says, "We must have another million workers in industry. Let us bring in some foreigners." But they obviously have never examined the problem.
  I now want to put forward a point of view on that aspect which may compel some consideration. It is said that we are short of workers. We are short of skilled building workers, textile workers, foundry workers, brick labourers, and manual workers generally. Undoubtedly, there is a very grievous shortage in essential industries. But no emphasis has yet been given to sorting out the problem. I am satisfied there are tremendous reserves available if we did but examine the position. Let hon. Members think of the people they know. How many people does any hon. or right hon. Member know who are engaged upon productive work, or engaged in essential distributive work? Hon. Members must know thousands of people, and if they asked those people whether their jobs were really necessary they would get answers which hon. Members would not expect.
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  For years past, the trend has been to neglect and degrade the manual labourer, upon whose work the whole of society depends. That has been a mistake. The work of the miner, the agricultural worker, the textile operative, and the navvy making our roads and railroads, has not been elevated. They have been looked at in an adverse way. Take the work of the dustman. Fancy a dustman being elevated in society to being someone whom people could look up to and respect. The same is true of the sewer-man. Yet the dustman and the sewer-man are absolutely essential to our lives.
  Quarrymen, brickmakers, furnacemen and foundrymen—any number of people engaged in our basic industries—have been neglected. Some of them have been wretchedly paid, cruelly exploited and socially ostracised. Yet they are essential for the maintenance of everything that makes our civilisation possible. They minister to all our requirements, yet they have not been elevated. Youngsters have been taught to avoid manual labour like the plague. Mothers and fathers who have worked in an industry have said to their sons, "You shan't go into that industry if I have anything to do with it. You get a good regular office job, and come home at six o'clock; a job where they have a superannuation scheme." All these things will have to be inquired into if we are to get industry managed properly. I know about these questions which arise, because I have experienced them. But the manual worker has been neglected. When we look round our industries today we wonder where the men will come from. I say, unhesitatingly, there are any amount of people employed on unnecessary work.
  During the period When I was in an office I remember we had a paper salvage drive. A story was told of a man who went to the secretary of a department and said, "We have had some old papers filed away for years and years—some of them are over 25 years old. Do we really need to keep them, now that there is a paper shortage? Ought they not to be handed in for salvage?" The answer was, "Certainly, hand them in for salvage, but take copies of them before you do it." Sometimes, simply because in 20 years' time somebody may get 15 bob more than they would have done had a correct record not been kept, they are prepared to spend £15 in keeping files. That sort of work

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  is absolutely unnecessary in a healthy community. I would like this aspect of the problem looked into more carefully. Children have been encouraged to go into offices, banks and the new luxury trades, and to do anything other than a socially necessary job of work.
  I say that without a plan much of our structure is top heavy and lopsided with unessential services, and it is impossible to maintain manpower for our vital industries. The development councils can, if they get down to it thoroughly on the practical side, perform a wonderful job of liberation. This question will have to be inquired into by the development councils. What industry can do it? What manufacturer can do it? I ask the question because it seems to me to be so impossible for any employers or group of employers to tackle the problems of the industry with which they are associated. It must be done by somebody outside, and to have independent people on the development councils seems to me to be the right idea, even though there may be some little difficulty, perhaps, later on, in finding out exactly how they should perform their task.
  The workers—I want to emphasise this —have never been taken into full consultation. We have been made to realise, at incredible cost, and after severe hardship and many tribulations, that the manual workers are men and women of creative ability. We did not know who the lorry drivers were until they ceased to work. We were unaware of the dockers until they came out on strike. We were unaware of the miners until we found that we had not enough coal. We were unaware of these people, and we have not looked to their creative work to help in getting a balance in industry. These men and women have been kept for years in uncertainty, and so we have discouraged people from going into those jobs, and people have, consequently, been induced to go into unessential and unproductive work. The working people know the secrets of work. They have had no security of tenure of employment, and have known both employment and unemployment. Give them an opportunity of making a dignified life, and I think we shall have an enormous reservoir of human ability at our disposal. The manual labourer is the man who, if given the opportunity of seeing a vision of a full life, will respond.
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  But we must begin reorganisation at the bottom. We do not want to begin at the top. Workers do not want people coming down from head office in motor cars and telling them what is necessary. We must begin right down in the home, right down in the mine, right down in the factory and in the mill, in the places where the people work. It is the people there who are going to count. I want our country to be a strong and powerful country. I want our people to take advantage of all the machine development, and of all the scientific development that has been accomplished, and can yet be accomplished. But this cannot be done unless we have some organisation such as is here suggested now, and I congratulate the President of the Board of Trade on bringing forward this Bill; and I congratulate the Government, too. I believe that if this is properly worked the floodgates of opportunity will be opened for production, and that then the miserable conditions in which we are now will disappear. But we must try to divert labour from unproductive into productive industries.
  7.4 p.m.
  Sir John Barlow: We were all most interested in the very excellent speech of the President of the Board of Trade in introducing this Bill. He interested me particularly, because he laid such stress on the success of the Cotton Board, which, I gather, is the basis on which all these development councils are to be set up. I happen to have been connected with the Cotton Board. It will be remembered that it was formed in the early days of 1940. It was made up of three whole-time executive members; and the remaining nine members were from different portions of the cotton industry: there was one raw cotton buyer, a spinner, a weaver, a finisher, a merchant, and two of the operatives' representatives. Eleven of the 12 members were experts from different parts of the industry. I was elected as a full-time member to represent the merchanting interest. It will be remembered that the Board was formed because the cotton industry had found itself in very low water, due largely to the competition from the Eastern countries. Rightly or wrongly, the industry asked the Government for help and guidance just before the war. Within a few months of the beginning of the war the Cotton Board

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  was formed, with the good will of everyone in the industry. That is most important. Any development council must have the good will of everyone concerned with it. In spite of that universal good will in that trade, there were teething troubles, over which I need not spare any time. One of the difficulties of forming and carrying on a development council of this kind is to get the right men, and to get the right men to work together. I can assure those now at the Board of Trade, that the Cotton Board is in better hands, and is working very much more smoothly now than it was in its earliest days. When a proposed development council is imposed on any industry, they run the great risk in the early days of riot getting the right set up. If they do not get the right set up that can be very dangerous, indeed.
  It has been said from time to time, arid repeatedly in the Debate today, that the working people of each industry know remarkably little about the other parts of the industry in which they are directly concerned—the office part, and, possibly, the selling part. If it is any consolation, I can assure the right hon. Gentleman that it was astonishing to me to see how little one member of the Cotton Board knew about the working of another part of the industry. It was astonishing how little the spinner knew of the work of the merchant, and of how little the cotton buyer knew of that of the weaver. People may be only two steps away from each other in the industry, but it is astonishing how far apart they can be in knowledge.
  Let me assure the President of the Board of Trade that, because the Cotton Board has, after certain vicissitudes, been successful, it by no means follows that it can be taken for granted that every other hoard will work as well in its industry as the Cotton Board has in the cotton industry, which is a complicated industry with a great many capable men. It is possible that other industries may not be able to put up such good teams, and there may not be such good will. I gather that the development councils are going to be closely based on the Cotton Board. I pointed out a few minutes ago that there was only one independent member of the Cotton Board. I gather from the Bill that in the proposed development councils one-third of the number will he independent. The Bill does not lay down any definite
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  number but it rather goes to suggest that councils shall consist, as to one-third of experts one-third of the workers, and another equal section of independants.
  Mr. Belcher: I think the hon. Gentleman will recall that my right hon. and learned Friend did point out in the course of his speech that it might be only the chairman. It does not necessarily follow that in most cases there will be three independent members.
  Sir J. Barlow: I quite appreciate that point, and I noted it most carefully at the time. The fact remains, as the Bill stands, that it is probable, judging from the makeup of some of the working parties, that there will he three equal groups. Personally, I should like to see no more than one independent member who could be the chairman. I hope that when the Minister replies, he will deal with that question, because I feel that many independent members would be a serious drawback.
  We see that this Bill enables eight different Ministers to appoint development councils in any direction they wish. That seems to give far too wide a power. I notice that the Minister of Agriculture and his Parliamentary Secretary have been listening to this Debate for some time, and I hope that we may hear tonight whether they intend to apply the provisions of this Bill in their spheres. I entirely agree that certain development councils may do a great deal of good, but each industry should be encouraged to try and work out its own difficulties before anything from above is imposed on it as a kind of umbrella. We have seen great organisation in time of war, with industries working closer together, and this ought to be encouraged and fostered. The Bill frightens me as it stands and savours too much of an octopus with enormous tentacles spreading in every direction. I think that certain development councils are needed and needed badly, but where they are needed they should be imposed by individual Bills. There should be no hurry to impose them, because the system has not yet been proved to warrant introduction in this wholesale way.
  Mr. Speaker: Mr. Shephard. Hon. Members may be surprised that I have called two Members following from the same side of the House, but I would point out that we have had speeches from he Government side lasting 20, 24 and 20

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  minutes, making a total of 64 minutes, and speeches from the Opposition side lasting 14, 10 and 5 minutes, making a total of 29 minutes, and, therefore, I think there must be fairness in the allocation of time also.
  7.15 p.m.
  Mr. Sidney Shephard: I wish to look at this Bill through the eyes of an industrialist who will be affected. I am engaged in the hosiery industry. We have had a working party for that industry, and in due course we shall presumably have a development council. The hon. Member for East Woolwich (Mr. Hicks) said that this was a good Bill. I think it is a thoroughly bad and mischievous Bill. It sets up a rigid and cumbersome machine involving a waste of time and money, and it is very doubtful indeed whether it will make any contribution to greater efficiency or productivity. What it is bound to do is to perpetuate permanent control over those industries where development councils are set up. I was always a little suspicious that this was what would happen. When the President of the Board of Trade set up his working parties, I thought that there was a little more in it than mere efficiency of industry. I thought he was after closer control over industry, and I think we all realise that by this Bill he has achieved his object.
  I wish to make reference to one or two parts of the Bill which I consider to be important. Clause 1 (3) deals with the question of consultation, which has been raised by many Members during the Debate. I am told that in the talks which the President of the Board of Trade had with the Federation of British Industries, he gave a verbal assurance that a development council would not be imposed on an industry without substantial agreement from both sides. I wish to ask the Parliamentary Secretary—and I ask him to answer now—whether it is the intention to impose a development council on an unwilling industry?
  Mr. Belcher: I think that my tight hon. and learned Friend made that plain this afternoon. While admitting there are inherent dangers in imposing a development council on an unwilling industry, be could not accept the suggestion that there should never at any time be an imposition of that kind when it might be deemed
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  necessary in the national interest. We much prefer to get it by agreement, and we think we shall probably get it by agreement in most cases.
  Mr. Shephard: I am glad to have that assurance. There is no assurance, however, in the Bill, and I would imagine it to be more likely that a Minister, having made up his mind to have a development council, will go through this farce of consultation and whether there is agreement or not, will go ahead with it. Clause 2 (2) lays down that all members must be appointed by the Board or the Minister concerned. It is obvious that the Minister must nominate independent members, and no doubt the trade unions will be asked to submit the names of those they wish to be nominated as representing the workers, but I should like to know what procedure is to be adopted with regard to employers. Is the Minister going to approach the employers' associations and ask for a list of the people they wish to be their representatives, or are they to be nominated arbitrarily?
  I now wish to refer to the question of payment under Clause 2 (6). Are we to understand that all these jobs are to be fully paid and full-time? If that is so how can the Minister possibly find persons with experience of the industry concerned able to devote their whole-time services to a development council? Surely, those who are engaged in industry will hardly be prepared to give up their businesses to serve full-time, and it would seem that the choice will be limited to the failures or those who have retired. Under Clause 2 (3), it is left to Minister to decide the number of persons in each category to represent the employers, workers and outside people. There is no guarantee here of any fair representation of the employers. I am sure that the Minister will see the workers are adequately represented, and I have no doubt that the independent members will be carefully vetted, particularly in regard to their political sympathies. Is it intended that the representatives of the employers shall be in the minority? It is easy, if the Minister so wishes, to compose a development council in such a way that they are in a minority, but they are the owners of the industry, and although ownership counts for little in these days, they are also the trustees for those who have invested their savings in the undertakings.

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  But more important still, I am sorry to see that management is not to be represented on these development councils. The employers are the only category with practical and technical knowledge of the problems involved in the list set out in the First Schedule. How can it be suggested that independent people, with no knowledge of the particular industry, can make a contribution to the problems involved? I am sorry to say that there are few workers who understand the intricate workings of industry—
  Mr. Fairhurst: Why does the hon. Member make that statement?
  Mr. Shephard: Well, the President of the Board of Trade himself said it some time ago, and I have a good deal of experience of this matter. In my own works, I have a consultation committee, and I encourage my workers to the utmost to take an interest in my industry. But it is difficult, because they have not had the training. I am not saying this in a deprecatory way—
  Mr. William Wells: Does the hon. Member suggest that employers know more about the promotion or undertaking of scientific research than scientists?
  Mr. Shephard: No, certainly not, but I do not think scientists are envisaged as people to be co-opted. [HON. MEMBERS: "Why not?"] Because I presume that the independent persons are to be representative of the consumer interests, and not come from any particular technical side. What worries me is that if the independent persons and the workers are in the majority, experience as represented by employers will have to give way to theory.
  In my opinion, there is a much simpler solution to this problem. Give the existing trade organisations the opportunity of implementing the recommendations of their own working parties. Let each industry set up its own body, and the President of the Board of Trade or Minister concerned appoint to it a high grade civil servant. Let that civil servant live in the area in which the industry is situated. Let him remain there, divorced, as much as possible, from Whitehall, so that he can 'absorb the realistic atmosphere of the industry. Let him spend his whole time studying that particular industry. He will then gain practical knowledge, and know the problems and difficulties of the industry
  610
  and be able to advise the Minister accordingly. The President of the Board of Trade has frequently talked of the Government coming in as a third partner. That, to my mind, is the way in which it can best be done.
  7.24 p.m.
  Mr. Rhodes: I do not wish to detain the House long, as it would not be fair, but in answer to the hon. Member for Newark (Mr. Shephard) may I say that when the taxpayer is called upon to subsidise the re-equipment of industry he should be given representation on the council which is set up to deal with that industry? The problems following the recent war are very peculiar, and must be taken into account in the endeavour to find out whether we can even do without these councils. Before the first world war the scientific problems were mainly on the chemical side. The Germans solved those problems and when war broke out we were concerned with the development of dyes, optical glass, glass for the routine testing of steel, photographic equipment, and pharmaceutical wares. It was only in the 1920's that we set up research associations to go into chemical problems, and in the first two years of the recent war we were dashing about with our gasmasks. Again, it was the Germans who found a new technique. When their tanks came rushing through France and Belgium we realised, for the first time, that our problems were not now chemical, but physical and mechanical.
  In the textile trades, to which I have the honour to belong, the position was something like this: In the cotton industry creaseless fabrics were discovered; in the woollen industry non-shrinkable wool was discovered; viscose and acetate rayon were developed; developments were made with groundnut protein fibre. Anyone who has anything to do with research knows that its cost is not more than one-eighth or one-tenth of the cost of putting that research into practical application. Between the wars, private manufacturers came in to support research organisations. In the woollen trade, the maximum income in 1939 was £38,000, and in the cotton trade it was 80,000. To do what is required today, to put the knowledge we have of pure research into practical use, £800,000 is wanted for the cotton trade, and £390,000 for the woollen trade. If we do not get it we shall not

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  succeed. How will it be done through the development councils? I do not think that the present proposals go far enough; I think it will he a question of too little and too late. The influence of German mechanisation has put Switzerland in the forefront. The need today in our textile industries is for re-equipment. Can it be done for the textile industry, which will have development councils with no more behind them than £100,000 in 12 months? I do not think it can.
  The power of pure research should not be stifled, although it need not have the prominence that it has had in the past as against mechanics. Why not have a development council to serve the whole of the textile trade in the matter of pure research and mechanics? The hon. Member for Reading (Mr. Mikardo) said that some industries were vitally concerned one with another, and unless there is a resilience with flexibility and understanding between one industry and another on these councils, they cannot possibly succeed in their endeavours. If there were smaller councils with a larger over-riding council to co-ordinate the pure research and the mechanical side of all textile industries these problems could be considered together The smaller councils could decide the particular problems concerned with their own branch of the industry, and the over-riding council could deal also with the ancillary trades and services.
  I congratulate the President, of the Board of Trade on the standard he has set for industrial design. If industrial design were given its chance in the development of textile machinery during the next 10 years, it would change the lives of the people in Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands. In the past, the machine has been the juggernaut of the textile worker. The trade unions in Lancashire would tell you that the majority of the claims for compensation are due to "stretching." The Swiss and the Americans have got in front of us in the design of machines. There is then a great opportunity for industrial design in the new field of textile machinery.
  I would like the Minister to answer some of these questions when he comes to reply. How does the Bill link up with S.R. & O 1614 of January of last year and with the grants from the Department
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  of Scientific and Industrial Research and again with the £1 for£1 grants from the Council of Industrial Design' Will the development councils link up with the art schools and the training of industrial designers? Can he say what has happened to the proposed college for the training of industrial designers? Will it be possible for an industry to remove the chairman of a development council? I believe that if we can go forward with these councils on the right lines we need have no fear of competition from Switzerland, America or anywhere else in the textile world.
  7.35 p.m.
  Mr. Hurd: In Clause 1, the Minister of Agriculture is given power to make an order establishing a development council. We have already an Agricultural Improvement Council, which sits at the Ministry of Agriculture, drawn from farmers, farm workers and technicians. It has branches in every county under the war agricultural executive committees, and they are called technical development committees. The employers and workers are represented on those committees, and, as a team, they have enabled agriculture to make great advances in the application of science and better technique, since they were formed in 1041. There is also at the Ministry of Agriculture a body called the Council of Agriculture. There are a Council for England and another for Wales. They also bring together the three partners in the agricultural industry—the landowners, the farmers and the farmworkers. Under the Agriculture Bill, now before the House, these two councils are to be abolished. I and some of my friends in the farming industry are wondering what the intention of the Minister of Agriculture is under this Bill. Does he mean to set up yet another council in addition to the Agricultural Improvement Council?
  We must be careful to guard against the danger of overloading agriculture, or any industry, with too many committees. Many of my farmer and farmworker friends are sitting two days a week on committees, some of them engaged in useful work; but a good deal of it is paper work. I am reluctant to see so many of the best men in the agricultural industry—and no doubt this also applies to urban industries—being expected to devote an undue amount of their working life to sitting on committees advising

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  other people how to run their businesses. That is a danger, and I would ask the President of the Board of Trade to throw a little light on that point.
  7.38 p.m.
  Wing-Commander Shackleton: Most of the objections to this Bill seem to come under two headings. One, the objection to the detailed proposals, and, two, the objection to the nature of the enabling Act which gives certain powers to the Government. I would like to deal, first of all, with the need for the Bill. We have heard so often from hon. Members opposite the need for the workers to work. It is true also that we should have more manpower, but that will only be a temporary solution to our problem. The real solution to the problem which we have to solve is efficiency and more efficiency in industry. This Bill is the first step in that direction. That must be realised and accepted by hon. Members opposite, who belong to a party which under the Coalition Government accepted that Government's White Paper on full employment.
  I am hesitant today to mention the fact that we are entering an era of full employment. but, in general principle, the Government are following out a policy based on full employment economics. That means that no longer do the old theories of classical economy apply in industry No longer will the inefficient producer be shaken out of an industry by his more efficient competitors. If we succeed in ironing out the slumps, there will be no easy way in which to get rid of the inefficient producer in industry. It is vital, indeed, that the worker should not be subjected to this sort of thing from which he suffered in the past. The fact remains that we have to take further steps to achieve efficiency in industry by all means
  This matter was considered before the war, and the right hon. Member for Bromley (Mr H. Macmillan) was a very strong advocate of some form of Industrial Reorganisation Enabling Act. He said in his book "The Middle Way"—and I hope hon. Members opposite are not tired of having it quoted at them:
  "I submit that if the case for enabling power for the cotton industry succeeds, there an be no valid objection to making the same powers available to other industries."
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  There is no Clause in this Bill which was not contained in the 1939 Cotton Industry (Re-organisation) Act, and the drafting is very similar. When the Bill was introduced with much eloquence by the former President of the Board of Trade, the right hon. Member for West Bristol (Mr. Stanley), he produced an unanswerable series of arguments for the need to get efficiency into the cotton industry We know that the cotton industry does require that, and already steps are being taken to meet the need, but it applies no less to many other industries in this country. I suggest that this Bill, which I most heartily welcome, is a step in the right direction. It does not impose a fixed pattern which would be set on each industry; what it does do is it gives to the Government the power to take the necessary steps to encourage efficiency, because it is vital that we should do this now.
  It is not a matter that we can treat lightly nor one with which we can deal leisurely over the years, introducing one Bill at a time. It is something that has to be done very rapidly, and this Government, unlike previous Governments, do pay attention to the reports of inquiries which they set up. If a previous Government had paid attention in 1923 to the Sankey Commission we should not be in the disastrous position we are in today with regard to coal. I suggest that it is vital that we should accept recommendations of the working parties, which by and large have recommended that certain action should be taken by the Government. We feel that those proposals are best met by the present Bill before the House.
  I would just refer to one point made by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Aldershot (Mr. Lyttelton), who complained of the appointment of outside members to serve on the board. He said that it would take them a year to learn their job. This objection coming from a member of a party which is probably the largest group from which companies draw their guinea pig directors seemed to me as irrelevant and uncalled for as were many of the irrelevant objections which he made to the Bill There was one other objection which he made when he attempted to conjure up the bogey that the Government, the President of the Board of Trade and the development councils would spoil and interfere in industrial relations. The

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  good employer, the efficient industry like some of the big monopolies have given a lead on this, and they have shown that it is possible to develop working conditions and improve conditions in factories by the proper utilisation of labour far ahead of any statutory provisions. I do hope that one of the gains that will come from this Bill will be an improvement of conditions in industry for the workers. Naturally it will be done in consultation with the Ministry of Labour, and at the same time the fullest use will be made of the existing organisations, particularly the joint industrial council
  In conclusion, I should like to add one small criticism to my remarks. I should like to emphasise the points which were made by the hon. Member for Reading (Mr. Mikardo) in regard to the need for a certain amount of co-ordination. Some of us on this side of the House have some doubts as to the efficacy of the Board of Trade to control, direct and assist, as it must do, the activities of a large number of development councils. I hope they will give consideration to that problem. For instance some of the services which are recommended for the development councils have much in common. There is market research which might very well be done by some national organisation such as Retro. I do not wish to detain the House any longer. I should like to welcome this Bill because it is absolutely necessary in times when it is vital that we should increase the efficiency of our industry, and I hope that the House will give it a Second Reading
  7.44 p.m.
  Mr. Osborne: The hon. and gallant Gentleman the junior Member for Preston (Wing-Commander Shackleton) referred largely to the cotton industry as did the two speakers before him. I want to refer to the two principal Leicester industries, hosiery and hoots. The first claim that we make for our industries is that they are by no means inefficient and I think that the working parties' reports will bear that out. When the President of the Board of Trade was introducing the Bill I took some notes. He said first of all that the private companies now had an opportunity to bring themselves up to date. Many of the private companies, which are our smaller industries, resent that. We think we are up to date and
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  results prove we are. The right hon. Gentleman went on to say that there were three partners in industry—capital, labour and the consumer—and that a very great increase in efficiency was necessary. That is quite true, and I want to turn to this point, that while working parties have been investigating the contributions made by capital, my friends in the two industries I have mentioned have believed that it is high time that some working party made an investigation into the efficiency of the second factor, namely. labour. I am not talking about the contribution which labour makes at the bench, but rather the trade union side.
  Wing-Commander Shackleton: What does the hon. Gentleman mean by the efficiency of labour? Does he mean efficiency in the workshop or efficiency in trade unionism in the negotiating side?
  Mr. Osborne: I think I said what meant, and if the hon. and gallant Member had been listening to me he would have found that I was quite clear on the point
  Wing-Commander Shackleton: Would the lion Member make it perfectly clear?
  Mr. Osborne: If the hon. and gallant Member will allow me to make my own speech I will proceed Clause 2 (2) says that:
  "A development council shall consist of.
  (b) persons capable of representing the interests of workers in the industry."
  I think that is the crux of the whole Bill from a practical point of view, because, unless there are trade union leaders elected who are able to carry the workers with them, that Clause is going to be worth nothing. Our experience on both sides of the House, as revealed by strikes at the present time, shows that the weakness in the trade union organisation is exactly that there are no persons or group of persons who can speak for the workers.
  Hon. Members: No.
  Mr. Attewell: Would the hon. Gentleman say that with regard to the two industries in Leicester which he has just mentioned?
  Mr. Osborne: If the hon. Gentleman would allow me to finish, I am going to bring that in. In the Leicester boot trade under the existing conciliation boards we

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  have had no strikes since 1894. Why bring this Bill in to try to do a job which has been efficiently done for the last 50 years, and find jobs for the boys to have it done? My point is—and I am sure the President of the Board of Trade will agree—that every unofficial strike since 1940 has been the result of the so-called leaders not being able to speak for the workers whom they represent. I think we are all agreed on that. [Hors. MEMBERS: "No"] Oh, yes. There has been no official strike since 1940, and every strike we have had has been an unofficial one, where the nominal leaders have not been able to speak for the men they are supposed to lead. The weakness of the position, as I see it, is that once a trade union leader—and we have a trade union leader sitting opposite—is put in a position of authority, and once lie has learned what can and cannot be done, he is all the time looking over his shoulder to see if the next fellow, who is jealous of his position, is going to cause an unofficial strike and so put him out of his job.
  Mr. S. 0. Davies: I understand that the hon. Gentleman holds the trade union official responsible for unofficial strikes. In view of that, does he not give that official some credit for the fact that no unofficial strike has taken place, as he has admitted, for several years now? What is the explanation of that?
  Mr. Osborne: The country does not care two hoots whether it is an official or an unofficial strike. The evil is the same. What I want to emphasise is the very practical point that as soon as we have a trade union leader with great experience he becomes anxious because of the responsibility put upon him. He is always looking behind him for the gentleman who will jerk him out of his job.
  Sir S. Cripps: The hon. Gentleman is repeatedly saying that he is sure that I agree with him, but I should like to say very emphatically that with regard to the two trades he has mentioned I entirely disagree. He has given two specific instances of industries in which the trade unions have exercised an admirable control and restraint upon their members. In both cases, the trade unions concerned are headed by men who are real statesmen in industry, a fact which
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  is constantly being brought home to me by the employers in those industries.
  Mr. Osborne: I entirely agree with the right hon. and learned Gentleman, but can he say that the same applies in the Transport and General Workers Union down at the docks?
  Sir S. Cripps: This is not a question dealing with the docks. I thought the hon. Gentleman was concerning himself with the two industries in Leicester.
  Mr. Osborne: Indeed I am, but, with regard to those, we say that the organisation which we have already has worked in the boot trade since 1894 with great satisfaction, and we ask, Why scrap it and superimpose something else which will cost a lot of money and involve loss of unnecessary labour?
  Sir S. Cripps: The hon. Gentleman asks, "Why scrap it?" There is no proposal to scrap anything at all, and if he will read the report of the working party he will see the arguments in favour of such a body as is proposed.
  Mr. Osborne: I agree again, but if the right hon. and learned Gentleman admits that in our two industries the trade union officials have been statesmanlike and the employers reasonable, why does he want to interfere at all?
  Sir S. Cripps: Because both the employers and the trade unionists want a body of this kind.
  Mr. Osborne: That, Sir, I doubt.
  Sir S. Cripps: It is stated in the working party's report.
  Mr. Osborne: May I say that what we feel in the industry—of which I have some knowledge—is that this Bill is largely unnecessary as far as our two industries are concerned. It will tend to weaken organisations that have done a good job in the past, and we would much rather go on with the voluntary organisations that have stood the test of time than have this thing thrust upon us. I should like to conclude by repeating the main criticism, that as the experienced trade unionist becomes more and more a statesman he also falls more and more out of step with the men behind him. I do not think that the right hon. and learned Gentleman will find the men to do the job he is asking them to do under

  619
  paragraph (b) and which is so vital to the industry. If he does not the whole thing will break down.
  7.55 p.m.
  Mr. Scott-Elliot: I will not detain the House unnecessarily, but I want to refer to the remarks made earlier this afternoon by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Aldershot (Mr. Lyttelton). Towards the end of his speech I tried to persuade him to say what alternative he had to suggest to the proposals contained in this Bill. I think it will be generally agreed that some forward movement is needed, whether it be by the older voluntary bodies or by the statutory organisations that it is proposed to set up. The right hon. Gentleman contented himself with saying that there should De direct contact between industry and the Government. Let us analyse that and see precisely what it means, because the right hon. Gentleman was very woolly on the subject. In the first place, it may be said that the J.I. Cs. would do this work but they have hitherto been regarded as dealing with wages and conditions which are Ministry of Labour questions and not with Board of Trade matters at all. I feel, therefore, that we are driven to assume that what the right hon. Gentleman had in mind was the trade associations: if he meant trade associations it would rest with them to bring in the workers. They would be the prime movers and they would ask the trade unions to come in with them.
  Where is that going to lead? It will be the employers, on their own initiative, who will be doing this, and the trade unionists will be put in a subsidiary position. In other words, we shall not be having anything like the proposed national approach to the subject—the tripartite approach which is envisaged and recommended in every single working party report. The right hon. Gentleman seems to disregard the fact that in the case of cotton, pottery, hosiery, footwear, furniture, jewellery and silverware—I think those are the reports that have so far come in—every single working party has recommended some form of tripartite organisation. I think that that is one of the main arguments in favour of a Bill of this kind.
  I should like here to quote from a report of the F.B.I. which was issued in October, 1944, and which envisaged just this kind
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  of thing. It went through a list of functions which had to be fulfilled. I have not time to read them now, but they include the very things contained in the First Schedule to this Bill. What did the report say? It said:
  "Unless industry sets up a suitable organisation the Government will be compelled by pressure of circumstances to devise methods of its own."
  That is exactly what the right hon. and learned Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade is doing. What has been done by these industries in the 18 months since V J-Day? Hon. Gentlemen on the other side of the House have risen one after the other to say, "We do not like it," but I ask them, "What have you done to implement these recommendations of the F.B.I.?" In case any hon. Gentleman should say so in reply, I agree right away that the F.B.I. is mainly concerned with the engineering industry, but I believe nevertheless that the line which the Opposition have been taking in this Debate is mainly based on this report.
  I should like to say a word about the question of nationalisation which has been set up as a kind of bogy by the right hon. Gentleman. It is just another example of putting forward capitalist theory instead of facing practical reality. Let us see precisely what the position is. Why were these working parties set up? They were set up because my right hon. and learned Friend wished to secure greater efficiency in industries which he himself said were not to be nationalised. And what did the working parties report, since my right hon. and learned Friend has said this afternoon that the Government will have very great regard to what the working parties put in their reports? In every instance the working parties have reported against nationalisation and have expressed themselves in favour of setting up a tripartite body to carry on the excellent work which they have themselves been doing. That seems to me to be the crux of the matter.
  I wish to say a word about a point that has been raised in respect of employers who wish to have control over the development councils because it will be they who will have to pay a levy I see clearly the point made by the right hon. Member for Aldershot when he used the words, "No taxation without representation." But this again is very largely theory. Let us see

  621
  what in practice will really happen. The levy will be exceedingly small. The maximum figure will he laid down in a Board of Lade Order and the Board of Trade are, after all, the fathers of industry and they will obviously have regard to the kind of levy that the industry can pay. Moreover, and this is a very substantial argument, the object of the levy is not to increase the cost of production but to reduce it by means of greater efficiency.
  The line that has been adopted by the right hon. Member was essentially an employer's line, an old-fashioned line, a line which I trusted had gone once for all as a result of the election of this party as a Government. It is no longer for employers to say: "This is our industry. We intend to do what we will with our own." It is a very different case today. Industry must be conducted henceforth in the national interest. The day of national co-operation has come. I believe there is to be a real partnership in industry between employers and workers. Only thus shall we go forward as a great industrial nation. Because I believe the Bill is to implement that policy I hope it will receive a Second Reading by a very substantial majority.
  8.2 p.m.
  Mr. Jennings: There are some points that worry me about the Bill, and the first of them will strike at the very foundation of the proposals of the right hon. and learned Gentleman. It is that working parties do not fully represent the people in the industries concerned. In my Sheffield cutlery industries, I was approached and was told by some constituent firms that they were called to meetings but were very busy. They were getting on with export work and doing all they possibly could, and they could not attend some of those meetings. People who did attend were brought into very active and open discussion with regard to the working parties. Without any ill desire on the part of the right hon. and learned Gentleman, there has been, I believe, an atmosphere of hesitation in industry. It started when the Government set out to nationalise certain industries, and the feeling was that industry was to be brought up to date. Owners of businesses really began to wonder whether they owned those industries and businesses or not.
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  That is the wrong way to get the best out of the owners of individual businesses. They did a first-class job of work during the war and brought us to victory by their maximum production efforts. I put forward my view with some reserve, because the right hon. and learned Gentleman is in a far better position to know the exact situation. I have had a pretty good experience of the working parties in Sheffield. Whatever their reports to the right hon. and learned Gentleman, they did not in many instances properly represent the state of affairs in that industry. I listened carefully to his speech. He put the matter clearly. I take it that the Bill was very largely brought about by the recommendations of the working parties, but I do not believe that the working parties represent the major portion of the people employed in the industry.
  Sir S. Cripps: No doubt the hon. Member is aware that members of the working parties were appointed on the nomination of employers' federations on the one hand and trade unions on the other. I do not know what better way we could choose to make them representative.
  Mr. Jennings: That looks all right on the face of it, and I give the right hon. and learned Gentleman full marks for putting over very clearly, and making so simple, the point that it has been agreed by the employers and the workers. The industries were first of all rather threatened —if I may use a strong expression without any suggestion of offence—that if they did not take action then something violent would happen. It was rather taking the big stick to industry. The right hon. and learned Gentleman will not repudiate this. The whole atmosphere of this Measure is coloured with his political views. It is taking control from the directors and the managements of particular industries and placing it in the hands of councils. To whom do these businesses belong? To the Government, or to the people who own them and have their capital invested in them?
  Sir S. Cripps: The hon. Gentleman is asking me the question. There is no provision whatever in this Bill that takes any control out of the hands of directors and puts it into the hands of councils.
  Mr. Jennings: If that is so, I should say that the substratum of the Bill has gone completely. If it is not for the purpose of

  623
  making recommendations and suggestions for the carrying on of industry, what on earth is the good of the Bill at all?
  Sir S. Cripps: The answer is that it will make suggestions and recommendations, but that does not mean taking over control.
  Mr. Jennings: The Government are taking power to levy industry, which will be forced to pay. If we do not pay, the Chancellor may have power to send us to gaol. We have got to pay. The right hon. and learned Gentleman, with his great legal mind, cannot just wangle and worm round that one. I do not want to get beyond the rules of Order but I feel that my point of view cannot be rebutted so easily as that. Industry has to supply to the proposed councils certain information. The Minister was questioned from the Benches here when he made his speech as to the kind of information that had to be supplied to those councils. Was it to be passed on from one competitive firm to another? I see great danger in that sort of thing.
  Let us have the thing in proper perspective. It is no use telling the country that everything in the garden is lovely; it is not. [HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."] I am very pleased to hear those cheers; if hon. Members will come to Sheffield, where there is no coal, they will get some more. There is in the minds of many people in this country a feeling of suspicion and an atmosphere of apprehension. What is behind this Bill? Now that the Government have perhaps spent their nationalisation power for the time being, are they going to exercise control in another form? Are they bringing in this Bill in order to get information from industries, with the suggestion the right hon. and learned Gentleman that it has been asked for in the working party reports, and are these councils going to be properly representative of labour and capital with an independent chairman? In a free country, before the Government have any right to take or to exercise any control over any man's or any company's business, they ought to come out into the open and say so, and not do it in this roundabout way. But they come to this House in a plausible manner, and to every objection that is raised they say, "It has been called for; the working party recommended it." The right hon. Gentleman told my hon. Friend
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  a short time ago that the employers and employees in his industry in Leicester have asked for it, but I suggest that in many cases the working parties are not truly representative of the particular industry.
  I listened with great respect to the hon. Member for East Woolwich (Mr. Hicks), who has a great knowledge of industry. I have been here some years with him, and I respect his views. He said that there was a tendency in the country in the last few years for parents to tell their boys not to go into industry, but to get a white-collar job, an office job, a bank job and so on. Then he said that we are now faced with a shortage of manpower. I would like to ask the President of the Board of Trade, and the Government, how many white-collar workers they are bringing into existence in the Civil Service today. They are taking out of productive industry and putting into the Civil Service so many people that the Government will be destroyed by it.
  8.14 p.m.
  Mr. Mallalieu: I do not propose to follow the hon. Member for Hallam (Mr. Jennings) into the morass into which he has thrown himself with his usual vigour. I will pass at once to one of the criticisms of this Bill which I do not think has been made in the Debate so tar. It is about the power of these development councils to demand statistics. I am in favour of getting all the information we possibly can, but I think there is a danger of asking for the same kind of statistics too often, and I am afraid there may be some duplication between what is asked for under this Bill and the census of production which is now to be taken. So I would ask the President of the Board of Trade or the Parliamentary Secretary, to make clear that provision will be made to avoid such duplication. I know that the manufacturer is overburdened with forms and has been for a very long time, and we want to do nothing to add to that burden.
  I wish to make one or two general points about the Bill and then I will sit down. It has been the constant plea of hon. Members on the opposite side of the House that we should not yet set up these development councils but should leave it to the industries themselves to try and sort things out for themselves, and see how far they can get with joint industrial councils and the rest. It seems to me that

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  we have been trying just that for a great many years, that we have had to wait a very long time for improvement, and that it has not been forthcoming. Now the situation has become really urgent
  Take training, for instance, which is to be part of the job of the development councils. Far too often in the past a man or woman has learnt a job simply by watching somebody else. A person has learnt weaving by watching a skilled weaver, but I think many hon. Members will agree that that is not necessarily the best way of learning, because a skilled weaver is not necessarily a good teacher It has been the habit in the woollen and worsted industry to learn that way, but DOW one or two firms are beginning proper training schemes. Three months ago ! went to see a firm in Leeds where they have a first class training scheme, with machines set apart for the trainees, regular courses of lectures and so forth, trying to give each person who comes into the industry an idea of every process and of the place each process has in the industry. That sort of thing needs to be tremendously stimulated, and I believe the development councils will do it very well.
  I am a little more doubtful about the possibilities of success in some of the other aims they have, for example in the standardisation of certain products. We must be very careful about standardisation; we do not want too much of it in the West Riding industry, certainly, though there are some spheres in which standardisation is essential—in little things like nuts and bolts, for example. A great variety of nuts and bolts are used on looms; there are the Northrop type, the Whitworth type, and several others, with the result that it a tuner wants to get hold of a nut he cannot just reach into a box, but must go scraping round the mill to find the exact type, involving a considerable waste of time. We want to see these things standardised, but I think the development councils and the President of the Board of Trade himself will strike snags in their efforts to get standardisation. I remember that not so very long ago some technical experts recommended to a very famous firm of loom makers that they should make some changes in the type of loom they produced. But the head of the firm rejected the proposal not on the ground that the changes would not be beneficial. but that they would interfere with his trade in old spare parts. He had a sort
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  of vested interest in selling spare parts for the old loom. I am afraid the development councils will run up against objections of that kind, and I am a little doubtful whether, in their present form, they have sufficient powers to overcome them. I am not quite clear just how much control the councils really have.
  Turning to conditions, we were left a little vague by the statement of the President of the Board of Trade as to how far the development councils are to be concerned with that subject. In the woollen and worsted industries at the present time two of the many things that are bad about the conditions of working are lighting and the general drabness of the mills. There are still bad employers in that industry who do not realise the necessity for good lighting and bright surroundings to work in. On the other hand, there are good employers who not only, realise it, but who are trying to do something about it. Their problem is that if they want to put in new types of lighting, or to redecorate the walls, they are unable at the present time to get either the lighting equipment or supplies of paint. What these good employers require is not exhortations from the development councils, but a spot of priority to help them get the supplies they need. Perhaps it is the intention of the President of the Board of Trade to give the development councils power to allocate priorities. If that is so, it will be a very good thing indeed, but it is something which needs to be done urgently and quickly, and that applies not only to lighting and colour.
  Another great trouble in our industry in Yorkshire, and in many other industries in the country, is that it is housed in many instances in very old buildings. I went round a firm in my constituency, towards the end of last year, where the owner, the master, told me that the building was so rickety that he could only run the cards at half speed. It is no good telling such a man that his firm is inefficient, when the only way to make it efficient is to get new buildings. What is needed is some body in each industry which can give priority, which can say, "This mill needs completely rebuilding," or, "This mill is good enough as it stands," or "This mill can be improved with special machinery"—some body which is looking at the industry as a whole and giving priority for new building, new machinery, new equipment of

  627
  all kinds. If the development councils are to have that power, I think the Bill is a good one, but I am a little bit afraid that, although the Bill is well intentioned, it is too leisurely. The situation, as far as our industry in Yorkshire is concerned, is really urgent. We are desperately short of labour, particularly in the spinning section, and furthermore, in about a year, a year and a half, or two years, we shall face the end of the sellers' market and there will be fierce competition from abroad. If we are to find the remedy to both those problems, to get the labour back now and be ready in two years' time to face competition from abroad, we have got to take more drastic action than seems to be possible under this Bill.
  8.22 p.m.
  Colonel Lancaster: I am glad to have an opportunity of saying precisely why I consider this to be a bad Measure. It is evident that the intentions of this Bill are common ground between the two sides of the House. I do not think that any hon. Member who has spoken today has seriously denied that practically every one of the functions in the First Schedule are desirable objectives. Where hon. Members on this side join issue with the Government is the means by which those functions are to be implanted on industry. I was very interested in the speeches from the Government Benches of the hon. Member for Elland (Mr. Cobb) and the hon. Member for Reading (Mr. Mikardo). Both those hon. Members spoke with knowledge and considerable experience of labour relationships and of the general principles underlying the intentions behind the Bill, but in their speeches I thought I detected, behind their political allegiance, doubts as to whether this statutory approach is desirable and is necessarily the wisest course.
  I believe we should be well advised to consider whether working parties set up at a particular time for a particular purpose, during what the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Maltalieu) expressed as a time of sellers' market, are necessarily a yardstick by which to set up some comparable machinery at a time when we are fast approaching a buyers' market. The very standardisation of their approach to this problem is something which fills me with some alarm. I cannot believe that every time we are confronted with an in-
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  dustrial problem, whether of integration or of introducing a whole series of admirable reforms such as are suggested in this Bill, it is necessary to set up entirely fresh machinery. There seems to be a feeling on the following lines, "Re-organisation is necessary, there is no other means of re-organisation in this particular field, and we can only bring this about if we set up a statutory body, the development council."
  For some considerable period now we have found by experience, gradually and progressively, on the part of both trade unions and trade associations, that joint industrial councils are proving their worth, and are bodies which, with additional functions and a wider scope of endeavour, could well be used to implement the intentions behind this Bill. I do not believe that to enforce matters of this sort will necessarily bring any sound results. For some years now I have watched the working of this sort of thing on quite low levels, the working of pit production committees, where matters affecting the welfare of the people taking part in those committees are slowly thrashed out on the soundest level—the bottom rung, where practical work is done—and though a great deal of nonsense is talked and time is taken up by dealing with rather irrelevant matters, nevertheless the germ of a sound idea very often appears, and in due course has practical effect. I do not discount the work which that type of body has done, and I do not discount the work which the joint industrial councils are capable of doing.
  I believe that the Government should discard their theoretical approach to many of these problems, and have confidence in the good intentions of industry—there are, of course, bad industrialists as there are bad trade unionists—and that on the whole industry is anxious to avail itself of the opportunities which we hope in due course will lie ahead, industry needs to carry out a great many of these improvements, but industrialists, like trade unionists or, indeed, anybody connected with industry, are more able and more likely to give these things practical effect if it is done on a voluntary basis.
  I do not say this because I want the purposes of this Measure to be avoided. I do not think they should be avoided, because they are developments that need to be put in hand and are things that would be to the general benefit of the industry,

  629
  but I cannot bring myself to believe that the sanction of the State is required for their implementation.' I believe we have to go on trusting people, trusting to the good intentions of the industrialists and the trade unionists, trusting to the experience and the record in a great many industries of joint consultation on all sorts of levels, with the guidance and authority behind them of the Board of Trade and the various Government Departments interested, to bring about these reforms, and to do so in a way that will ensure the enthusiasm and the full support of the people who, in the last resort, have to make a success of it.
  I am not all that anxious to see independent members serving on these bodies. If we are to get results, it must be on a very practical basis, and unless the independent members become so submerged in the industry that they become practical men, I believe their contribution will be a very limited one. I would be much happier to see a bridge between the two sides of industry—not a tripartite body but between trade associations and trade unionists on a joint basis approaching this problem with the same intentions and a common endeavour. It is in this way that we should get better results rather than by the powers inherent in this Bill.
  The President of the Board of Trade is so able and so persuasive. As I listened to his speech I began to wonder if there was anything to be frightened about in this Bill and if the doubts and uncertainties I have had during the last few weeks were unfounded. But gradually as his speech developed the manner in which the right hon. Gentleman spoke and the way he avoided the points which had caused me concern confirmed the views in my mind, and I shall divide against the Second Reading of this Bill.
  8.31 p.m.
  Mr. Awbery: I rise to give my full approval to the Bill introduced by the President of the Board of Trade and to assure him that he has behind him the majority of the trade unionists of this country. I want to give the reasons why the trade unions will approve the establishment of development councils, but before doing so I would like to answer the right hon. Member for Aldershot (Mr. Lyttelton), who showed great concern for the trade union move-
  630
  ment and the present negotiating machinery, and was of the opinion that this Bill would destroy the machinery now operating so well. I assure the right hon. Gentleman that this Bill will neither undermine nor overlap any existing machinery now operated by the trade union movement. In fact this Bill will supplement what the trade unions are now doing. I say to him quite candidly that today industry is no longer the sole concern of the industrialists. It has now become the concern of the nation, and therefore, the concern of Parliament.
  An hon. Member opposite made an attack upon the trade unionists for lack of control in not stopping strikes. We know that strikes have taken place unofficially, but the hon. Member does not know how many strikes have been prevented by the trade union officials and movement. In answer to a Question in the House one day this week we were informed that last year 4,000,000 days were lost through industrial disputes, whereas in the year following the previous war, when no negotiating machinery was operating, 40,000,000 days were lost.
  I welcome this Bill, which, I believe, will be a forward step for the industrial movement. One hundred and forty years ago we had the first Factory Act, 6n years ago the Mines Act, in 1906 the Workmen's Compensation Act, and now we have this Bill and we support it because of what is mentioned in the Schedule. The functions which will be given to the development councils appeal to trade unionists. There will be both industrial and technical training for the industrial worker. In the past this has been almost entirely neglected. A few advanced employers have encouraged their young men to go to night school and technical classes, paid their fees and fares and done everything possible for them, but they have been the exceptions.
  Under this Bill, technical education will be a part of the function of the development councils. Next it appeals to the trade unionists because it will secure better and safer conditions. I have seen industrial accidents. I have seen men carried to hospital and to the mortuary. This Bill will not compensate men for accidents in industry, but will prevent accidents happening in industry. In 1945 there were 851 fatal factory accidents in this country, and 239,000 non-fatal accidents. Many of those were preventable. There

  631
  were 994 convictions in the courts, so it is evident that a large number of them were preventable. These councils will prevent accidents in the future, and they will provide amenities for the worker. In the past there have been no amenities. I was in a works where there was no cloakroom in which to hang up wet clothes on arrival in the morning. There was no canteen, and I had to go to a corner of the shop to eat my food. There have been improvements, but there is room for more. These development councils will promote research into the cause, incidence, and prevention of industrial diseases.
  The fact that panels dealing with a number of industrial diseases and their prevention have been set up has been mentioned in this Debate. I worked in a factory in 1911 where one of my colleagues died an agonised death from an industrial disease which was not scheduled. An inquiry was forced by a trade union, and, as a result, the disease was scheduled, so I am glad that the councils to be set up under this Bill will go into the question of industrial diseases and try to get them scheduled. If we want an increase in our productive capacity, these things must be done, and so I hope the Bill will be passed. The right hon. Member for Aldershot said that if we could assure him that the majority of the people in the industry would agree with this Bill, he would support it. I can assure him now, quite confidently, that all the trade unionists stand behind this Bill, and as they are the majority in industry, 'he ought to support the Bill, too.
  8.38 p.m.
  Mr. Spence: I want to contribute only briefly to this discussion because time is short. As a small specialist manufacturer I want to make one or two remarks to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade. I shall follow the line taken by the hon. Member for Elland (Mr. Cobb), who referred in the second part of his speech to the fact that the small manufacturer in business will not get very much out of this Bill. I support that view, and I hope we shall receive from the Parliamentary Secretary, when he replies, some reassurances as to how the Bill will be applied to the small industries as well as to the big ones
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  I do not propose to deal with the body of the Bill generally, to which I have the strongest objections, as many of my hon. Friends have spoken on this point, but I shall deal with a matter which arises in the First Schedule. It lays down the purposes which the development councils are to carry out. Paragraph 5 says that one of the duties is:
  "Promoting the production and marketing of standard products."
  I think there will be a grave danger in the operation of the Bill, when it becomes law, if we tend to direct the production of the country generally on standard lines. That would be a great pity. I believe that our great reputation in the world today—and I say this from my own experience in my own trade, which has been built up on specialised manufacture, in the main—is due not to big producers, but to the man with brains, and work-people of the quality which has made our country famous throughout the world. If we are to encourage only standard products, what is to be done for the man who makes a small specialised line, which cannot be regarded as a standard product? The Bill ignores the very valuable fact that we have highly specialised products in almost every line, textiles, engineering, and so on.
  In paragraph 6 it states that one of the duties of the development councill will be:
  "Promoting the better definition of trade descriptions and consistency in the use thereof"
  I make the suggestion here that the first duties of the development council will the Board of Trade itself. Probably it is within the recollection of the Parliamentary Secretary that just before Christmas we had an argument as to whether horsehair was wool. I hope that the putting of this paragraph into the Schedule means that his Department has turned over a new leaf, and that in future it will pursue an immaculate course. Paragraph II says:
  "Promoting or undertaking arrangements for encouraging the entry of persons into the industry."
  This is one of the most useful objects anyone could have today. One of the biggest problems of a manufacturer is to attract young people into industry, and to make them realise that the welfare, wealth, and rising standard of living which

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  we want to see in this country, are dependent on our power to produce consumer goods. Amongst our young people there seems to be a feeling that any job is better than working in a factory. I can quote from my own experience the case of a teacher who said to a class of school children, "If that is all the good you are, you will only be good enough to go into a factory." That should not be the psychological attitude at all; it should be that the producer is worth more than the parasite. That spirit should be inculcated by means of our educational curriculum, in addition to the advertisements which the manufacturer has to put out to try to attract young people into factories.
  I would like the Parliamentary Secretary to reply to this point. Some 12 months ago we had a Debate on a Statutory Rule and Order on industrial research. That Order gave the Board of Trade authority to raise £500,000 in any industry for the purpose of industrial research. Is that Order now to be dropped, does it lapse, does this Bill supersede it, or is it a part of the Bill?
  8.45 p.m.
  Mr. Diamond: Following the hon. Member for Central Aberdeen and Kincardine (Mr. Spence), I find that my task is indeed light, because throughout the latter part of his speech he argued in favour of the Bill in almost every respect. In fact the only respect in which he was not in favour of the Bill was on the question of standardisation.
  Mr. Spence: I said that I would not deal with the structure of the Bill, to which I objected, but that if these councils were set up, these were the things they should do. I am against the Bill, and I shall vote against it.
  Mr. Diamond: I understand that hon. Members opposite intend to vote against the Bill. Each hon. Member in succession has made that clear, but no one has given any reason for doing so I was not expecting the hon. Member to do so when his Front Bench had failed to give a lead.
  It seems to be agreed by both sides of the House that no objection can be taken to the general objects. which are outlined in the Explanatory Memorandum. They are:
  "to increase the efficiency and productivity of their industries and to enable them to
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  render better and more economical service to the community."
  Although I desire to support the Bill in a general way, I feel that it fails to go anything like far enough in securing those most desirable objectives. Many speeches have been made about the powers contained in the Bill, and about the control that the Bill will thrust upon industry. That argument is without foundation. The only power in the Bill is to ask questions and to get answers, and, it may be, sometimes even to get a rude answer.
  In the very large number of items included in the First Schedule is
  "2 Promoting or undertaking inquiry as to materials…"
  All those kinds of functions arise purely on the basis of asking questions and publishing the results. That is not adequate for the very reason touched upon by the hon. Member for Hallam (Mr. Jennings), in his interesting and forceful speech. He used words to indicate that the Government did not allow the owners of businesses to know whether they were really the owners or not, and that owners of businesses were becoming disturbed as to whether they could do just as they liked with their own businesses. The sooner we make it perfectly clear that owners of businesses are not, in this age, and in the state of the country today, entitled to do just as they like with their own business, the sooner will this country get back on to its feet. They should treat themselves as trustees of those assets, with an obligation to use them in the best interests of their workpeople, and of the community as a whole, and not satisfy any individual desire to treat them just as they think fit at the moment.
  The hon. Member also said, I believe, "We do not want any interference, we think we are all right," in reference to the smaller businesses. That indicates my point. That is just the trouble. The owners of smaller businesses, on the whole, think that they are just right, that they are perfectly entitled to do what they like with their businesses. How, in that frame of mind, are those business owners going to pay any attention to the Board of Trade, or to a particular development council, when they are asking questions the answers to which are to be published?
  I do not think that that is adequate. I would suggest that the First Schedule

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  be increased in two respects. In paragraph 7 of the Schedule, these words appear:
  "Undertaking the certification of produ ts …"
  I would like to see added "undertaking the certification of efficiency". I would like it to be clearly established that it is part of the duty of a development council not only to make inquiries as to the efficiency of a particular unit in an industry, but also to publish the results in the form that there should be established a register, on which all firms who desired could go with a view to becoming adjudged efficient. When they became adjudged efficient they would be entitled to put on their notepaper a little stamp to that effect. That is quite a common procedure in business today. Firms have all sorts of little stamps on their notepaper, certifying a variety of things—that they belong to a trade association, that they adopt the ex-Servicemen's scheme, etc.
  That would be purely voluntary. I do not suggest for one moment that any benefit can be obtained by forcing firms to do what they are not prepared to do. Every benefit can be obtained by encouraging firms to realise their own inefficiency, and persuading them to take the right steps to alter that inefficiency. A register should be established and firms should invite the Board of Trade—which has the machinery at its disposal in the form of the production efficiency service—or industrial consultants to investigate their organisation and establish their efficiency. I would go even further and suggest that where returns from individual 'firms indicate that the standard of efficiency is deplorably low, those firms should be invited—not compelled—to call in either the production efficiency service of the Board of Trade, or some practitioner in this field, to advise them on the extent to which they could improve their efficiency.
  I do not think that the powers in the Bill, which are more or less negligible, will be sufficient to achieve what is desired. Inefficiency is at its greatest not amongst the large, competent firms, who are able to employ people to see that the organisation is efficiently run, but in the much smaller firms who do not realise the extent of their inefficiency. Another thing which I would like to see added to the First Schedule would be words intimating that one of the functions should
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  be the promotion of industrial democracy. I cannot see that the meaning behind those words can be read into what is already there. One is very concerned today with incentives in industry. I am glad to see, for that reason, that the third paragraph of the First Schedule recognises the need to promote research into matters affecting industrial psychology. I am assuming that incentives will be covered by that.
  So far as industrial democracy is concerned, it is absolutely vital today that we should improve the relationship between employer and employee and establish the right of an employee, by hard work, to go the whole way up the ladder to the very top. At present the employee cannot do that. I am sure the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Aldershot (Mr. Lyttelton) will agree that members of boards of nearly every company are drawn from a certain section and that below that there is a complete vacuum. Underneath that vacuum, we find the ordinary worker. However capable he may have shown himself in his particular trade, business or technique, he finds he can go so far and no further. That knowledge kills his incentive. It is claimed that there is complete democracy in the Army because every soldier carries a field marshal's baton in his knapsack. That may, or may not, be so. What I want to see is the time when we can claim that the chairman's hammer is carried in the tool kit of every workman.
  8.55 p.m.
  Mr. Attewell: I will not detain the House for very long. I wanted to take part in this Debate in order to support the Minister and to stress the need for development councils. That need is supported by the report of the working party on boots and shoes. I have listened attentively throughout this Debate, and in my view very few of the speeches have actually been devoted to the industry about which hon. Members were speaking. In my industry—the boot and shoe industry—we have tried leaving this question to the industry itself, and it has failed. Let me take for a moment this idea of leaving it to the industry and see how it is possible, if at all. The machinery part of our industry is in pawn to the Americans, and the only way in which the boot and shoe industry can get back on to its feet, and be able to develop its

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  own machinery, is by the introduction of these development councils and by scientific research. There was research in this industry in 1919, and it had a Government grant. It has had one ever since, and, in 1944, it had a Government grant of £4,000. The Government are actually, therefore, paying towards this, and there is nothing new in it. It is true that the trade itself has also contributed, in the same way as it will do under these reforms, but what does that mean? The British United Shoe Machinery Co., Ltd., also has a scientific development committee, and they are expending £135,000, but the development committee belonging to the industry rules out specifically any investigation regarding machinery. It will be found that it is laid down in their report that any investigation shall leave alone the question of machinery. Let us see what that means.
  The American shareholders holding in the boot and shoe industry's machinery company is £2,185,390, and the amount held by British shareholders is £574,571. There is a tremendous difference between those figures, and one can understand why it is that there is only one machinery company in the boot and shoe industry and that that company is owned by America or at least, for all practical purposes. The British United Company owns between 80 and 90 per cent. of the machines and the rest are owned by the Singer Company, which is American controlled. These are facts which the working party brought out, and they make quite clear that the company, therefore, exercises a virtual monopoly over the industry. That information is given on page 15 of the report.
  The working part made it perfectly clear that unless the industry begins to take an interest in the manufacture and development of machines, there will come a time when, because we are unable to get these machines except from another country, and if it suits that country, we shall not be able to have the improvements we need, and that, secondly, Britain's boot and shoe manufacturing industry is now at the feet of America.
  8.58 p.m.
  Mr. William Shepherd: I think the President of the Board of Trade will find little satisfaction in the Debate that we have had today, because the volume of criticism of the proposals which
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  has come both from this side of the House and the other must, I think, have been a surprise to him. Very few hon. Members have given complete and unqualified approval to this Bill The only hon. Member who did so, was, I think, the hon. Member for East Woolwich (Mr. Hicks), and he. I think, was under a complete illusion as to the purposes of the Bill, and imagined that the redistribution of our labour force could be achieved by its means. Indeed, each hon. Member who has spoken has found fit to criticism the important aspects of this Measure. The criticism has not been upon the minor points, but upon the very basis of the Bill, and that is something which should cause the President of the Board of Trade some anxiety.
  These proposals have been commended to us by virtue of the recommendations of the working parties. The President of the Board of Trade has paid a tribute, and, in some considerable measure, a very justified tribute, to the work which has been done by these bodies. I would not go so far as did one hon. Member in acclaiming the idea of the working parties as an inspiration on the part of the right hon. and learned Gentleman. They have, it is true, told a lot of people what most people in the industry already knew. They have presented a picture, and I have no doubt that, in that direction, they have performed a very useful function. Some of them have even told us what we already know. For instance, the hosiery working party gave us the following momentous information in its report:
  Few things occupy a more permanent place in our national life at the present time than stockings."
  That was information known to most of us before this elaborate inquiry was made. It is not my intention to criticise in any detail the working parties, but I feel that many of the recommendations—in fact, nearly all of them—fail in that they all lay down a set of circumstances and a set of recommendations which will put our industries on their feet only with the expenditure of a good deal of time and capital.
  What this country is facing is not the problem of how by immense mechanisation and re-equipment it can put itself in order, but how it can get production from the existing capacity. Under the present state of affairs, there is no opportunity or prospect of our being able to afford huge

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  expenditure, either in terms of money or labour, for re-equipping our industries. Moreover, there has been a tendency to accept the reports of these working parties as gospel when they have been dealing with industries which are in an abnormal condition. In the main, the working parties' reports deal with industries which have been contracted, and, in many instances, a wrong balance and a wrong deduction may be drawn.
  When considering the question of the relationship between industry and industry, it is important to bear in mind that, at the present time, there is a greater need for Government direction than obtains in the normal course of business. Owing to shortages, it is necessary to allocate priorities and quotas, and to restrict entry of those things which operate in an economy under present circumstances, but which do not necessarily operate in an economy under normal circumstances. Therefore, there should be some caution about rushing into the acceptance of recommendations which are based upon an abnormal state of affairs. No desire for the establishment of a stable economy should lead us to attempt to perform by Government regulation what can be performed by normal economic processes. That may be a doctrine which hon. Members opposite are not prepared to accept, but it is one to which we on this side of the House strongly adhere.
  I want to contest the view put forward by hon. Members opposite that our industrialists are incompetent. This view is far too often expressed by hon. Members opposite. Those who criticise our industrialists should remember that those very industrialists have raised this country to a very high standard of living. They have made it possible for a small island, which normally would support a population one-fifth of its size, to attain a position of pre-eminence in the world and to enjoy a standard of living higher than any other country in Europe. That has been due, in the main, to the energies and enterprise of our industrialists. [An HON. MEMBER: "What about the workers?"] Yes, I readily include the workers who, in the main, have a much higher standard of skill and devotion to duty than any other workers in the world. I have said in this House before that one. of our best assets is the stability of the
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  workers in this country and the manner in which they perform their jobs. However, I do not want to go into that aspect at present. The question which activates the minds of my hon. Friends and myself is whether, under the new dispensation, it will be possible to maintain the standard of living which has been built up by these condemned industrialists. That is the question which many of us are thinking about today, and to which we are by no means certain of the answer. The condemnation of industrialists in this country is grossly unfair because, on the whole, those industries which are described as bad have been the victims of circumstances beyond their control.
  Reference has been made time and time again this afternoon to the cotton industry. No single endeavour on the part of industrialists would have avoided the catastrophe which overcame the cotton industry. It was due to the industrialisation of other countries and the loss of overseas markets. No amount of ingenuity OT enterprise would have saved that situation. What is more, a good deal of decay which set into our industries during this century was due to the fact that we held on to a policy of free imports long after our economy had been able to stand it. It is to the lasting discredit of hon. Members opposite who supported that policy, not because they believed in it but because a policy of protection was the policy of the Tory Party. Many industrialists today feel that the introduction of this Bill is rather ironical. They feel that a Bill for the reorganisation of the Government might be more appropriate Indeed, it is remarkable that the Government are introducing this Bill to organise others in the midst of incredible chaos of their own making.
  Numerous hon. Members on this side of the House have said that the objects of this Bill are beyond dispute, and I support those views. The Tory Party is as anxious as any other party to see ordered progress in industry and the maintenance of good standards, whether they be of products or of working conditions. Those are common objectives, I hope, of all political parties in this country. But where we join issue is on the means by which this aim is to be achieved, and we say that this Bill, as at present presented to the House, is the most unlikely way of realising that objective. I think the House

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  was surprised to hear the statement of the President of the Board of Trade that he would use compulsion in putting this Bill into operation. We take the view that if compulsion is used, the objects of this Bill are entirely defeated. The smooth and efficient working of this Bill cannot go hand in hand with compulsion; there has to be a choice between destroying good will through compulsion and some other means of organising industry around these lines.
  The President of the Board of Trade has said that we are to have consultation. Now, "consultation" is a word which can mean anything or nothing, and I am afraid that industry is coming to the view that it really means nothing. It is no satisfaction to industry to be called to an office in Whitehall and told that the Minister has decided to do this, that or the other. That is not what industry regards as consultation. But it is the kind of thing that is happening, and has happened in the past few months. Therefore, we say the suggestion that there is to be consultation is in no way satisfactory to industry. If there is not to be satisfactory consultation, and if we are not to get the co-operation of industry, these development councils will, of necessity, fail. There can be no question whatsoever hut that if the element of compulsion enters into it, the element of good, of these councils being of service to the community, is driven out. Neither industrialists nor bodies of trade unionists can be forced to co-operate in an organisation of this kind if they feel they are being forced along the line.
  I am surprised that the Government are prepared to sacrifice the substance of good will for the shadow of compulsion. I am certain that that view is entirely wrong, and will not produce the results which even the Government wish to attain. It would be foolish and churlish to condemn the element of compulsion without having some suggestions as to the means by which the same results can be obtained. Hon. Members on this side of the House have today indicated to the President of the Board of Trade how these results could be obtained. They have pointed out, in a manner which I think was perfectly clear, that the proper course in these circumstances would be to develop the existing machinery We have already seen that a large number of people in industry—16 million—are covered by joint
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  industrial councils; and that an extension of that machinery is extremely desirable in order to implement these ideas. I am surprised that the Minister has forsaken the possibility of developing these organisations along these lines, but is prepared instead to come to this House and to say, "I want compulsory powers to force people to do what I wish them to do." Surely, there can be no question that the development of the joint industrial councils, and other organisations, can lead to the establishment of a pattern similar to the one which is aimed at in this Bill? Surely, it is perfectly possible to get industry together, and to get them to formulate their own plans, to make suggestions to the Minister, and, if necessary, to incorporate the existing joint industrial councils organisation in some more comprehensive plan? That could he done without disturbing the existing organisations at all.
  It is surprising that the Minister of Labour has seen fit to agree to the proposals which are laid down in this Bill. Its proposals cut definitely across the existing field of the Minister of Labour. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot (Mr. Lyttelton) said, had the present Foreign Secretary been Minister of Labour, this Bill, in its present form, would not have seen the light of day. There is no question, I think, that, the field of the Minister of Labour is being cut across by the regulations which are laid down here. The field of voluntary and statutory machinery covers 16 million of our workers, and that, surely, would have been the base on which to work; that would have been the base on which the voluntary principle could have succeeded.
  We are opposed to this Measure because it is a very vicious example of delegated legislation. If industries are important, there is every reason why the Government should have thought fit to have brought a Bill to this House in respect of each industry. Each industry could have been the subject of a separate Bill. There is no reason why there should have been this delegated legislation in this instance. The Bill requires that we take out of their jobs men of exceptional ability. There is no doubt that that is so. I suggest that we are doing a disservice to industry by taking those men out. I do not feel that there is anything in this Bill which can commend it to the House, and, therefore, we shall go into the Lobby against it.
  9.17 p.m.
  The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (Mr. Belcher): The hon. Member for Bucklow (Mr. W. Shepherd) referred to the fact that there has been criticism of the Measure before the House from all sides of the House. He went on to say that, apart from my hon. Friend the Member for East Woolwich (Mr. G. Hicks), every Member who had spoken had been critical. I suppose —I have not the experience in these matters that many hon. Gentlemen have—that it is the purpose of a Second Reading Debate on any Bill that there should be criticism made, some of it—which is only to be expected —coming from the Opposition, some of it coming from the Government side of the House, and designed to be helpful and constructive. That is the kind of criticism that we have had tonight. I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman was referring to such criticism as we had from this side of the House of the Government for not proposing to give to the development councils more power than, in fact, we are giving them. I suggest that it would be misrepresenting that kind of criticism to pretend that it was criticism directed against the purpose of this Bill.
  There have been criticisms from the Opposition. That was to be expected— although I have noticed some significant absenteeism. The Opposition criticism has varied from the speech of the right hon. Member for Aldershot (Mr. Lyttelton), a speech which, I must confess, at times left me puzzled as to what the right hon. Gentleman meant exactly, to the reasoned and enlightened and constructively critical speech of the hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Pitman), whose intervention in these Debates is always most interesting and, to a very great extent, helpful.
  The hon. Member for Bucklow, who wound up from the Opposition side, to my mind made a very large part of the case for this Bill when he referred to the decay which took place in so many of our great industries in the years between the two wars. He said, excusing the industrialists, that it was wrong and unfair of Government supporters to attempt to place the blame on industrialists for what took place, because it was beyond the power of any single industrialist to do anything about it. It is precisely because we realise that in a great number of cases a single
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  industrialist, particularly a small industrialist, will be unable to do anything about it, that we want development councils which will make it possible for him to combine with others like himself to do this very necessary job. The hon. Member attempted to tell the House just what are these Whitehall consultations. As a matter of fact he gave a complete travesty of them, as many hon. Members opposite know, because they have been in my office for these consultations. I suggest that he is badly briefed on that subject. I would invite him to consult some of the many trade associations who come to the Board of Trade day by day to consult both the officials and Ministers about aspects of their industries, and he will find the picture he drew is a most unfair one. The hon. Member referred to the speech of my right hon. and learned Friend, and said that he could not understand the references to possible compulsion on industry to form development councils. He professed to quote what my right hon. and learned Friend said. I will tell him what my right hon. and learned Friend said, and I also endeavoured to make it clear in a subsequent intervention. He said:
  "I cannot of course give any undertaking that in the last resort, in some special case,"—
  hon. Members will note the qualification—
  "it may not be necessary to impose a development council by order, but if that should ever occur, which I hope it will not, then this House will have full cognisance of the matter, because in all cases an Affirmative Resolution will be required approving the Order."
  That is very different from suggesting that compulsion is something which is going to be lightly applied. It will not be lightly applied, because it would be an extremely foolish thing from the Government point of view. If any one of the parties composing the development council decided not to play, what could you do about it? Suppose the employers said that they would not co-operate. You would find it very difficult to get any kind of council to work, and we realise that as well as anyone else, and that is why my right hon. and learned Friend said that he hoped in every case we should set up these development councils by agreement. That is the obvious and sensible thing to do. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Aldershot referred to skating over things which go too far. That is, no

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  doubt, a sporting term, but it puzzles me. I do not know how you can skate over things which go too far; presumably you come to the end and fall over the precipice, but I think that the right hon. Gentleman knows more about that than I do.
  Together with other hon. Members who spoke subsequently, the right hon. Gentleman accepted the objects to which the development councils will be invited to turn their attention. He must do that, of course. As a man who has experience in British industry, he knows perfectly well of the need for a great deal of reorganisation in all aspects of industry at the present time. What he criticises, of course, is the method by which we propose to achieve the object. May I point out to the House—and I am sure this is very relevant—that in a report of the Federation of British Industries, issued in 1944, It was recommended that functions of this kind were necessary, that this kind of thing ought to be done, and that if industry was not prepared to do it itself, it would have to be done for industry. Industry has not done it itself, and therefore, we are acting in accordance with the report of the Federation of British Industries, and doing it for industry.
  Then we heard from the right hon. Gentleman, from the hon. Member for Bucklow, and several other hon. Members, that, even granted everything else, the method by which we were proposing to legislate was wrong. I take it that the criticism is of our having this general enabling Bill to give the power to set up development councils to a number of Ministers by orders which would be subject to affirmative Resolution of the House. But having heard my right hon. and learned Friend, I am surprised that anybody should suggest that it would be possible for us, in any one or more of the many industries which may at some subsequent date require development council procedure, to proceed by way of a separate Bill for every one of them. I can only suggest that those who argue for such a procedure are really arguing that these things should not happen at all. It is not much good to an industry which at the present time is in danger of decay to know that in, perhaps, ten years' time a Bill might go through the House making it possible for it to have a development council.
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  On a point of detail, the right hon. Gentleman referred to Clause 8 (2) as an overcoat provision, and criticised the powers that are conferred upon the Board of Trade, ox the Ministry concerned, as being open to abuse. May I point out that it is expressly stated that an amending order, amending the original order setting up the development council, can, in the terms of the Bill, be brought to this House only at the request of the development council itself, and is then subject to affirmative Resolution procedure, which gives the House a first-rate safeguard. In the first place, it is only when the development council, consisting not of the Government or of representatives of the Government, but of representatives of the employers and the workers, plus an unspecified number of independent members, probably fewer rather than more, has decided to ask for some amended powers that the order comes before the House, and when it comes before the House it is subject to affirmative Resolution. On the other point of detail which the right hon. Gentleman made, concerning Clause 1 (4), which reads:
  "A development council may provide for any incidental or supplementary matters for which it appears to the Board or Minister concerned to be necessary or expedient to provide."
  I suggest that there the safeguards are to be found in the preceding and succeeding Subsections. Subsection (3) says that:
  "Before making a development council order the Board or Minister concerned shall consult any organisation appearing to them or him to be representative of substantial numbers of persons…"
  and Subsection (5) says that the order has to be approved by a Resolution of each House of Parliament. We are tied down by the fact that an amending order cannot be made without an affirmative Resolution of both Houses of Parliament.
  With regard to the First Schedule, the right hon. Gentleman made great play with the number of functions which are conferred upon the Board or upon the Minister responsible under that Schedule. Nineteen different functions may be assigned to a development council, but not necessarily will be so assigned. The power is in the Bill, if it is deemed necessary to make an order assigning these functions to a development council. The right hon. Gentleman and subsequent

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  speakers, referring to some of these functions, said, "These are already being tackled, in some cases, by other Government Departments, and, in other cases, by voluntary organisations" There is nothing in the Bill to prevent these functions from being continued to he administered by other Government Departments or by voluntary organisations. It will be the purpose of a development council, where practical, to use the existing agencies. It would be most improvident and unpractical of them to do anything else. To suggest that we are getting, as a result of this Schedule, an unnecessary duplication is to ascribe to the development councils far less intelligence than, I am sure, they will have.
  Then there is a phrase which I did not understand at all. The right hon. Gentleman spoke about "independent representatives on development councils being subject to Ministerial control" I think that it is very wrong of him to suggest that the kind of people who will be invited by the Minister to take seats on responsible bodies such as these councils are intended to be the stooges of the Minister. That is quite untrue. Then we come to the next rather puzzling Point—
  Mr. Lyttelton: It is beyond question that these bodies consist partly of employers' representatives and partly of workers' representatives, with independent members nominated by the Minister, and the Minister has power to pay them remuneration and pensions. I did not say that they would be the stooges of the Government, but they are enabled to turn them into stooges whenever the Minister wishes.
  Mr. Belcher: I prefer to believe that the people who will be appointed by the Ministers to these boards will be independent. May I point out that it is not the Minister who will have the power to pay the pensions or salaries of the representatives on the board or council; it is the development council themselves, so that if they are to be the stooges of anybody, they will be the stooges of themselves.
  May I get back to the very interesting figures which the right hon. Gentleman spent some valuable minutes in giving us about voluntary and compulsory wage negotiating machinery? I was
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  puzzled, because there is nothing in this Bill to give the slightest indication that there will be any concern on the part of a development council—there cannot be in any case—with wage and negotiating machinery. Why he felt it necessary to spend so much valuable time in discussing something which is so hopelessly irrelevant, I do not understand.
  Mr. Lyttelton: I cannot attempt to correct the hon. Gentleman's understanding—that would take too long. I am sorry that he did not take the point that once we set up development councils over such a wide field as this, they cannot perform the functions prescribed to them by the Government without entering the field of wages, hours and working conditions—and he knows that very well.
  Mr. Belcher: It will probably give the right hon. Gentleman some joy when I confess to him that I am unable to follow his reasoning. I have a certain amount of experience in industry from, perhaps, a different end to that of the right hon. Gentleman, but I will quote him a single example. He cannot really controvert that during the war we had very valuable instruments in our factories generally known as production committees, which were expressly excluded from the discussions on wages, and I know of no single case—and I was constantly in touch with them during the war—where these production committees went outside their terms of reference in that respect. In any case as the right hon. Gentleman and I know only too well both sides of industry, the employers' side and the trade union side, who will be represented on the development councils, are far too jealous of their existing negotiating machinery in regard to wages and conditions to allow development councils to usurp their functions.
  The right hon. Gentleman asked for an undertaking that we will accept an Amendment to the effect that councils will not be set up unless majorities in the industry agree to them. One hon. Member on this side of the House interjected with the request to know how we were going to ascertain what was a majority view in the industry. I, too, should like to know the answer to that. How would the right hon. Gentleman ascertain whether a majority of those in the industry, including both workers and employers, are in agreement as to the necessity for a

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  development council. I am quite sure that the answer to that has already been made by the hon. Gentleman for Bucklow—that it would be futile to try to impose these organisations simply because an unwilling industry did not want them.
  Mr. W. Shepherd: But the hon. Gentleman is going to do it.
  Mr. Belcher: That has been clarified by the President of the Board of Trade when he said that it will be only under the direst emergency that that will be done.
  Mr. Lyttelton: I do not want to be facetious about this. I understand that the hon. Gentleman's argument is that we cannot ascertain whether an industry is in favour of these proposals or not. Therefore, we may take it that compulsion will always be applied because the views of the industry cannot be ascertained.
  Mr. Belcher: No. What I was saying was a statement of fact. It is perfectly easy to ascertain, if, in fact a majority is in favour of a development council, but it is not so easy to prove that a majority is not in favour of a council. [Laughter.] I will try to explain to hon. Members what I mean. If we go to the representative organisations of the workers and they say "Yes," and we then go to the representative organisations of the employers and they say, "Yes," then we can say that we have a majority in the industry—that is the organised people in the industry—in favour of the proposals. If we go to the representatives of the employers and they say "No," and to the representatives of the workers and they say "Yes," who is in the majority?
  I want now to say a few words about the very reasoned arguments put forward by my hon. Friend the Member for Elland (Mr. Cobb), who speaks with great authority on this subject and whose interventions will always be welcome. While accepting the general purpose of the Bill, and, in fact, most of the Clauses in it, he pleaded for a reform—and he asked me to note the underlying word "Reform" —of the trades associations, that is, the trades associations plus the distributives', consumers' and perhaps the workers' interests, who would do this job as well perhaps as the development councils. In the first place, I doubt very much whether any trade association concerned would accept an addition to their ranks for any purpose of distributive,
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  consumer, and workers' interests. They are rather jealous and I suppose quite rightly so—of their peculiar functions. If they were willing, however, I am quite sure that it is far better, despite such difficulties as have been mentioned, when we are trying something which is relatively new, to create for the purpose special machinery with well defined functions, and let it get on with the job, co-operating by all means with trade associations, trade unions and consumers associations—but do let us have these organisations for the job.
  Then he stressed—and I entirely agree with him, as I am sure do all hon. Members—the need for getting these ideas down to the small industries and the small manufacturers, and he said how difficult it was to do it through any kind of organisation. As I say, I agree entirely, and I think it is precisely this type of organisation that is more likely to get down to the small manufacturer he has in mind than the existing organisations which, for years, have had the opportunity to do so if they would. My hon. Friend said that they did not, which is the strongest argument in favour of the kind of organisation which we are proposing to create.
  My hon. Friend also brought forward an argument with which I must confess I entirely disagree. He said that money will be expended on research, that there will be a levy which will be applied to every section of the industry, but that the benefits will go to the big men and ultimately work to the detriment of the small man. My view is that at the present time there are a number of fairly big people in industry able and prepared to spend money on research. They are obtaining the benefit, and it is because the small man cannot afford to do this and there is no organisation to do it for him that he is denied the benefits which go to the big people. I would hope that the development corporations, having made it their business to levy all sections of the industry for the purpose, would then see that the benefits of research are conveyed to everybody in the industry who has taken part in securing them. I am reminded that in the case of the textile industry there is an admirable example of research which is available to all concerned, big and small.
  I think that the hon. Gentleman was possibly right when he said that there was greater need for an inquiry into efficiency

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  in the distributive side of an industry than in the productive side, and I think we would all agree that there is a real need for inquiry in that direction. One of the reasons why we propose to have a census of distribution is in order to find out just what does go on, but as I said in an intervention earlier this evening there is nothing whatever to prevent one of these development councils inquiring into the distributive aspect of a particular industry. It is not proposed to have a development council for distribution as such, but there is no reason why a particular industry should not have the distributive side of its activities inquired into by its development council. Nor is there any reason why there should not be on the development council people with special knowledge of the distributive side of the industry in order that they might help in this respect.
  My hon. Friend the Member for Reading (Mr. Mikardo), who followed soon afterwards, supplied the answer to the point about letting the trade associations do the job by saying, in as many words, "Why did they not do it before?" I am very glad to hear from the hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Pitman)—who I am sorry has had to go, but who has indicated his regret to me—that the trade associations are ready to co-operate. Their cooperation will be very welcome, and I should like to say now that in much of the work we are required to do in the Board of Trade, when the officials of the trade associations come along and discuss with us quotas, prices, and all kinds of puzzling things which have to be dealt with at the present time, we find that their assistance and experience is invaluable.
  There was a reference by my hon. Friend the Member for Reading to the shortage of skilled management personnel. He rather feared that the creation of development councils, as new bodies, might constitute a further drain upon the scarce, highly-skilled manpower. I agree that we have not that large number of people in this country who can undertake what might be called the high-powered jobs in British industry, but I feel that the very setting-up of development councils may make possible a more economical use of our skilled managerial manpower. I hope that that may be one of the things that development councils Would be able to look at.
  652
  My hon. Friend the Member for East Woolwich (Mr. Hicks) has been criticised for making such a vigorous defence of the Bill and for referring, in my opinion quite rightly, to the manpower situation in the country. That is one of those aspects of our total economic situation which are very worrying to those who are concerned about the future. One of the reasons for the setting up of development councils is to make our industries as efficient as they can be, so that the greatest possible use can be made of our available manpower. My hon. Friend was perfectly right to talk about the general manpower situation. I hope that most hon. Members will agree with the point he made about the discouragement in past years of boys and girls from entering manual industry, and the encouragement that has been given to them to go into unproductive employment. I hope his words will be noted in many places.
  He said that these development councils, if energetic and far-sighted, could make a great contribution to the development of British industry. I believe that to be profoundly true. It is not intended that the councils shall attempt to run British industry. It is intended that they shall co-ordinate, assist and activate the existing owners of British industry. It has already been admitted today that they need it. It has been admitted by hon. Members that between the two wars many of our great industries decayed. It was admitted in the report of the Federation of British Industries in 1944. Today I referred to that report when the right hon. Member for Aldershot was out of the House. It said that action of this kind was called for.
  Sir Arnold Gridley: Hon. Gentlemen opposite seem to quote from the Federation of British Industries or from the Association of Chambers of Commerce, no matter on what side of the House they sit, and as it suits them. Do I understand the Parliamentary Secretary to say that the F.B.I. approve the Bill?
  Mr. Belcher: No, Sir.
  Sir A. Gridley: In that case, I do not think the hon. Gentleman is quite in order in saying that the F.B.I. were in favour of the Bill.
  Mr. Belcher: I would not wish to say anything to offend the hon. Member.

  653
  What I did say was that I read a quotation to the effect that, in 1944, the Federation of British Industries reported that action similar to that contemplated in the Bill was necessary, not necessarily by the Government. Steps similar to these would have to be taken—co-ordination of research, and so on—and that if industry did not do it the Government would have to do it for them. What I said was, that, since industry had not done it, we were now setting about the problem. Before I leave my hon. Friend the Member for East Woolwich, I would recall that he mentioned taking workers into consultation on such matters as industrial development. His observations commanded a fairly large measure of agreement. Our wartime experience proved the necessity of so doing.
  There is another section of the community which hitherto has had less than proper regard in all these matters and in consultations which have taken place, and that is the consuming section of the public as such. By bringing into our boards, working parties and development councils, representatives who are independent, that is to say who are there neither necessarily as workers in that industry nor as employers but as independent people from outside the industry, we are bringing in representatives, more truly than of any other section, of the consumers of the products of that industry. That, I think, goes some way towards answering the point made by the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Sir J. Barlow), who was very critical of the position of the independent members of councils of this kind.
  The hon. Member for Newark (Mr. Shephard) argued, if I understood him correctly, that what we are proposing means a permanent control over industry. I do not accept that the powers conferred on development councils under this Bill do in fact constitute a power over industry. As one of my hon. Friends pointed out, the powers are very restricted. They amount in fact to the power to collect statistics and publish the information in a general form, and the power to levy for the purpose of promoting research. There is no power to go poking your nose into industry and telling individual industrialists how to run their businesses. You can advise them, and if they are prepared to accept advice, well and good, but you cannot make them do anything. Neither
  654
  the development councils nor the Government can make them do anything they do not want to do, and I wish it had been more clearly noticed throughout the Debate that the powers conferred by this Bill upon the development councils are very small indeed.
  Mr. S. Shephard: What is to prevent a development council coming along in the future and asking for these powers?
  Mr. Belcher: The answer, of course, is that in the first place the Government may refuse to do anything about it, and in the second place, if the Government are inclined to do something about it, there must still be an affirmative Resolution of both Houses of Parliament. Surely, the safeguard is there, because even without this Bill somebody might come along in the future, ask for something and get it, and I do not see that passing this Bill will make the slightest difference in that direction. Then the hon. Member asked me two specific questions to which I will try to give adequate replies. He asked me how the Ministers will appoint employers' representatives. The practice will be that which is normally followed by Ministers in appointing representatives of employers. He will invite the appropriate association of employers to make nominations. He may not necessarily accept all the nominations sent in by the employers' associations, but in practice I imagine that it would be those who were recommended by the associations who would be taken. So far as the payment of members is concerned, it is envisaged that expenses will be paid to the members of development councils, and that the chairman may have to be paid. Perhaps his job will be such that it will have to be completely full-time, in which case of course he will have to be paid.
  Mr. S. Shephard rose —
  Mr. Belcher: I ask the hon. Member not to interrupt, as my time is short. The answer to the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Mallalieu), who spoke about avoiding duplication in the collection of statistics, is to be found in the proviso to Subsection (2) of Clause 3, where it is pointed out that:
  "Provided that powers conferred on the council under this Subsection shall be qualified, in relation to exercise thereof generally as regards the industry or any section thereof, by provision requiring the previous consent of the Board or Minister concerned to their being so

  655
  exercised and approval by the Board or Minister concerned of the form in which the returns or other information will be required to be furnished."
  The Minister can thus prevent a council from demanding statistics if the Government are already collecting the same information. That I think is a sensible provision which gets rid of the danger, of duplication of that kind.
  One hon. Member asked about the relation between the development councils and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Council of Industrial Design. As I have said previously in connection with other voluntary organisations, development councils will work through, 'and will not supersede, research associations and design centres. Contributions from the councils' research levies to these bodies will count as industrial contributions, and will attract the appropriate Government grants from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in regard to research and from the Board of Trade in regard to design. Finally, the hon. Member for Central Aberdeen and Kincardine (Mr. Spence) asked whether the Defence (Services for Industry) Regulations, which we debated some months ago, and which give power to raise levies for research, would be superseded by the present Bill. The answer is that they will. When those Regulations were debated, it was made clear that the intention was to replace them ultimately by permanent legislation, and this is the permanent legislation.
  I conclude by saying that, in bringing forward this Measure, we do so because we know, as is generally known, that the state of British industry is not what it needs to be if British industry is to produce the goods and services to enable us to make up the leeway in our export trade and enable us to give our people the standard of living and the security which we want them to have. A great deal needs to be done by everybody concerned; that has to be recognised by everybody concerned, and I make no reservations in that respect; but the drive must come, in the first instance, and is coming, from the Government. The Government cannot do the physical work, but the Government can make such plans and provide such legislation as will enable other people to go ahead with their jobs. [An
  656
  HON. MEMBER: "What about the coal situation?"] It is most unfair of hon. Members to refer to a situation which has come about through a combination of climatic conditions and many years of failure to do anything for the coal industry. [Interruption.] It is very wrong of hon. Members who, I am quite sure, are as much concerned about the future prosperity of this country as we are, to criticise a Measure designed to assist this country back to prosperity, on grounds as unfair as those indicated by the jibe of an hon. Member who spoke about the coal situation. I know it is the intention of the Opposition to divide. I hope they will divide knowing that they are voting against something which is genuinely inspired by a desire to assist this country back to prosperity.
  9.58 p.m.
  Mr. David Eccles: I have not time to follow the hon. Gentleman the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade who, I am sorry to say, has just lost his slow bicycle race. I wish to quote a few words from Adam Smith which seem to be a salutary warning about this Bill:
  "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary.
  I ask the House to consider seriously whether it is wise to adopt the principle that an industry ought to think as an industry. To do that is to be on the road to monopoly. There is only one industry in this country which thinks as an industry today, and that is iron and steel, and hon. Members in all parts of the House must ask themselves whether that is a good example—
  The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. William Whiteley)rose in his place, and claimed to move, "That the Question be now put."
  Question put, "That the Question be now put."
  The House divided: Ayes, 260; Noes, 125.

  Division No. 74.

  AYES.

  (10.0 p.m

  Adams, Richard (Balham)

  Gibson, C. W.

  Nally, W.

  Adams, W. T. (Hammersmith, South)

  Glanville, J. E. (Consett)

  Neal, H. (Claycross)

  Alexander, Rt. Hon. A. V.

  Goodrich, H. E.

  Nichol, Mrs. M. E. (Bradford, N.)

  Alpass, J. H.

  Greenwood, Rt. Hon. A. (Wakefield)

  Nicholls, H. R. (Stratford)

  Anderson, F. (Whitehaven)

  Greenwood, A. W. J. (Heywood)

  Noel-Baker, Capt. F. E. (Brentford)

  Attewell, H. C.

  Grey, C. F.

  Noel-Buxton, Lady

  Awbery, S. S.

  Grierson, E.

  Oldfield, W. H.

  Ayles, W. H.

  Griffiths, D. (Rether Valley)

  Oliver, G. H.

  Ayrton Gould, Mrs. B.

  Griffiths, Rt. Hon. J. (Llanelly)

  Orbach, M.

  Bacon, Miss A.

  Griffiths, W. D. (Moss Side)

  Paget, R T.

  Baird, J.

  Gunter, R. J.

  Paling, Rt. Hon. Wilfred (Wentworth)

  Barton, C.

  Guy, W. H.

  Parker, J.

  Battley, J. R.

  Haire, John E. (Wycombe)

  Parkin, B. T.

  Bechervaise, A. E

  Hale, Leslie

  Paton, Mrs. F. (Rushcliffe)

  Belcher, J. W.

  Hamilton, Lieut -Col. R

  Paton, J. (Norwich)

  Benson, G.

  Hardy, E. A.

  Pearson, A

  Berry, H.

  Hastings, Dr. Somerville

  Peart, Capt. T. F.

  Bing, G. H. C.

  Henderson, A. (Kingswinford)

  Piratin, p.

  Binns, J.

  Henderson, Joseph (Ardwick)

  Platts-Mills, J. F. F.

  Blackburn, A. R

  Herbison, Miss M.

  Poole, Major Cecil (Lichfield)

  Blenkinsop, A.

  Hewitson, Capt. M.

  Porter, E. (Warrington)

  Blyton, W. R

  Hicks, G.

  Porter, G. (Leeds)

  Boardman, H.

  Holman, P.

  Proctor, W. T.

  Bowden, Flg.-Offr. H. W.

  Holmes, H. E. (Hemsworth)

  Pursey, Cmdr. H.

  Bowles, F. G. (Nuneaton)

  House, G.

  Randall, H. E.

  Braddock, Mrs. E. M. (L'pl, Exch'ge)

  Hoy, J.

  Rankin, J.

  Braddock, T. (Mitcham)

  Hudson, J. H. (Ealing, W.)

  Rees-Williams, D. R.

  Brook, D. (Halifax)

  Hughes, Hector (Aberdeen, N.)

  Reeves, J.

  Brown, George (Belper)

  Hughes, H. D. (W'lverh'pton, W.)

  Reid, T. (Swindon)

  Brown, T. J. (Ince)

  Hutchinson, H. L. (Rusholme)

  Rhodes, J.

  Bruce, Maj D. W. T

  Hynd, H. (Hackney, G.)

  Reid, T. (Swindon)

  Buchanan, G.

  Irving, W. J.

  Rhodes, H.

  Burke, W. A.

  Isaacs, Rt. Hon. G. A.

  Robens, A.

  Byers, Frank

  Janner, B

  Roberts, Emrys (Merioneth)

  Castle, Mrs. B. A

  Jay, D. P. T.

  Roberts, W (Cumberland N.)

  Chamberlain, R. A

  Jeger, G. (Winchester)

  Robertson, J, J. (Berwick)

  Champion, A J

  Jones, D. T. (Hartlepools)

  Rogers, G. H. R.

  Chetwynd G. R

  Jones, Elwyn (Plaistow)

  Ross, William (Kilmarnock)

  Cluse, W S.

  Jones J. H. (Bolton)

  Royle, C.

  Cobb, F A.

  Jones, P. Asterley(Hitchin)

  Scott-Elliot, W

  Cocks, F. S

  Keenan, W

  Segal, Dr S.

  Coldrick, W

  Kendall, W D

  Shackleton, Wing.-Cdr. E. A. A.

  Collick, P.

  Kinley, J.

  Sharp, Granville

  Collindridge, F.

  Kirby, B. V.

  Shawcross, C. N. (Widnes)

  Collins, V. J.

  Lavers, S.

  Shawcross, Rt. Hn. Sir H. (St. Helens)

  Colman, Miss G. M.

  Lee, F. (Hulme)

  Shinwell, Rt. Hon. E.

  Cook, T. F.

  Leonard, W.

  Silverman, J. (Erdington)

  Cooper, Wing-Comdr. G.

  Lever, N. H

  Silverman, S. S. (Nelson)

  Corbet, Mrs F. K. (Camb'well, N.W.)

  Levy, B.W

  Simmons, C. J.

  Corlett, Dr. J

  Lewis, A. W. J (Upton)

  Skeffington, A. M.

  Corvedale Viscount

  Lindgran, G. S

  Skeffington-Lodge, T. G

  Cripps, Rt. Hon. Sir S

  Longden, F.

  Skinnard, F. W.

  Crossman, R. H. S.

  Lyne, A. W.

  Smith, C. (Colchester)

  Daggar, G.

  McAllister, G.

  Smith Ellis (Stoke)

  Daines, P.

  McEntee V. La T.

  Smith, S. H.(Hull, S.W.)

  Dalton, Rt. Hon. H.

  McGhee, H. G.

  Solley, L. J.

  Davies, Clement (Montgomery)

  Mack, J. D.

  Soskice, Maj. Sir F

  Davies, Edward (Burslem)

  McKay, J. (Wallsend)

  Sparks, J. A.

  Davies, Harold (Leek)

  Mackay, R. W.G. (Hull, N.W)

  Stamford, W.

  Davies, Haydn (St. Pancras, S.W.)

  McKinlay A. S.

  Stewart, Michael (Fulham, E.)

  Davies, S. O. (Merthyr)

  McLeavy, F.

  Symonds, A. L.

  Deer, G.

  Taylor, H B. (Mansfield)

  Diamond, J

  Macpherson, T. (Romford)

  Taylor, R. J. (Morpeth)

  Dobbie, W.

  Mallalieu, J. P. W.

  Taylor, Dr. S. (Barnet)

  Dodds, N. N.

  Mann, Mrs. J.

  Thomas, D. E. (Aberdare)

  Donovan T.

  Manning, C. (Camberwell, N.)

  Thomas, I. O. (Wrekin)

  Driberg, T. E. N.

  Manning, Mrs. L. (Epping)

  Thorneycroft, Harry (Clayton)

  Dugdale, J. (W. Bromwich)

  Marquand, H. A.

  Thurtle, E.

  Ede, Rt. Hon. J. C.

  Marshall, F. (Brightside)

  Tiffany, S.

  Edwards, John (Blackburn)

  Mathers, G

  Titterington, M. F.

  Edwards, N. (Caerphilly)

  Medland, H. M.

  Tolley, L.

  Edwards, W. J. (Whitechapel)

  Mellish, R. J,

  Tomlinson, Rt. Hon. G

  Evans, E. (Lowestoft)

  Messer, F.

  Vernon, Maj W. F

  Evans, John (Ogmore)

  Middleton, Mrs. L

  Viant, S. P.

  Evans, S. N. (Wednesbury)

  Mikardo, Ian

  Wadsworth, G

  Ewart, R.

  Millington, Wing-Comdr. E. R

  Walker, G. H.

  Fairhurst, F.

  Mitchison, Maj. G. R.

  Wallace, G. D. (Chislehurst)

  Fletcher, E. G. M. (Islington, E.)

  Monslow, W.

  Wallace, H. W (Walthamstow, E.)

  Follick, M.

  Moody, A. S.

  Warbey, W. N.

  Foot, M. M.

  Morgan, Dr. H. B.

  Weitzman, D.

  Foster, W. (Wigan)

  Morris, P. (Swansea, W.)

  Wells, W. T. (Walsall)

  Ganley, Mrs. C. S.

  Mort, D. L.

  West, D. G.

  Gibbins, J.

  Murray, J. D.

  White, C F (Derbyshire, W.)

  658

  659

  Whiteley, Rt. Hon. W

  Williams, W. R. (Heston)

  Yates, V. F

  Wigg, Col. G. E.

  Williamson, T

  Young, Sir R. (Newton)

  Wilkes, L.

  Willls, E

  Zilliacus, K.

  Wilkins, W. A.

  Wilson, J. H

  Willey, F. T. (Sunderland)

  Woodburn, A

  TELLERS FOR THE AYES:

  Willey, O G (Cleveland)

  Wyatt, W.

  Mr. Hannan and Mr. Popplewell.

  NOES

  Aitken, Hon. Max

  Hare, Hon. J. H. (Woodbridge)

  Peake, Rt. Hon. O.

  Assheton, Rt. Hon. R

  Harvey Air-Comdre A. V.

  Peto, Brig. C. H. M.

  Astor, Hon. M.

  Haughton, S G.

  Pitman, I. J

  Birch, Nigel

  Headlam, Lieut.-Col. Rt. Hon. Sir C

  Poole, O. B. S. (Oswestry)

  Boles, Lt -Col. D. C. (Wells)

  Hogg, Hon. Q.

  Prescott, Stanley

  Bossom, A. C

  Hollis, M. C.

  Prior-Palmer, Brig. O.

  Boyd-Carpenter, J. A.

  Howard, Hon. A.

  Raikes, H. V.

  Bromley-Davenport, Lt.-Col W.

  Hudson, Rt. Hon. R. S. (Southport)

  Rayner, Brig. R.

  Buchan-Hepburn, P. G. T.

  Hurd, A.

  Reed, Sir S. (Aylesbury)

  Bullock, Capt. M.

  Hutchison, Col. J. R. (Glasgow, C.)

  Renton, D,

  Carson, E.

  Jeffreys, General Sir G.

  Roberts, H. (Handsworth)

  Challen, C

  Jennings, R.

  Robinson, Wing-Comdr. Roland

  Channon, H.

  Joynson-Hicks, Lt.-Cdr. Hon L. W.

  Ropner, Col. L.

  Clarke, Col R. S.

  Keeling, E. H.

  Ross, Sir R. D. (Londonderry)

  Clifton-Brown, Lt.-Col. G

  Lancaster, Col. C. G.

  Sanderson, Sir F.

  Conant, Maj R. J. E.

  Law, Rt. Hon. R. K.

  Shephard, S. (Newark)

  Cooper-Key, E. M.

  Legge-Bourke, Maj. E. A. H.

  Shepherd, W. S (Bucklow)

  Corbett, Lieut.-Col. U. (Ludlow)

  Lloyd, Maj. Guy (Renfrew, E.)

  Smith, E. P. (Ashford)

  Crookshank, Capt. Rt. Hon. H. F. C

  Low, Brig. A. R. W.

  Smithers, Sir W.

  Crosthwaite-Eyre, Col. O. E.

  Lucas, Major Sir J.

  Spence, H. R.

  Cuthbert, W N.

  Lucas-Tooth, Sir H.

  Stanley, Rt. Hon. O.

  Digby, S. W.

  Lyttelton, Rt. Hon. O.

  Stoddart-Scott, Col. M.

  Dodds-Parker, A. D.

  Macdonald, Sir P. (I. of Wight)

  Strauss, H. G. (English Universities)

  Dower, E. L. G. (Caithness)

  Mackeson, Brig. H. R.

  Stuart, Rt. Hon. J. (Moray)

  Drayson, G. B.

  Maitland, Comdr J. W.

  Sutcliffe, H.

  Drewe, C.

  Manningham-Buller, R. E.

  Taylor, C S. (Eastbourne)

  Eccles, D. M.

  Marlowe, A. A. H.

  Teeling, William

  Elliot, Rt. Hon. Walter

  Marples, A. E.

  Thorneycroft, G. E. P. (Monmouth)

  Erroll, F. J.

  Marsden, Capt. A.

  Thornton-Kemsley, C. N.

  Fleming, Sqn.-Ldr. E. L.

  Marshall, D. (Bodmin)

  Thorp,. Lt.-Col. R. A. F.

  Fletcher, W. (Bury)

  Maude, J. C.

  Vane, W. M. F.

  Foster, J. G. (Northwich)

  Mellor, Sir J.

  Walker-Smith, D.

  Fraser, Maj. H. C. P. (Stone)

  Molson, A. H. E.

  Ward, Hon. G. R.

  Fraser, Sir I. (Lonsdale)

  Morrison, Maj. J. G. (Salisbury)

  Watt, Sir G. S Harvie

  Gage, C.

  Morrison, Rt. Hon. W S. (Cirencester)

  Wheatley, Colonel M. J.

  Galbraith, Cmdr. T. D.

  Mott-Radclyffe, Maj. C. E.

  White, J. B. (Canterbury)

  Gammans, L. D.

  Neven-Spence, Sir B.

  Willoughby de Eresby, Lord

  Glossop, C. W. H.

  Nicholson, G.

  Winterton, Rt. Hon. Earl

  Gomme-Duncan, Col. A. G

  Noble, Comdr. A. H. P.

  Young, Sir A. S. L. (Partick)

  Grant, Lady

  Nutting, Anthony

  Gridley, Sir A.

  O'Neill, Rt. Hon. Sir H.

  TELLERS FOR THE NOES

  Grimston, R. V.

  Orr-Ewing, I. L.

  Mr. Studholme and

  Hannon, Sir P (Moseley)

  Osborne, C

  Major Ramsay.

  Question put accordingly, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."
  The House divided: Ayes, 258; Noes, 125.

  Division No. 75.]

  AYES

  [10.10 p.m

  Adams, Richard (Balham)

  Braddock, Mrs. E. M. (L'pl, Exch'ge)

  Cripps, Rt. Hon. Sir S.

  Adams, W. T. (Hammersmith, South)

  Braddock, T. (Mitcham)

  Crossman, R. H. S.

  Alexander, Rt. Hon. A. V.

  Brook, D. (Halifax)

  Daggar, G.

  Alpass, J. H.

  Brown, George (Belper)

  Daines, P.

  Anderson, F. (Whitehaven)

  Brown, T. J. (Ince)

  Davies, Edward (Burslem)

  Attewell, H. C.

  Bruce Maj. D. W. T.

  Davies, Harold (Leek)

  Awbery, S. S.

  Buchanan, G.

  Davies, Hadyn (St. Pancras, S.W.)

  Ayles, W. H.

  Burke, W. A.

  Davies, S. O. (Merthyr)

  Ayrton Gould, Mrs. B.

  Byers, Frank

  Deer, G.

  Bacon, Miss A.

  Castle, Mrs. B. A.

  Diamond, J.

  Baird, J.

  Chamberlain, R. A.

  Dobbie, W.

  Barton, C.

  Champion, A. J.

  Dodds, N. N.

  Battley, J. R.

  Chetwynd, G. R.

  Donovan, T.

  Bechervaise, A. E.

  Cobb, F. A.

  Driberg, T. E. N.

  Belcher, J. W.

  Cocks, F. S.

  Dugdale, J. (W. Bromwich)

  Benson, G.

  Coldrick, W.

  Ede, Rt. Hon. J. C.

  Berry, H.

  Collick, P.

  Edwards, John (Blackburn)

  Bing, G. H. C.

  Collindridge, F.

  Edwards, N. (Caerphilly)

  Binns, J.

  Collins, V. J.

  Edwards, W. J. (Whitechapel)

  Blackburn, A. R

  Colman, Miss G. M.

  Evans, E. (Lowestoft)

  Blenkinsop, A.

  Cook, T. F.

  Evans, John (Ogmore)

  Blyton, W. R.

  Cooper, Wing-Comdr. G.

  Evans, S. N. (Wednesbury)

  Boardman, H.

  Corbat, Mrs. F. K. (Camb'well, N.W.)

  Ewart, R.

  Bowden, Flg.-Offr, H. W.

  Corlett, Dr. J.

  Fairhurst, F.

  Bowles, F. G. (Nuneaton)

  Corvedale, Viscount

  Fletcher, E. G. M. (Islington, E.)

  Follick, M.

  McKay, J. (Wallsend)

  Royle, C.

  Foot, M. M

  Mackay, R. W. G (Hull, N.W.)

  Scott-Elliot, W

  Foster, W. (Wigan)

  McKinlay, A. S.

  Segal, Dr S

  Gaitskell, H. T. N.

  McLeavy, F.

  Shackleton, Wing.-Cdr. E. A. A

  Ganley, Mrs C S

  Macpherson, T (Romford)

  Sharp, Granville

  Gibbins, J

  Mallalieu, J. P. W

  Shawcross, C. N. (Widnes)

  Gibson, C W

  Mann, Mrs J

  Shawcross, Rt. Hn. Sir H. (St. Helens)

  Glanville, J. E. (Consett)

  Manning, C. (Camberwell, N.)

  Shinwell, Rt. Hon. E.

  Goodrich, H. E.

  Manning, Mrs. L (Epping)

  Silverman, J (Erdington)

  Greenwood, Rt. Hon A (Wakefield)

  Marquand, H. A

  Silverman, S S (Nelson)

  Greenwood, A W J (Heywood)

  Marshall, F. (Brightside)

  Simmons, C. J

  Grey, C. F.

  Mathers, G

  Skeffington, A. M

  Grierson, E

  Medland, H. M

  Skeffington-Lodge, T C

  Griffiths, D. (Rother Valley)

  Mellish, R. J.

  Skinnard, F. W

  Griffiths, Rt. Hon. J (Llanelly)

  Messer, F.

  Smith, C (Colchester)

  Griffiths, W D (Moss Side)

  Middleton, Mrs. L

  Smith, Ellis (Stoke)

  Guy, W H.

  Mikardo, Ian

  Smith, S. H (Hull, S.W.)

  Haire, John E (Wycombe)

  Millington, Wing-Comdr E. R

  Solley, L. J.

  Hale, Leslie

  Mitchison, Maj G. R

  Soskice, Maj. Sir F.

  Hamilton, Lieut.-Col R

  Monslow, W

  Sparks, J. A.

  Hardy, E. A

  Moody, A S.

  Stamford, W

  Hastings, Dr. Somerville

  Morgan, Dr. H B

  Stewart, Michael (Fulham, E)

  Henderson, A (Kingswinford)

  Morris, P (Swansea, W.)

  Symonds, A. L.

  Henderson, Joseph (Ardwick)

  Mort, D. L

  Taylor, H B (Mansfield)

  Herbison, Miss M.

  Murray, J. D.

  Taylor, R. J. (Morpeth)

  Hewitson, Capt. M

  Nally, W.

  Taylor, Dr. S. (Barnet)

  Hicks, G.

  Neal, H. (Claycross)

  Thomas, D E. (Aberdare)

  Holman, P.

  Nichol, Mrs M. E (Bradford, N.)

  Thomas, I. O. (Wrekin)

  Holmes, H. E. (Hemsworth)

  Nicholls, H. R. (Stratford)

  Thorneycroft, Harry (Clayton)

  House, G

  Noel-Baker, Capt F E. (Brentford)

  Thurtle, E

  Hoy, J.

  Noel-Buxton, Lady

  Tiffany, S

  Hudson, J. H. (Ealing, W.)

  Oldfield, W. H

  Titterington, M F.

  Hughes, Hector (Aberdeen, N.)

  Oliver, G. H

  Tolley, L.

  Hughes, H. D. (W'lvurh"pton, W.)

  Orbach, M.

  Tomlinson, Rt. Hon. G

  Hutchinson, H. L. (Rusholme)

  Paget, R. T.

  Vernon, Maj W F

  Hynd, H. (Hackney, C.)

  Paling, Rt. Hon. Wilfred (Wentworth)

  Viant, S. P

  Irving, W J.

  Parker, J

  Wadsworth, G

  Isaacs, Rt. Hon G. A

  Parkin, B T.

  Walker, G. H.

  Janner, B

  Paton, Mrs, F (Rushcliffe)

  Wallace, G D. (Chislehurst)

  Jay, D P. I

  Paton, J. (Norwich)

  Wallace, H W (Walthamstow, E.)

  Jeger, G (Winchester)

  Pearson, A

  Warbey, W N

  Jones, D. T (Hartlepools)

  Peart, Capt. T F.

  Weitzman, D.

  Jones, Elwyn (Plaistow)

  Piratin, P

  Wells, W. T (Walsall)

  Jones, J. H. (Bolton)

  Platts-Mills, J F. F.

  West, D. G.

  Jones, P. Asterley (Hitchin)

  Poole, Major Cecil (Lichfield)

  White, C. F (Derbyshire. W.)

  Keenan, W

  Porter, E, (Warrington)

  Whiteley, Rt. Hon W

  Kendall, W. D

  Porter, G. (Leeds)

  Wigg, Col. G. E

  Kinley, J.

  Proctor, W. T

  Wilkes, L.

  Kirby, B. V

  Pursey, Cmdr. H

  Wilkins, W. A.

  Layers, S.

  Randall, H. E.

  Willey, O G. (Cleveland)

  Lee, F (Hulme)

  Rankin, J

  Williams, W. R (Heston)

  Leonard, W

  Rees-Williams. D R

  Williamson, T

  Lever, N. H

  Reeves, J.

  Willis, E.

  Levy, B. W.

  Reid, T (Swindon)

  Wilson, J. H.

  Lewis, A. W. J (Upton)

  Rhodes, H.

  Woodburn, A

  Lindgren, G. S

  Robens, A.

  Wyatt, W.

  Longden, F.

  Roberts, Emrys (Merioneth)

  Yates, V. F.

  Lyne, A. W.

  Roberts, Goronwy (Caernarvonshire)

  Young, Sir R. (Newton)

  McAllister, G.

  Roberts, W (Cumberland, N.)

  Zilliacus, K.

  McEnter, V. La. T

  Robertson, J J. (Berwick)

  McGhee, H. G

  Rogers, G. H. R.

  TELLERS FOR THE AYES:

  Mack, J. D

  Ross, William (Kilmarnock)

  Mr Hannan and

  Mr. Popplewell.

  NOES.

  Aitken, Hon. Max

  Digby, S. W.

  Grimston, R. V

  Assheton, Rt. Hon. R

  Dodds-Parker, A. D.

  Hannon, Sir P (Moselev)

  Astor, Hon M.

  Dower, E. L. G (Caithness)

  Hare, Hon. J H. (Woodbridge)

  Birch, Nigel

  Drayson, G B

  Harvey, Air-Comdre. A. V

  Boles, Lt -Col D C (Wells)

  Drewe, C.

  Haughton, S. G

  Bossom, A C.

  Eccles, D M.

  Headlam, Lieut.-Col. Rt. Hen Sir C

  Boyd-Carpenter, J. A.

  Elliot, Rt. Hon. Walter

  Hogg, Hon Q.

  Bromley-Davenport, Lt.-Col W

  Erroll, F J

  Holds, M. C.

  Buchan-Hepburn, P G T

  Fleming, Sqn.-Ldr. E. L

  Howard, Hon. A,

  Bullock, Capt. M.

  Fletcher, W. (Bury)

  Hudson, Rt Hon R S. (Southport)

  Carson, E

  Foster, J. G. (Northwich)

  Hurd, A.

  Challen, C

  Fraser, Maj. H. C. P (Stone)

  Hutchison, Col J. R. (Glasgow, C.)

  Channon, H.

  Fraser, Sir I. (Lonsdale)

  Jeffreys, General Sir G

  Clarke, Col. R. S.

  Gage, C.

  Jennings, R.

  Clifton-Brown, Lt.-Col. G

  Galbraith, Cmdr. T. D

  Joynson-Hicks, Lt.-Cdr. Hon L. W

  Cooper-Key, E M.

  Gammans, L. D.

  Keeling, E. H.

  Corbett, Lieut.-Col U. (Ludlow)

  Glossop, C. W. H

  Lancaster, Col. C G.

  Crookshank, Capt Rt. Hon. H

  Gomme-Duncan, Col. A. G

  Law, Rt. Hon. R. K.

  Crosthwaite-Eyre, Col O E

  Grant, Lady

  Legge-Bourke, Maj. E. A. H

  Cuthbert, W N

  Gridley, Sir A

  Lloyd, Maj. Guy (Renfrew, E.)

  662

  663

  Low, Brig. A. R. W

  Orr-Ewing, I L

  Stoddart-Scott, Col. M.

  Lucas, Major Sir J.

  Osborne, C

  Strauss, H. G (English Universities)

  Lucas-Tooth, Sir H.

  Peake, Rt. Hon. O

  Stuart, Rt. Hon. J. (Moray)

  Lyttelton, Rt. Hon. O.

  Peto, Brig. C. H. M

  Studholme, H. G.

  Macdonald, Sir P. (I. of Wight)

  Pitman, I. J.

  Sutcliffe, H.

  Mackeson, Brig. H. R.

  Poole, O. B. S. (Oswestry)

  Taylor, C. S. (Eastbourne)

  Maitland, Comdr J. W.

  Prescott, Stanley

  Teeling, William

  Manningham-Buller, R. E.

  Prior-Palmer, Brig. O.

  Thorneycroft, G. E. P. (Monmouth)

  Marlowe, A. A. H

  Raikes, H. V.

  Thornton-Kemsley, C. N.

  Marples, A. E.

  Rayner, Brig. R.

  Thorp, Lt.-Col. R. A. F.

  Marsden, Capt. A

  Reed, Sir S. (Aylesbury)

  Vane, W. M. F.

  Marshall, D. (Bodmin)

  Renton, D.

  Walker-Smith, D.

  Maude, J. C.

  Roberts, H. (Handsworth)

  Ward, Hon. G. R.

  Mellor, Sir J.

  Robinson, Wing-Comdr. Roland

  Watt, Sir G. S. Harvie

  Molson, A. H. E.

  Ropner, Col. L

  Wheatley, Colonel M. J.

  Morrison, Maj. J G. (Salisbury)

  Ross, Sir R D (Londonderry)

  White, J. B. (Canterbury)

  Morrison, Rt. Hon. W S. (Cirencester)

  Sanderson Sir F

  Willoughby de Eresby, Lord

  Mott-Radclyffe, Maj. C E

  Shephard, S. (Newark)

  Winterton, Rt. Hon. Earl

  Neven-Spence, Sir B

  Shepherd, W. S. (Bucklow)

  Young, Sir A S L. (Partick)

  Nicholson, G.

  Smith, E P. (Ashford)

  Noble, Comdr A H P

  Smithers, Sir W

  TELLERS FOR THE NOES:

  Nutting, Anthony

  Spence, H R.

  Major Ramsay and

  O'Neill. Rt Hon. Sir H

  Stanley. Rt. Han O

  Major Conant.

  Question put, and agreed to.

  Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Standing Committee.

  INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION [MONEY]
  Considered in Committee under Standing Order No. 69—(King's Recommendation signified.)
  [Major MILNER in the Chair]
  Motion made, and Question proposed,
  "That, for the purposes of any Act of the present Session to provide for the establishment of development councils for industries, for making funds available for certain purposes in relation to industries for which there is no development council, for the disposal of any surplus of funds, levied under emergency provision 'for encouragement of exports, and for the making of grants to bodies established for the improvement of design, it is expedient to authorize—

  (a) the following payments out of moneys provided by Parliament, that is to say—

  (i) payment of grants to the Council of Industrial Design or to any association or body the objects of which include promoting the improvement of design in any industry or activities conducive thereto and as to which the Board of Trade is satisfied that it does not carry on any business for the purpose of making a profit;

  (ii)after revocation or expiry of any order imposing charges made under the Defence (Encouragement of Export) Regulations, 594o, payment to any development council established for the industry in relation to which the order was made, or otherwise for purposes connected with that industry, of sums up to the amount of any excess of charges recovered under the order and other receipts of the Board of Trade under arrangements made pursuant to those Regulations over the cost of the relevant services provided thereunder;

  (iii) payment of any administrative expenses incurred in the execution of the said Act by any government department;

  664

  (b) payment into the Exchequer, after revocation of any order under the said Act imposing charges for purposes in connection with an industry for which there is not a development council, of any excess of charges recovered under the order over expenses incurred for those purposes, in so far as any such excess is not otherwise disposed of under the said Act."—[Sir S. Cripps.]

  Mr. Quintin Hogg: As this is the Money Resolution, may we hear the Minister's voice upon this important subject? I object to this being treated as unopposed Business in view of the fact that the Government imposed the Closure.
  And, it being after Ten o'Clock, and objection being taken to further Proceedtngs, The CHAIRMAN left the Chair to make his Report to the House.
  Committee report Progress; to sit again upon Monday next.

  SUNDAY CINEMATOGRAPH ENTERTAINMENTS
  Resolved:
  "That the Order made by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, extending Section r of the Sunday Entertainments Act, 1932 to the County Borough of Bury, a copy of which Order was presented on 11th February, be approved."
  Resolved:
  "That the Order made by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, extending Section of the Sunday Entertainments Act, 1932, to the Urban District of Ventnor, a copy of which Order was presented on 11th February, be approved."
  Resolved:
  "That the Order made by the secretary of State for the Home Department, extending Section of the Sunday Entertainments Act,

  665
  1932, to the Borough of Keighley, a copy of which Order was presented on 11th February, he approved."
  Resolved:
  "That the Order made by the Secretary of State for the home Department, extending Section r of the Sunday Entertainments Act, 1932, to the Urban District of Hoddesdon, a copy of which Order was presented on nth February, be approved."—[Mr. Oliver.]

  DISABLED EX-SERVICEMEN (MEDICAL TREATMENT)
  Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House do now adjourn."— [Mr. Joseph Henderson.]
  10.23 p.m.
  Mr. Leslie Hale: I wish to raise the question of pensions for disabled discharged soldiers, with special reference to those disabled by disease. We are all familiar with the lines:
  It's Tommy this, an Tommy that, an Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?;
  But it's 'Thin red line of 'eroes' when the drums begin to roll."
  We have been familiar after several wars with the reverse process, but so far as the last war is concerned we on this side of the House are determined that that process shall not be reversed again. I desire to pay tribute to the work that the Minister has done. He has been kindly, approachable and effective. He has increased pensions, he has widened the regulations and introduced a sympathetic treatment into the administration of this matter which was not there before. It is very well that we should remember that when the war started pensions had been reduced below the limits of 1919. When I joined the Forces on 3rd September, 1939, I used to salute four times to collect seven bob for my two kids both of whom were at secondary school.
  We have passed from that but there is one narrow and important sphere of this matter in which I find that the regulations are not applied or are not sufficiently flexible, and as a result great hardship, pain and suffering are caused, I want to quote the case of a constituent of mine who is suffering from psycho-neurosis. This case is quite exceptional, because there is no fact in the matter which is in dispute. The whole of the facts are completely agreed. This question of psycho-neurosis is a branch of medicine today
  666
  which affects very many people. I wish to quote the case of a man of 35, a member of the police force, a reserved occupation, who volunteered for service in the Air Force. He was called up in 1941 and classed as A.1.
  It is said that he was a person of exceptional mentality with a very fine record of service. He goes to Canada where he is passed A.1, and he returns in 1942 and is found A.1. He qualifies as a pilot, is passed as a first-class pilot and he flies all over the world. When over the Mediterranean, he crashes into the sea, with a shot through the leg, and is in the water for hours. He is finally rescued by a launch, and, from that moment completely crippled, for the time being, with psycho-neurosis. Not a single fact is disputed, and the doctors from the Ministry of Health have agreed on these facts and that this man will never again be fit for the police force. That is all they say on the matter, and I would like to quote a few words of the findings to the House, because hon. Members will readily see that they can apply to a good many cases:
  "Psychiatric investigation during service revealed his as a zealous, over-conscientious type of individual, a mental make-up which is found in early life."
  That is all they could find about him—that he was a conscientious type. Had he been found out to have stolen apples at 14 years of age, or bought sweets after eight o'clock at night, or spent more than five shillings on a meal, he would have got a pension. Being as he was, a conscientious individual, they found that he had a predisposition to the disease. They said further that the mental malady from which he was suffering did not of necessity imply a prior history of nervous disorder, but was prone to declare itself in those who have shown during the years high standards of work and conscience—and often a too sensitive and over-scrupulous nature.
  Because he showed this high standard and conscientiousness, they said that he had a predisposition to this disease. l have now to deal with the most moving case of all. Hon. Members will know that many cases of disease, such as Parkinson':- disease, which is a branch of encephalitis lethargica, are of such a nature that no doctor can say how they are caused. Medicine being an exact science in the textbooks, they have a variety of names for these diseases, but nobody knows, and nobody can tell how they are caused. In

  667
  the great research stations of America they are considering environment and food as possible causations of disease. This man got this terrible sentence of death, and it is, indeed a terrible sentence. Where men have been said to have failed to establish that the disease was due to their service, as in this case—the men who manned the tanks in Libya, the men who fought on the dunes of Dunkirk, who served in tropic heat or arctic cold—it is a tragedy that they are not entitled, when they come back, to first consideration of the fact that they served, as physically fit men, for years, and that, when they come out of the Service, crippled by disease, it is for them to have to establish that their condition is due to their service.
  They went out willingly, and took the risks of war and all its dangers."
  Non ille pro cans amicis
  Aut patria timidus perire."
  But when they came back they had to face something infinitely worse. I do not want to harrow the feelings of the House in this matter, but it is right that we should appreciate just what it means when a medical man says, "You have longstanding disseminated sclerosis." This is a sentence of death, and it is a sentence, not of rapid death, it is a sentence of long suffering. It is a sentence which means that that man's frame will gradually waste away, and he will be harassed by constant paroxysms of suffering. He has to lie there, awaiting the inevitable. If I could paraphrase what John Bright said in another direction, "From the moment that sentence is pronounced, the angel of death is in the house, and you can hear the fluttering of his wings." There must be times when that man, lying there, helpless and alone, might think that that angel presents the appearance of the vulture standing there implacably, relentlessly, remorselessly, for the prey which has been appointed for him by this affliction.,
  These are not matters for light debate, but for broad human dispensations. These men are being driven to seek public assistance, but the difference between public assistance and pension is, anyhow, trivial. But what does it mean in terms of dignity and comfort? These men are sent home and must have care and constant attention, and they must have food and sunlight, and they must be free from worry. But what happens in Oldham, my constituency, where these men are in the loneli-
  668
  ness of their rooms, with no hospital treatment, because the hospitals are full? They have no rehabilitation treatment, because they have not been passed for pension. They have no constant care from the devoted helpmeet because the breadwinner has been driven by the sheer force of economic necessity into the factory. I have seen them in their little, ill-lit, back bedrooms. They lie there, with dampness showing on the walls, with little light coming through the window, day after day, and all day, waiting hopefully for the relieving officer to come, and waiting for their ultimate call to a pauper's grave. I am telling the House of what I have seen. I have the case paper of a man before me now, who has gone into a public assistance institution since I took up his case, and I might as well say he may be better off there than have to remain in the conditions in which I first saw him.
  I would ask the Parliamentary Secretary, in a few, I hope, moderate words, not to talk about appeals to the High Court, because there is no appeal to the High Court in fact, and not to talk about the number of cases that are allowed. These are sincere and genuine cases, and I say to the Parliamentary Secretary—for whom I have the greatest respect and who has been most courteous and efficient in always considering individual cases with great sympathy—that there is nothing to prevent him, in consultation with the right hon. Gentleman, writing a single letter by ten o'clock in the morning which will put an end to these things and will show that, so long as the medical man is satisfied that the man really is disabled and really was fit when he enlisted, he should have his pension. There should be no argument about it.
  It has been my misfortune in life to come into contact with many cases of the utmost gravity. Taking the bad cases which I have visualised, I would say with Byron:
  "He, too, was struck and day by day
  Was withered on the stalk away
  Oh, God, it is a fearful thing
  To see the human soul take wing
  In any shape, in any mood:—
  I've seen it rushing forth in blood,
  I've seen it on the breaking ocean
  Strive with a swol'n convulsive motion,
  I've seen the sick and ghastly bed
  Of Sin delirious with its dread:
  But these were horrors—this was woe
  Unmixed with such—but sure and slow."

  669
  These men are entitled to the sympathy and assistance of this House in the most abounding measure and I ask the Parliamentary Secretary to give an answer tonight which means that he is bringing light to those who live in darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death.
  10.35 p.m.
  Mr. Joynson-Hicks: I count myself proud to be able to associate myself with the hon. Member for Oldham (Mr. Hale) in the appeal he has made to the Minister of Pensions. I would be glad if my constituents could share the results of his eloquence on behalf of his constituents. We on this side of the House are grateful to him for the sincere, impassioned, and very moving appeal. I have not come to the House this evening armed with cases to support him. In fact, the time would not allow me to give further cases. And what necessity is there to do so? The cases which the hon. Member for Oldham has already quoted are as serious as any which any other hon. Member could put forward.
  When the hon. Member for Oldham says that the Parliamentary Secretary and the Minister invariably meet our appeals on these cases with sympathy, he may be right. But what we are not met with, so far as I am concerned, is any result, or any satisfaction to the constituent. In so far as the case may fall within the strict limits of the regulations, if the Ministry has gone wrong, it may be put right. But in so far as it may not fall within the strict limits of the regulations and rules and the absolute lines laid down, there is no hope of getting help. That is the experience I have enjoyed with the Parliamentary Secretary. Therefore I do hope, and urge, that the Minister will see his way to making some alleviation of the conditions. I sincerely trust that he will bear in mind the appeal which has been made to him to issue fresh instructions to the doctors and to endeavour to ensure that they do not act in future in the hidebound way which has characterized their actions in the past.
  10.37 p.m.
  The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions (Mr. Blenkinsop): I would like to thank the hon. Member for Oldham (Mr. Hale) for raising this matter tonight, for two reasons. The first is that this is an issue in which I know that hon. Members in all parts of the House
  670
  are deeply concerned. The second is a personal reason—that it gives me an opportunity at long last to speak in this House and from this place. I think that it is perhaps some sign of a greater understanding of the work which this Ministry of ours is doing that we have not had occasion to speak here before.
  I would like to point out, first, what is our policy in general cases of disease, before I come to the diseases which the hon. Member has raised with such sincerity tonight. Of all the cases, the first applications for which are submitted to the Ministry, the great majority are of diseases which unhappily are common both to our ordinary civil life and to our military life. In order to be fair to those who put in their claims to us, it is important that we should have some sort of common basis for the treatment of those claims. That common basis, in our view, certainly ought to be a medical one. But let me immediately insist that the narrow medical view is not the view which our Ministry accepts as the one rule. Let me make it clear that any application which comes to us goes to our medical services for their opinion. The doctors are asked to give their advice on whether there is any connection between the man's condition and his service in the Forces.
  There is no schedule or list of diseases cut out from our consideration. Some hon. Members have from time to time suggested to us that we regard certain types of disease as outside our consideration. That is certainly not true. We are very careful to insist that every case that comes before us should be considered on its merits, and that medical services, when they give it their first consideration, pay full regard to the actual circumstances of the individual case—the of service of the man, whether he has undergone a severe stress or strain, whether there has been any delay in deciding the nature of the case, and all matters of that kind which might militate in his favour. Very often our medical service calls for further medical evidence from independent experts outside our own Ministry to decide what would be the normal advice on a particular type of case. When the doctors have given their advice, the case then goes to the lay officers of our Ministry. who have the strongest advice from us as to the need for very careful and human consideration to be given to each case.

  671
  Their approval must be obtained before any decision is conveyed to a claimant.
  Despite my hon. Friend's request to me not to quote figures, I would say, in fairness to us, that for the last six months at least, over 80 per cent. of the current applications coming to the Ministry as a consequence of the last war have been accepted without any question of appeal. That suggests that we are treating such applications in a very different way from the way in which they have been treated in the past.
  I thank my hon. Friend for mentioning to me earlier that he would be raising certain cases tonight. He mentioned the terrible disease of disseminated sclerosis. It is correct, as he says, that the cause of this disease is largely unknown. I am anxious to emphasise that we take the greatest care that individual cases are examined on their merits, and not by a rule of thumb method, as suggested by the hon. Member opposite. We insist that, in all cases, the human basis must be given its full importance. I do not know about all the cases which the hon. Member for Oldham raised, but I know of one which he has brought before us. It is a case in which the war service of the man concerned lasted precisely ten days.
  Mr. Hale: Oh, no.
  Mr. Blenkinsop: That is one of the cases which the hon. Member has raised with us. This man was on the reserve for some years prior to joining up on 2nd September, 1939, and he was taken into hospital ten days later.
  Mr. Hale: After 14 years' peacetime service in the Army
  Mr. Blenkinsop: Much of which was on the reserve. The duty of the Ministry is to deal with war service. I must ask hon. Members to realise that we can pay regard only to that part of the service. Even so, the prior service was on the reserve.
  To assure hon. Members again that we are not taking any harsh, narrow, medical view in cases of disseminated sclerosis, I would say that out of 1,600 applications for pension for that disease we have granted something over 900 awards. At all stages we are prepared to review any of these cases. In view of the service—if the man has been abroad, for example, and done service—we would certainly
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  take the matter into consideration. Similarly if there had been delay in treatment. We are prepared to give further review and consideration at all stages of appeal, right up to the Appeal Tribunal.
  Cases of psychoneurosis have been mentioned by my hon. Friend. The attitude of the Ministry has been changed during recent years. At the outbreak of war, a conference of medical experts under the chairmanship of Lord Horder made certain recommendations, among them being that economic gain should be strictly avoided, as it would hinder recovery. That attitude has been ended by our Ministry, over the last year and a half in particular. In the changes that we made in 1943, and, much more particularly, since the High Court judgment, we have altered our attitude completely on matters of this kind, particularly, in the individual case raised by my hon. Friend. I can tell him that if that case, which I have seen, came before us today, we should certainly give it "attributability".
  Mr. Hale: It came before the Ministry. on 9th December, 1946.
  Mr. Blenkinsop: If my hon. Friend would care to send the case to me, I can assure him that it will receive very sympathetic treatment. I cannot give him any assurance about the actual level of pension that he might get. I am prepared to say that our Ministry would certainly grant to any case of this sort, of long, hard service, "attributability" rather than "aggravation". We shall have to pay regard to how much disability the man is actually suffering today, and to pay pension in accordance with whatever that disability is. We have 37,000 cases of psychoneurosis for pension purposes. I suggest that that is a sign of our changed attitude on this matter. I am afraid I cannot deal with the other individual case which my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham raised, but I will willingly consider it if he cares to put it before me.
  Mr. Hale: The hon. Member has it.
  Mr. Blenkinsop: Well, I should be very willing to consider it again. I am only too anxious to. [Laughter.] Hon. Members opposite laugh, but I think it is only fair to say, in regard to the attitude of the Ministry, that a very large number of cases which were refused consideration in

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  the earlier days of the war are now being reconsidered and pensions awarded; and, what is more important, not only are pensions awarded but treatment is provided—which, after all, is what we are most concerned about in the Ministry. and. I am sure, in this House.
  I want to end by assuring all hon. Members that we are particularly anxious that they should all co-operate by letting us know of any cases of specific difficulty, in which they think the Ministry has not given full consideration. If the hon. Member for Chichester (Mr. Joynson Hicks) will raise with me the cases which he says have not been dealt with satisfactorily, I assure him I am anxious, not only to see them but to discuss them with him I think that is the fairest way of dealing with it. Both my right hon. Friend the
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  Minister and myself are anxious that the better reputation which the Ministry is gaining, not only with hon. Members but in the country at large, should be maintained and developed. We are anxious, indeed, that all men who have rendered service to the country, for which they are to be thanked, should be fairly and properly treated by our Minister if hon. Members have any cases of difficulty, not only should they put them before us by letter but, if they are still not satisfied with the answers they get, I shall be only too willing for them to come round to see either the Minister or myself personally about it.
  Adjourned accordingly at seven Minutes to Eleven o'clock

  HOUSING (FOREST OF DEAN)
  HOUSING (FOREST OF DEAN)
  POPULATION STATISTICS, CAERNARVONSHIRE
  POPULATION STATISTICS, CAERNARVONSHIRE
EDUCATION
  Leaving Age (Accommodation)
  Leaving Age (Accommodation)
  Teachers (Training Grants)
  Teachers (Training Grants)
  WAR DAMAGE APPEALS (COSTS)
  WAR DAMAGE APPEALS (COSTS)
NATIONAL FINANCE
  Purchase Tax (Domestic Woodware)
  Purchase Tax (Domestic Woodware)
  Vaporising Oil (Duty)
  Vaporising Oil (Duty)
  Savings Banks (Interest)
  Savings Banks (Interest)
  P.A.Y.E. (Repayments)
  P.A.Y.E. (Repayments)
EMPLOYMENT
  Young Persons (Working Hours)
  Young Persons (Working Hours)
  U.K. and Swiss Hotel Employees (Exchange)
  U.K. and Swiss Hotel Employees (Exchange)
  OFFICIAL REPORT (BOUND VOLUMES)
  OFFICIAL REPORT (BOUND VOLUMES)
TRADE AND COMMERCE
  Clothing Coupons
  Clothing Coupons
  Anglo-Soviet Negotiations
  Anglo-Soviet Negotiations
  Herring-net Spinning Machines
  Herring-net Spinning Machines
ELECTRICITY
  Hydro-Electric Constructional Schemes
  Hydro-Electric Constructional Schemes
  New Generating Plant
  New Generating Plant
  Diesel Generators
  Diesel Generators
  Submarines (Royal Dockyards)
  Submarines (Royal Dockyards)
  Coal Stocks, Midlands
  Coal Stocks, Midlands
COAL INDUSTRY
  Agricultural Threshing Contracts
  Agricultural Threshing Contracts
  Change of Retailer
  Change of Retailer
  Nationalisation (Personal Service Contracts)
  Nationalisation (Personal Service Contracts)
  Statistical Digest
  Statistical Digest
  Coke Deliveries (Football Pools)
  Coke Deliveries (Football Pools)
  Consumption
  Consumption
  Foreign Bunkers
  Foreign Bunkers
  Pit Props
  Pit Props
  Exports
  Exports
  THEATRES (FUEL CONSUMPTION)
  THEATRES (FUEL CONSUMPTION)
  FUEL SUPPLIES (MEMBERS' REPRESENTATIONS)
  FUEL SUPPLIES (MEMBERS' REPRESENTATIONS)
  STREET LIGHTING
  STREET LIGHTING
  PETROL COUPONS
  PETROL COUPONS
  PARAFFIN OIL SUPPLIES
  PARAFFIN OIL SUPPLIES
  SEVERN BARRAGE PROPOSALS (FLOODING)
  SEVERN BARRAGE PROPOSALS (FLOODING)
HOLLOWAY PRISON
  Embroidery and Handicraft Materials
  Embroidery and Handicraft Materials
  Officers and Nursing Staff
  Officers and Nursing Staff
  Recreational Facilities
  Recreational Facilities
  CONVICTIONS (STATISTICS)
  CONVICTIONS (STATISTICS)
  ADOPTED CHILDREN (LAW OF SUCCESSION)
  ADOPTED CHILDREN (LAW OF SUCCESSION)
  GREYHOUND TRACKS (LICENCE FEES)
  GREYHOUND TRACKS (LICENCE FEES)
  FOREIGN CAMPERS (FACILITIES)
  FOREIGN CAMPERS (FACILITIES)
  JAPAN (IMPORTS)
  JAPAN (IMPORTS)
GERMANY
  Venereal Disease
  Venereal Disease
  Control Commission Clubs (Inquiry)
  Control Commission Clubs (Inquiry)
  B.B.C. TALKS (POLITICAL SUBJECTS)
  B.B.C. TALKS (POLITICAL SUBJECTS)
  FUEL AND POWER (GOVERNMENT OFFICES)
  FUEL AND POWER (GOVERNMENT OFFICES)
  PRIVATE PREMISES (INSPECTION)
  PRIVATE PREMISES (INSPECTION)
  PEACE TREATIES (DOMINION CONSULTATION)
  PEACE TREATIES (DOMINION CONSULTATION)
  NATIONAL SERVICE
  NATIONAL SERVICE
MINISTRY OF SUPPLY
  Government Storage Space
  Government Storage Space
  Government Surplus Stores
  Government Surplus Stores
  PRISONER OF WAR LABOUR (WITHDRAWAL)
  PRISONER OF WAR LABOUR (WITHDRAWAL)
  WAR GRAVES (VISITS)
  WAR GRAVES (VISITS)
  RAILWAYS (TEMPORARY WORKERS)
  RAILWAYS (TEMPORARY WORKERS)
  MEAT OFFALS (DISPOSAL)
  MEAT OFFALS (DISPOSAL)
Preamble
The House met at four of the clock, The LORD CHANCELLOR on the Woolsack.
Prayers.

  CROWN PROCEEDINGS BILL [H.L.]
  THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT JOWITT): My Lords, I beg leave to introduce a Bill to amend the law relating to the civil liabilities and rights of the Crown and to civil proceedings by and against the Crown, to amend the law relating to the civil liabilities of persons other than the Crown in certain cases involving the affairs; or property of the Crown, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid. I move that this Bill be read a first time.
  Moved, that the Bill be now read 1a.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
  On Question, Bill read 1a; and to be printed.

HOUSE OF COMMONS (REDISTRIBUTION OF SEATS) BILL.
Returned from the Commons, with the Amendment agreed to.

SUNDAY ENTERTAINMENTS ACT, 1932 (URBAN DISTRICT OF VENTNOR ORDER).
LORD WALKDEN: My Lords, I beg to move that this Order be approved.
Moved, That the Order made by the Secretary of State for the Home Department under the Act, for extending Section I of the Act to the Urban District of Ventnor, and laid before the House on Tuesday last, be approved.—(Lord Walkden.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.

SUNDAY ENTERTAINMENTS ACT, 1932 (CITY OF OXFORD ORDER).
LORD WALKDEN: My Lords, I beg to move that this Order be approved.
Moved, That the Order made by the Secretary of State for the Home Department under the Act, for extending Sec-
618
tion 1 of the Act to the City of Oxford, and laid before the House on Tuesday last, be approved.—(Lord Walkden.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.

SUNDAY ENTERTAINMENTS ACT 1932 (URBAN DISTRICT OF BEESTON AND STAPLEFORD ORDER).
LORD WALKDEN: My Lords, I beg to move that this Order be approved.
Moved, That the Order made by the Secretary of State for the Home Department under the Act, for extending Section I of the Act to the Urban District of Beeston and Stapleford, and laid before the House on Tuesday last, be approved.—(Lord Walkden.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.

PENSIONS (INCREASE) BILL.
House in Committee (according to Order): Bill reported without amendment.
ROAD TRAFFIC (DRIVING LICENCES) BILL.
House in Committee (according to Order): Bill reported without amendment.
MALTA (RECONSTRUCTION) BILL.
Read 3a (according to Order), and passed.

THE COAL SITUATION.
4.5 p.m.
VISCOUNT SWINTON VISCOUNT SWINTON rose to call attention to the coal situation and to ask His Majesty's Government what steps they propose to remedy it and to prevent a recurrence of the present difficulties. The noble Viscount said: My Lords, I think all your Lordships will agree it would have been unthinkable that we should separate for the week-end without discussing in this House the very serious situation in which we find ourselves. We are very grateful to the noble Viscount the Leader of the House for re-arranging our business in order to enable us to have this debate to-day, and we can now discuss this situation after that further consideration and reflection which in another place the Lord Privy Seal suggested might be fruitful. I trust that it will prove so.
May I make plain at the outset that, however unready and inept may have been the handling by the Government of the situation—and I shall certainly have something to say about that—it is the plain and clear duty of us all to carry out and we will all loyally do so, such plans as there are, and will co-operate to the full. In return I am sure that the noble Viscount the Leader of the House will treat the House with that complete frankness which we always receive from him. If I may say so, that will be in agreeable contrast to certain replies, or absence of replies, which have been given by the Minister principally concerned. May I, in the first place, ask the noble Viscount—and I have given him notice of the particular points I am going to raise—what is the real truth about the order for bunkering ships? Is it a fact that an order was made by the Minister of Fuel and Power to stop all bunkering and to hold up ships, and that within twenty-four hours that order was cancelled? If a foolish order were given in panic it would obviously be sensible to revoke that order, but it would be equally right and sensible to tell Parliament the plain truth about it. The Minister's answers on this matter were—I will not use the word "humbug"; I know that is an expression which the Leader of the House does not like, but might I perhaps substitute another and say that his answer about bunkers was "bunkum."
May I also ask him about double-bunkering, that is, the bunkering of ships on the other side for the round voyage in place of the ordinary procedure by which ships bunker in the port of departure sufficient for the voyage, and then bunker again for the return voyage in the place of arrival. The Minister was asked about this is another place on February 11. He was asked if he would make a statement on the negotiations in progress in Washington for the purchase of American coal for bunkering purposes and the result. The Minister of Fuel and Power replied:
"No such negotiations in Washington are in progress but it is hoped that arrangements can be made as a temporary measure to revert to the system of double-bunkering …"
Then he was asked a question as to whether there were any further negotia-
620
tions in America if not in Washington. Mr. Shinwell replied:
"As far as we are aware, there are no negotiations in the United States."
On February 13 there is a, Reuter dispatch in The Times as follows:
"Washington, February 12. British officials here disclosed to-day that arrangements had been reached with American officials to double-bunker virtually all British ships at American ports."
That may or may not be a very sensible arrangement, but surely it would have been more consistent with the tradition of Parliament—assuming that this Reuter telegram is correct and in fact that negotiations were taking place in Washington—to be quite open about it. Double bunkers—double bunkum!
I am sure, too, that the noble Viscount, the Leader of the House, will consider on their merits any constructive suggestions that we may be able to make, now or in the future. In reviewing the position I is impossible to absolve the Minister of Fuel in particular and the Government in general of a grave dereliction of duty. The charge against the Government is this: that for months they have been wrong in their appreciation of the position and they have made completely inadequate plans, whether short-term or long-term plans, to meet a situation which they must have known existed and was certain to continue. Our anxiety is not only with regard to the present dislocation but future prospects. Here, if ever there was one, is a case for planning, and indeed for planning by Government. Planning requires a knowledge of the facts and a just appreciation of the situation. Plans should be prepared with the best assistance that can be obtained, and prepared well in advance to meet different contingencies. That is what is meant by joint planning. Not only should those plans be made to meet contingencies, but everyone concerned should have sufficient knowledge of the plans to work them. In the old military maxim: "Everyone should have a sufficient knowledge of the general idea to carry out the particular operation."
You may well say that all that is most commonplace and axiomatic. If I may, I would like to give an analogy, farfetched, may be, and impossible. Supposing Field-Marshal Montgomery in the African campaign had gravely under-estimated the enemy strength and completely over-estimated his own resources;

621
had gambled that Rommel would not attack; had prepared in advance inadequate plans, if, indeed, any plans at all, either for defence or attack, and had failed to communicate such plans as he had to his Corps commanders until the battle was already joined. In such an inconceivable eventuality two things would have happened: first, without question, the General would have been removed from his command; and secondly, we should probably have lost the battle. We are not going to lose this battle, in which we must all fight, even if we fight, as it were, in slit trenches and with hardly any orders or direction. We must carry out such orders as there are, however improvised the plan or however inept the leadership.
Yet that analogy which I have given, farfetched in the parallel as applied to the Field-Marshal, is exactly true in every particular of the actions of the Minister of Fuel and Power and of the Government. They should have known—they must have known—what stocks were required for the winter. They must have known, month by month, how far they were falling short in the accumulation and distribution of those stocks. Yet the Minister of Fuel and Power continued throughout to make wholly unjustifiably optimistic statements. On October 24 he said:
"Everyone knows there is going to be a serious crisis in the coal industry, except the Minister of Fuel and Power."—
He Was very blameworthy if he did not know—
"I want to tell you that there is not going to be a crisis in coal, if by crisis, you mean that industrial organization is going to be seriously dislocated and that hundreds of factories are going to be closed down."
Are we dislocated to-day? Are not hundreds of factories closed down?
The Minister said that he had been surprised by two things: by the amount of electricity consumed, and by the weather. He had no business at all to be surprised by either. Increased consumption of electricity is the common experience of all countries, and I speak from practical knowledge of this. It is the result of cuts in domestic fuel. I think I am right in saying that the extra consumption by gas and electricity companies in this country is roughly equal to the amount of the cuts which have been made in the supply of domestic fuel to householders. But the Government also have known that. All through last year the sale of electrical
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appliances—electric fires, for example—has been going up by leaps and bounds. They present us—and it is one of the best things the Government have done—with an admirable monthly digest of statistics. Perhaps they are beginning to regret that they give us so much information.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DOMINION AFFAIRS (VISCOUNT ADDISON): No.
VISCOUNT SWINTON: I take that back. We are very grateful for it. I wish, however, that the Government would profit themselves by the information they give to others. If you turn to page 58—and this is published every month—you see how the sale of these appliances has grown. The sale of electric fires has grown five, six or seven times as compared with what it was a year ago. People do not buy electric fires as ornaments; they buy electric fires to keep themselves warm. And, of course, when they buy an electric fire, they turn it on. The Government knew about all this. The Lord President of the Council not so long ago was boastfully saying that everything was not going for export but that the consumer at home was getting something, and he particularized these electrical appliances which are using the current and said how splendid it was that the sale of these appliances was going up so much. So much for the consumption.
There is then the weather. Well, what a gamble! I am going to say something now which I venture to think I shall prove, and I ask the noble Viscount the Leader of the House to correct me if I am wrong in any of my figures. The weather has accelerated the crisis, but the crisis would have come upon us irrespective of this exceptional blizzard. What we are suffering from is not an act of God but the inactivity of Emanuel. I am going to prove this. In July the Minister had been warned, and emphatically warned—and he never challenged this that I know of—by the electrical undertakings and the local authorities on their collective statistics that we should need 559,000 tons of coal a week in order to build up the necessary stocks to carry the electrical undertakings through the winter. Always, of course, they have to have large stocks piled up during the summer months in order to see them through the winter. That is the common

623
experience every year. That was the figure, 559,000 tons, which as far back as July the Minister knew was required to see us through. Every week the Minister knew exactly how much of that 559,000 tons was being delivered, and by how much, week by week, he was falling short in his deliveries; and therefore, week by week, he knew how gravely the risk was increasing. Yet all the time he made no plans for the emergency that was bound to come.
You would have supposed that in such a situation there would have been the closest consultation between the Minister, the electrical companies and local authorities, the makers and distributors of electricity, and that what the Army call "Staff rides" exercises—would have been carried out, so that everybody would not only know the plan (and incidentally that you would have a plan that would work) but would be able to carry it out if and when the time came. But there was none of this. I am going to ask the Leader of the House to correct me if I am wrong in any particular. There was no consultation with the power or distribution companies, who had to work the scheme, before the Minister framed and announced his scheme in another place last Friday.
These companies—the instruments which had to work it—knew nothing about it, apart from what they heard on the wireless, until Saturday morning. They did not know until Sunday which industries and users were included in the plan, and which were excluded from it, and when they did learn on Sunday what the scheme was (and it was to be put into force at midnight on that day) it was clear they could not enforce it and carry it out. Was there ever such a lamentable failure? Why did not the Minister consult them and inform them? I suppose he was too busy and his departmental officials—poor people!—were too busy drafting the Electricity Bill and preparing his speech for the Second Reading of it. What a Nemesis! We shall pull through, and what will pull us through will not be the Minister but the efforts of all those who are engaged in getting and shifting coal, and the loyal co-operation of every consumer.
So much for the short term. I am afraid I cannot see much more evidence of long-term planning, and yet always and all the time we shall need more coal. I am not going to criticize the miners
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(production is going up, and I think it will go up more), but I do take the strongest exception to the statements of certain prominent Ministers. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, for example, could find nothing better to do in a week-end speech—he was wanting us all to get together, or the Prime Minister was at any rate—than to abuse the coal owners and private enterprise and to suggest how much more coal we were getting to-day. He must have known from the Government's own statistics that in 1941, which was the last year during which private enterprise was in effective control, with almost exactly the same amount of labour (it only differs, according to these figures, by 1,000 or less) and with less mechanization in the mines, 26,000,000 tons more coal were produced than in 1946. We should not be in the position in which we are to-day if we were producing what almost the same number of people were producing in 1941. Strictures of that kind are a libel on the whole industry, and not least upon the miners themselves. For the sake of the solvency of this country, I sincerely hope that the Chancellor's financial calculations bear some nearer relation to the truth.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: May I interrupt the noble Viscount for one moment? I am trying to check his figures. What was the year to which he referred?
VISCOUNT SWINTON: 1941. I will give the noble Viscount the exact figures. He will find them in the Statistical Digest for January if he looks at Tables 28 and 31. The weekly average of the number of wage earners in 1941 was 698,000, and the weekly average in 1946 was 697,000. This is just 1,000 difference. The weekly average production in 1941 was 3,957,000 tons, and the weekly average in 1946 was 3,462,000 tons. I think if the sum is done it will show that my total figure of 26,000,000 is practically—in fact I think absolutely—accurate.
I want to come now to those specific questions I said I would ask the Leader of the House, and to make certain suggestions as I go along. I will deal both with the emergency and with the future. As regards the emergency, I trust now that—I was going to say at the eleventh hour—well after the twelfth hour there is real contact between the Government and the electrical undertakers (the companies and the local authorities) and industry. I would like to be assured that that is so.

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It certainly was lamentably absent all last week. Then I would ask whether all possible reinforcements of men and material, and perhaps of scientific invention, are being used. One would have supposed that all that had been planned long in advance, but we know it was not. Are they doing all they can now to make up for lost time?
Are the Services co-operating to the full, and with what I may call full local discretion and responsibility? It makes a great deal of difference if a wide discretion is given to local commanders on the spot to do the best they can without reference to higher authority so that they can get on with the job and know they will be covered. With regard to the Army, are personnel being used to the full? Is all possible equipment being used? Can tracked vehicles be used to blaze a trail where lighter vehicles fail? There were, I believe, certain vehicles designed in the war particularly for snow conditions. They were, I think, called "Weasels." I do not know whether they would be of value. Are all useable vehicles, whether on Army establishments or in dumps, being mobilized? Is there any generating plant with units, or in store or in dumps awaiting sale or disposal, which could reinforce local supplies and factory plants? Would train ferries be of any value in certain areas in bringing full trucks and returning empties?
Is the Navy, with all its ingenuity and resources, being fully used? We employed submarines to generate electricity as far back as 1926, and I think the Navy have used them a good deal for that purpose since. Are they all being used in the right places and to the best advantage? Then I would ask whether there is the most practical organization to use volunteers—the, alas, millions of people who are being thrown out of work. We on the outside can only make these tentative suggestions, but we make them with a constructive intent. The General Staffs of all the Services should be mobilized to work with the Departments as if this were a war operation. Then I want to know—and I am sure I speak here for all your Lordships—what the result is of this improvised plan up to date, and how far it carries out the Minister of Fuel's forecasts—because he gave very definite forecasts in another place. Your Lordships may remember that on February 7—that was on Friday—he said:
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"It is hoped that this wilt not last for longer than three or four days, or at the most for a week. We must give ourselves a week and we shall notify industry accordingly."
That is pretty positive. Then, on the following Monday, February to, he said:
"If we can hold down consumption for four or five days, perhaps a week at most and build up the stock pile—get another week out of it and in addition to the stocks available to the undertakings at the present time we can get through, and that is what our aim is."
Now we have had four days operation of this plan. What is the position as it stands to-day? I am sure the Viscount the Leader of the House will tell us with absolute frankness, because it is much better that we should have no more optimistic statements. We would much rather know the worst, and indeed we would be very thankful if the worst was not realized and that we came off a little better than is forecast. I would also ask: What about gas?
I turn for a moment or two to the future and the need of long-range planning. This is not a question of just getting through a sudden emergency, but it involves our whole industrial and financial future. Coal is the foundation of all our domestic life, of transport and of industry, whether it is industry producing for our home consumption or industry for export. Indeed coal itself was, in the past—and pray God will be again—one of the most valuable exports that we have ever had. If to-day we were able to export the volume we exported in 1938 at present prices, I do not think I shall be challenged when I say we should probably be realizing something like 100,000,000 of foreign exchange. How greatly that would improve our trade balance with countries like the Argentine where we have to buy. It would bring us wood for housing from Scandinavia and from Sweden, and would enormously strengthen the hands of the Foreign Secretary and ease many European difficulties. Mr. Bevin, speaking somewhere only yesterday, said that if he could have 40,000,000 tons more coal he would have three times the power he has in Europe.
The Government must have a target and have the knowledge, and I therefore put this question: How much coal do we need, and how many men do we need to get that coal, not in ten years time, but this year and next? Professor Robbins has calculated that it might be 100,000 men. I dare say that might be too high,

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but to get an extra output of something like 50,000,000 or 60,000,000 tons will require considerable reinforcement. How can that be got? Well, as far as we possibly can it should be by our own people. Every inducement should be given to the miners to increase individual and collective output as long as it is related to output. Indeed, I believe that throughout the whole of industry that is the vital need to-day: to relate reward to output. It is the production per man-hour which means salvation. Every effort should be made to bring in British recruits, and some success has been achieved. I believe I am right in this, and again I think the figures are in this Digest: that if you take all the entrants in 1946, the new recruits and the soldiers returning from the Forces, it barely balances the wastage of miners leaving the pits. I think that figure is roughly right.
How much coal ought we to have? I put these figures forward. We need to produce, say, 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 tons more for this country for our expanding industry and for the great development in electricity. In an emergency we may have to turn temporarily to oil, but it really would be a terrible thing to have to accept the fact that this country, which used to export 40,000,000 or 50,000,000 tons of coal in export and bunkers, should now turn to dollar oil as a basis for its industries and its transport. Surely that is not accepted as something which is going to last? Therefore I say we need 15,000,000 or 20,000,000 tons for this country and 35,000,000 to 40,000,000 tons for export and bunkers, which is roughly 50,000,000 or 60,000,000 tons in all.
How are the Government going to get that figure or whatever the right figure may be? First by encouraging the miners and intensive recruiting. But will it not be necessary as a temporary expedient to reinforce all the British labour we can get. I do not believe that the total so required is very great. Certainly there is no risk to employment. We are, according to the Government—and I do not challenge this—going to be short of man-power for a decade. If ever there should be any surplus of manpower the foreign entrants should go first—that should be a condition of their employment, and I
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do not doubt that other jobs would be available for this not very great number. The Poles are here, and we have accepted, and rightly accepted, obligations to them for what they did with us. There may be some specially qualified displaced persons abroad. I do not believe there would be a great many, but I do not think a great many would be needed, and certainly the test should be their skilled qualifications. As General Morgan has said, living as they are they would put up with very temporary quarters.
The Ministers say that all this takes time. Well, all the more reason for taking it in good time. There are difficulties I agree, but nothing like the difficulties if we do not act, and Ministers are there to overcome the difficulties. I do not underrate the difficulties, but I think they are exaggerated, and I am sure they are not lessened by the misplaced optimism of the Minister of Fuel. He has certainly put his target far lower than the national need. The country wants the truth, and it is only by knowing the truth that it will pull through. He did not even want to give any of the Poles a chance because he said it would not be necessary. Mr. Low, a friendly critic, said of him in that cartoon which your Lordships may have seen, reproducing an even more popular character, Colonel Blimp: "If we are to have no coal, gad, Sir, let it be British no coal." We need not fear a modest and probably a temporary addition, and the numbers are modest compared with the total number employed in industry and the further numbers still required. The number needed for the mines, I believe, would be actually and relatively small, but increased coal production now is literally vital. The livelihood of this country depends upon it.
Difficulties of all kinds will be overcome, and only overcome, by telling this country the full facts and the true facts, and having a policy based on those facts and a policy which is adequate to meet the situation. Omne ignotum pro magnifico, said Tacitus—the less men know, the larger loom the difficulties. Strangely enough that passage goes on, Sed nunc terminus Britanniae patet—the bounds of Britain are laid bare. Even the Daily Herald urges the Government to take the country more into its confidence and tell the whole truth. Will the noble Viscount the Leader of the House make a start today? Will he tell us the whole truth—

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I am sure he will—with regard to what the Government are doing and going to do to meet not only the present emergency, but the whole grave situation of the industry in the future?
4.40 p.m.
VISCOUNT SAMUEL: My Lords, the House will be grateful to the Opposition for having requested a day for this debate, and to the noble Viscount the Leader of the House for having granted it. We should indeed be remiss in our duty if we did not give expression to what we all know are feelings widespread throughout the country. The colder grows the weather, the hotter grows the temper of the nation. The public will do what they are compelled to do. They will submit to discomfort and losses, for indeed they can do no other, but I am sure that throughout the public are not convinced that all this could not have been avoided. The immediate cause, of course, is the spell of cold weather, but, after all, in Britain it is to be expected that the weather during the winter will be wintry, and that some winters will be hard. The ant took such facts into consideration, the grasshopper did not, and the grasshopper failed to survive because he had the wrong philosophy as to the conduct of life. The Minister of Fuel in his speech in another place a few days ago said:
"I would agree that if the stock position had been good in the last three or four months, we could have avoided any difficulties that are likely to emerge in the next few days. But the stock position has been had."
That is the clue to the whole situation. So long ago as last September the electric supply companies issued a joint statement in which they declared that their stocks were dangerously low. They said—these are their actual words:
"Some Companies have less than two weeks supply. This means that the slightest hold-up will result in some power stations closing down."
A few weeks later, on October 8th, the Minister of Fuel and Power said at a conference to promote fuel efficiency that we were running a very grave danger of a breakdown and he appealed for a voluntary diminution of consumption. He said:
"We are obliged to set a target for this effort, and to ask for an all round voluntary saving in consumption of so per cent. This saving of so per cent. is needed in coal, gas and electricity and must apply to all consumption not only in industry but also in the
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home and in public and commercial undertakings."
Was it to be expected that a nation such as ours, engaged in all its vast and multifarious activities, would make up its mind simultaneously to an agreement to cut the whole of the fuel consumption of the country by to per cent., just as you put on clocks an hour or put them back at the beginning and end of summer and autumn? It could not have been expected to succeed by a voluntary request for a reduction of to per cent. in factories and homes. And of course that approach to the matter proved futile.
On October 24 he used words already quoted by the noble Viscount, Lord Swinton, in which he said there was not going to be a crisis in coal resulting in hundreds of factories closing down. So the pendulum swung between alarm and complacency. And now we find we have 2,000,000 people-thrown out of work, the whole production programme of the country upset, with consequences that have yet to be suffered in export trade, dollar exchange, and other matters of great importance to our national economy. There has been an appeal, naturally, for a rapid step-up in industry, bit in the present situation the more you develop industry the more you will increase coal shortage. Meanwhile the whole population are being subjected to great discomfort and in some cases to extreme hardship by the compulsorry restrictions now being imposed in the home. Of course, it would be exceedingly hard to enforce them by the penalties that have been provided, and to detect infringement and take action. It as a general rule, unsound administration or legislation to make laws you do not know are enforceable.
Nevertheless, in a state of emergency such as this, where the whole nation is aroused and where legislation is intended to be merely temporary, probably the Government were right to take this step, and indeed there is no alternative that could be proposed. There is also the psychological factor. It can be very annoying to someone who is a good citizen and observes the regulations made by the Government to see that his neighbour is not conforming to the regulations. One of our poets has said:
"I can endure my own despair,
But not another's hope."
To-day it is announced that a Cabinet Committee has been formed to take most

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drastic and vigorous action and it has associated with it the heads of the Coal Board, the Electricity Board and the railway Committee. This is undoubtedly a wise step, for transport which is involved in this matter affects it as much as production. It is at last being dealt with at Cabinet level, and none too soon. Indeed, it is much too late. Other measures are now being proposed and we look to the noble Viscount the Leader of the House to tell us what they are.
The noble Viscount who has just spoken suggested the importation of additional labour from abroad, and has mentioned Polish ex-soldiers in this country. That matter has been discussed for months and practically nothing has been done. How far is that due to the opposition of the trade unions? Trade unions in days passed were very restrictive in some of their activities in regard to methods of production and the introduction of machinery. Are they now being equally restrictive in the matter of the intake of foreign labour? We know this Government is naturally very sensitive to trade union opinion in view of the fact that the trade unions hold a large majority in the Labour Party Annual Conference and provide the greater part of Labour Party funds. There is, in the opinion of many of us, some dangerously close connexion between that economic interest and the Government of the day. We are in a situation in which we would wish to be assured that the Government are not being entirely influenced in this matter by any representations which might be made by the less progressive sections of the trade union world.
As to the substantial measures which should be taken, I submit that is not really our business in this House. That is the Government's business. It is the expression of the true relationship between the Executive and the Legislature that it is the Government's business to govern and it is the business of the Legislature to control the governors, to approve when approval is merited, to warn where there is danger, and, where there is failure, as in this case, to say so. The Government cannot complain that they have been in any way hampered by the reluctance of either House to give them full powers. They have been accorded all the powers to deal with a situation such as this. The responsibility is wholly theirs. We, as a
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Legislative Assembly, can judge only by results. As the noble Viscount said, in war a General is so judged. One General will win victories where another, in exactly the same circumstances, will suffer defeats. And the rule which is applied in war applies in politics and life in general. Those who succeed get the benefit of their success; those who fail must bear the penalty of their failure.
We have to see this crisis in a larger setting. It is, may be, not the only crisis of the kind that the country will have to undergo, and the fact is that, with their vast programme with its many ramifications, this Government are, in my judgment, straining the nation too hard—the nation and especially the Government themselves, the Parliament and the Civil Service. Every appeal is made for maximum output per man-hour. I think that a record output per man-hour is being achieved by Ministers, by Government Departments and by Parliamentary draftsmen. In addition, various problems of the Commonwealth and of an international kind that will not suffer delay are pressing upon the Cabinet and upon individual Ministers. The consequence is that there is now, and has been, during the last year and a half, a sense of hurry and scurry and a lack of timely forethought and careful preparation.
Some of the Government's legislative measures are urgent and wise. They deserve, and they have received, full priority. Some, in the view of noble Lords who sit on these Benches, are good in their purpose but are not, perhaps, in the same category of first urgency, while some, it may be, we should be better without, and postponement at any rate would be an advantage. But, in any case, a grandiose legislative programme cannot be put forward as an excuse for administrative failure. It was said of Lord John Russell, when he was Prime Minister, that so long as he kept the flag of civil and religious liberty flying at the masthead he thought that all was well, although, all the time, the little leaks below were sinking the ship. Let the Government and the Minister of Fuel and Power not forget that one such failure as this, or even two, may be survived, but a succession of them will be fatal.
4.53 p.m.
THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF YORK: My Lords, I shall detain the House with only two or three observations. Silence

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from these Benches might make it appear as if we were so engrossed with our own ecclesiastical affairs that we were indifferent to the great crisis through which the nation is now passing. We are passing through a crisis which is both a disaster and a tragedy. It is a disaster because the progress towards recovery which we were gradually making has been put back, and put back, possibly, for months. It is quite impossible to estimate the results which will flow from this sudden stoppage of so many great industries. But more than that, this is a tragedy—and I want to dwell on this for a moment—to hundreds of thousands of homes in this country.
At this moment in our great cities there are something like 2,000,000 men and women who have been suddenly, through no fault of their own, and without warning, thrown out of work. Many of their ordinary amusements have come to an end through necessary restrictions. Many of these people are standing about or wandering in the streets, not knowing when work will be resumed. When they go home they find their homes cold and cheerless through lack of fuel. Many people suffer, also, through lack of food, as so many of the large canteens in industries will, naturally, have been closed. I am quite certain that while this House is discussing the larger economic questions it will not forget the immense personal suffering which is felt through the crisis. I venture to say that I do wish that the Minister, while he was defending himself, had also expressed what I have no doubt he feels: his own sense of the suffering which this crisis has brought upon the great mass of the people of this country.
I do not propose to attempt to pursue the inquest as to who is responsible, or what are the causes which have led to this crisis. Although the crisis has come with appalling suddenness, it has really been the result of a gradual deterioration in the position. Of course, the weather has had a good deal to do with it, but it is not the weather alone. No sensible person would ever speculate on our British weather, still less would he speculate on it when the happiness and welfare of the people of the country are concerned. I think that if anyone had consulted a Yorkshire farmer he would have been told that he and his kind were all
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expecting a very bad winter. I will not say that their predictions are always accurate but, in this case, I was certainly told at the end of last year that a hard winter was coming.
I cannot help feeling that the crisis may partly be due to the way in which the Government—through no fault of their own and quite, apart from their own Bills—are overwhelmed with all kinds of international problems. When there is that heavy pressure on different Ministers it means that responsibilities (we all know this in business I in administration) have to be delegated more and more to individual Ministers who are responsible for special Departments. Their colleagues rely on them, and if one of those Ministers makes a grave error of judgment, whether in business or in government, the rest: of the Ministers are bound also to share in the responsibility and to suffer, very often, through no fault of their own. As I have said, I do not wish to pursue the question of who is responsible, though I must, in honesty, say that I feel that there has been a lack of foresight and courage. I cannot help contrasting the present position with that which existed when the Minister of Food took action some months ago. He then insisted on bread rationing. It was a very unpopular step to take. He was criticized up and down the country, but he insisted upon it. I admired his courage, though at the time I was not so certain about his foresight. Events have shown that his foresight and his courage were both justified. I cannot help feeling that if there had been something like the same foresight and the same courage shown in dealing with this question, the country might have been saved a great deal of unnecessary suffering.
There are two comments which I should like to make. Whatever we may think of the causes of the crisis, it is clearly the duty of everyone to carry out most loyally the directions laid down and to co-operate with the Government in every way in bringing this crisis to an end. Speaking for the Churches, as I am sure I can in this matter, I say that we will do our utmost to use our influence and to call upon people to observe these regulations and to fulfill in every way the duties laid upon them at the present moment. I cannot say that we will call upon them to fulfill these duties with "a song in

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their hearts" or without criticism. That would be asking too much. But I am quite certain that the Churches of this country will do everything they can to help the Government in this matter.
My other comment is really to endorse something that has been said by the noble Viscount who opened this debate. I do hope that the Government will tell the country the facts. It is no good exhorting people to work, and no good blaming people for not working, unless they know why they have to work. After the war, people were tired everywhere. Many were underfed. It is no good merely saying you ought to work; I know from experience that the exhortatory sermon is out of date. It is no good telling people to be good; you must tell them what goodness means, and why they have to be good. It is no good urging people to work unless you tell them why they have to work.
It is of vital importance that the Government should make the whole country aware of the way in which—quite apart from this particular incident, though it is not a mere incident, it is a crisis—we are on the verge of an economic precipice. Everyone who knows about public affairs realizes how great the danger is, but the mass of the people of the country do not understand. I would like to see the Government, through the wireless and through the Press, bring home to the people in the simplest possible non-technical language the realities of the danger of the present position. I believe they will find that the people of this country will respond in a way they will not respond to mere exhortations or criticism. After Dunkirk, when the people understood that they were fighting for the liberties of this country, they responded. When they understand that now they are called upon to fight for the preservation of a decent standard of living and for our economic position in the world, I believe they will respond fully to any claim made upon them.
5.3 p.m.
LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTH: My Lords, I do not intend to attempt to reply to the noble Viscount who opened this debate. That I can safely leave in the hands of the noble Viscount, the Leader of the House, who will reply. Neither do I intend to indulge in recriminations; first, because I believe it would be out of
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temper with your Lordships House, and secondly, because I do not think the British public needs to be reminded of the sins and omissions of the past, as its awareness and, indeed, its judgment upon those sins and omissions is reflected in the fact that the noble Lords opposite are sitting upon those Benches and not upon these from which I speak.
I face the present position rather in the spirit of the lines of Kipling when he said:
"Let us face the position squarely as the British people should,
We have had no end of a lesson, it should do us no end of good."
The lesson which we have had, stark and clear, is that there can be no such thing as full employment in this country until we produce the coal to power our industries. The second lesson that is implicit in the first is that until we can increase the production of coal to approximately 200,000,000 tons a year, without any thought for export, and increase our stocks from about 10,000,000 tons in the spring to 18,000,000 tons in the autumn, power-using industries will have to work short time. There is no help for it. Until we can get our production and stocks up to a safety level, I would estimate that the average working week in our power-servicing industries will have to be about 36 hours, with plus-hours for first essential industries, and minus-hours for non-essential industries. This means a very stringent rationing or allocation of coal. In fact, we must use the coal allocation to expand the ability to employ in our first priority industries, and to depress the ability to employ in those industries which are nonessential. If I attempted to make a list of priorities for coal and power after coal production it would be in coal-carrying transport and in our electrical power stations. It is insufficiently realized that the consumption of electrical energy went up in this country by 75 per cent., and we have been trying to produce that extra capacity with equipment that is in pretty poor shape. That is the industrial scene as I see it, and I think the public have got to realize it.
I turn from that to the domestic scene. The present position calls for a drastic and immediate fuel rationing scheme right through this country. But I would warn the public that it can never be a simple scheme. I remember that a member of your Lordships' House—the noble Lord, Lord Beveridge—produced a fuel ration-

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ing scheme in 1942. I will not dwell on why it was never put into operation. Perhaps it was fear—stark fear—of public opinion; perhaps it was some other things which I will not mention. But perhaps that scheme has got to come out, and we have got to face it. There are other things which I am going to suggest to His Majesty's Government. Daylight saving should be re-imposed at the first available opportunity when there is a net gain in daylight, and it should be increased to two hours again on the first available opportunity. I think His Majesty's Government must also pay some attention to the control and the output of those industries which, as the noble Viscount, Lord Samuel, mentioned, have been producing consumer goods which consume a thing we do not want consumed If ever there was an ironical situation it is to-day, when the goods in the most plentiful supply upon which the public can spend their money are electrical household appliances. Something must be done. There must be some rationalization. There are many other things that we have to face, but, above all, we have to make the British public aware of the present situation.
For years some of us have been preaching in the wilderness that the industrial and economic battle which faces this country is as hard as anything which we have had to endure in the past war years. It is very easy to make the public conscious of the necessity for effort when bombs are falling. If some of us have failed, it has not been from want of trying. But it is said, and I think it deserves an immediate answer, that His Majesty's Government should jettison all their long-term plans of Situation social security and betterment. What shades of 1931! What shades of after the last war! Is this Government going to be condemned by a future generation, as the present generation have condemned, and rightly condemned, those who ran away from their responsibilities all those years ago? Would you have us follow the easy path and be so condemned?
I am surprised that such things are brought up. This is not the time for panic. This is the time for courageous leadership. This is not the time for recrimination, because if there is going to be recrimination, and bricks and mud hurled from one side to the other, then there will be a pretty fair supply coming from quarters that would be very disturbing
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to noble Lords opposite. I do not think that the temper of your Lordships would stand such a thing to-day. I am quite confident that if out of this travail comes a realization of the strength we must show in the future battle we have to fight; if it will make labour and some of our trade union colleagues realize that it is useless in future talking about 40-hour weeks; if it will make them realize that there is only one thing that will pull us through, and that is productivity by everybody in this country without exception, then perhaps when we are through this travail, as assuredly we shall come through it, we can look back and say: "Well, perhaps after all it did serve some useful purpose."
5.15 p.m.
LORD LLEWELLIN: My Lords, I do not intend to detain the House for very long this afternoon. Perhaps your Lordships will realize that, coming quite recently, as I have done, from the warmth and sunshine of our West African Colonies, the state of affairs in this country is somewhat of a cold douche. It is a state of affairs which I believe need never have occurred. During the war we were always faced with the question of having to stock-pile coal in all important areas, year after year. I remember very well how, when I was at the Ministry of War Transport, we had to give priority to that coal for stock-piling against the winter. I believe that what has happened is that the Minister of Fuel and Power has gambled on just getting through, and I think it would have been much more frank of him to have said: "I did take that risk; I took that gamble, and we were wrong."
When I say that the situation could have been avoided, it will be expected of me to say why I make that statement. I think the first thing that should have been done, when it was quite clear that our coal supplies were not sufficient for our own internal needs—although I should have deplored it having to take place—was to have cut off some of the coal which we exported during the year. Naturally, we want to export as much coal as we possibly can. But it is far better for this country to have its people at work and producing goods requiring a large labour force than to export the raw material, the coal itself. During the course of the year we have actually exported, apart

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from bunkering coal, which I am leaving out entirely from my figures, 4,454,000 tons of coal. I believe that if the Minister concerned had really been watching this situation and indeed had been paying attention to the warnings given him by those running the electricity industry and others, we could have stopped some of that export of coal and not had this disastrous situation which has been referred to so feelingly by the most reverend Primate; a situation which is causing so much distress throughout the length and breadth of this land, and which will cause more next week.
The second matter on which I would like to reinforce what my noble friend Viscount Swinton said in opening this debate is to ask why, in this situation to-day, cannot we get some of the displaced persons and some of the Polish soldiers who fought with us in the war into their old occupation of mining. After all, if it was good enough for our soldiers to fight side by side with the Poles during the war, surely no miner can say that it would be infra dig for him to work side by side with one of these men. I do make an appeal to the Government to impress upon the trade unions Concerned that there is no likelihood in the future, as far as we can see, of there being any unemployment in the coal mines. I am quite certain that we shall not see more people trying to get into the mines than we want to see working in the mines. In circumstances like these, when we have these men, some of them still in concentration camps in Germany—as referred to yesterday in the debate in this House—some of them still here in the Polish Forces, or elsewhere in those Forces, ready and willing to come into the mines, I believe that the ban on taking them in ought to be removed, and voluntarily removed, at the earliest possible date. If there had been more active pushing by the Government and the Minister concerned, that might well have been done before this situation occurred.
The noble Viscount, Lord Samuel, referred to the close connexion between the trade unions and the Government. In some circumstances that might turn out quite well, but where you have a Miners Union which is, as I understand, still pretty strongly against the idea of the Poles being employed—I hope I shall be told that they are not—and where you
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have the Minister of Fuel and Power, as it happens, sitting for a mining constituency, perhaps all the pressure which should have been applied to get this extra manpower into the mines has not been exercised. I notice that the Minister of Fuel and Power rather prided himself on having got some 70,000 new entrants or returned soldiers into the mining industry, but, as my noble friend Viscount Swinton said, that has hardly made up for the wastage in the industry, and there is ample room for taking in those other people to whom I referred.
The noble Lord who has just sat down commented that the fuel rationing scheme was never put into operation. I do not know whether the particular one was put into operation in 1941, and I do not know what happens in the noble Lord's own house. I do know, however, that I am very severely rationed as to the amount of coal I may have. I always thought that there was a domestic rationing scheme in operation by which the local fuel controller told you how much you could and how much you could not have; and, as a matter of fact, you were pretty lucky if you got what you were entitled to.
LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTH: The noble Lord will forgive my interruption, but he is, of course, aware that electrical energy is not rationed for domestic use.
LORD LLEWELLIN: Yes, but I was not referring to that. I happen to live in one of those old-fashioned houses which is not on the grid, in which we still make our own light, and so we do not have those heating appliances. I agree with the noble Lord when he says that there should be some limit upon their use. The thing is to see what can be done. Naturally—and I agree with every other noble Lord who said this—we will all co-operate to try and get the country out of the difficult situation in which it is placed. That, I think, goes without saying. I would, however, also reinforce the plea made to the Government to be more frank with us. What I would like to be told, not necessarily to-day but well in advance, is when these present restrictions are coming off. I hope it will not be like the bread rationing, which was said to be going on until August but has continued long after that date. I hope that we may be rid of these most severe re-

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strictions, which are causing great difficulty and distress to millions of people in this country, as quickly as possible.
It is most important for industry that they should have some notice, and particularly those industries in which preliminary processes have to take place before any electrical power is used. Take, for instance, the cigarette making industry. In that industry for three or four days they are preparing the tobacco before it goes into the cigarette making machine or into the packing machine. If the Government adopt the policy—and I hope they will not adopt it—of suddenly saying that these restrictions are off, as they suddenly said that they were on, then all the people working on the machines will be four days, or whatever period it is, behind the other processes before they can be taken back to work. If it is known that the coal supplies are again becoming adequate, and that the restrictions can be taken off a week hence, or whenever it may be, I beg the Government to give that notice to industry so that the preliminary process workers, who do not use electricity or current, can be taken on, and when the cuts come oft the whole of industry the way will be open for them to go straight ahead.
I must say that I think—and this was suggested by the most reverend Primate—that the Minister of Fuel and Power has been too much concerned to justify himself, rather than to show sympathy for the distress which his inaction has caused. Several quotations have been made of what he has said, but no noble Lord has yet referred to what he said on September 13, when somebody had made a statement that coal supplies were going to be short and electricity might have to be rationed. He then said:
"I happen to be the Minister, and I should know."
I agree entirely with him that he should have known. He went on to say:
"We have never contemplated the rationing of electricity."
I believe that if it is investigated it will be found that in September, when these stocks were already not completely adequate, instructions were given from the Ministry of Fuel and Power to draw for current needs to the month of September on the stock-piles for the winter. That was not looking very far ahead.
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I think the best thing would be to transfer the Minister of Fuel and. Power, not necessarily to your Lordships House, but to some occupation in which he may not have another chance of leading the country into the serious situation in which it is now. The noble Lord who just sat down quoted Kipling:
"Let us face the position squarely as the British people should."
I believe if the Minister of Fuel and Power had faced this position clearly and squarely in the summer and autumn of last year, which is the time when stockpiles have to be made up, we should not be in the position we are in to-day, and I very much hope that some other employment may be found for the present Minister of Fuel and Power, shall I say, in due course. The one point that I particularly want to emphasize is that the Government should take us frankly into their confidence and give ample notice to industry, which is a really important point. While we do not, by any moans, hold them blameless in this matter—personally feel they are blameworthy—we shall, at any rate, all try to see that the country gets out of this difficult situation as soon as it possibly can.
5.28 p.m.
LOAN MARLEY: My Lords, the most hopeful aspect of the debate so far has been the unanimity that has been shown by noble Lords, and by the most reverend Primate, in the desire to co-operate loyally in an attempt to be rid of the difficulties that are facing us at the present time. This afternoon I would very briefly like to touch upon an aspect of the problem which has not so far been mentioned and, as it provides a means by which all industry can co-operate in solving the difficulties and preventing a recurrence of this situation, I hope it may have some value as a constructive suggestion. We have heard about the difficulties of diminished production, and we have heard about the difficulties of diminished deliveries of coal. The noble Lord, Lord Llewellin, dealt with the problem of exports. I am not going to deal with that other than to point out that something like a half of those exports are to countries in the British Commonwealth of Nations, and we would not desire that they should suffer from a diminution of the exports upon which they have been counting in the past in order to live.
LORD LLEWELLIN: I appreciate the point the noble Lord makes, but from what we are told, even saving half of those exports would have meant that we need not have had these cuts, because the amount of coal saved in forty-five days of the present cuts would come to half the export figures.
LORD MARLEY: I agree with the noble Lord and I would only remind him in passing that there were other exports, to France for reconstruction purposes, and to Sweden and Denmark, which are necessary if we are to bring in the food, another commodity of which this country is in need.
We cannot get the food without paying for it by exports. However that may be, the constructive suggestion I want to put before the House is not based upon production but upon consumption. We have heard about rising consumption but nothing has been said about the inefficient utilization of coal and the waste of coal resources by industry. This is a subject which has boon before the House and before the country for many years. I would remind your Lordships that as long ago as 1943 there was a Committee on National Expenditure which said that there was a need for further fuel economies by some industrial users. The industrial users, then, are those to whom I would particularly refer. The first thing that was done was to institute research to see how these savings might be effected. I do not need to remind your Lordships—it was stated within the last year in this Chamber—that in the last war there was established the Government Fuel Research Station under Dr. Parker. That organization has done excellent work, but that work has not been used by industry. Then there are industry's own research organizations—the British Coal Utilization Research Association, the British Colliery Owners Research Association and the Gas Research Board. They have made recommendation after recommendation, but those recommendations have not been acted upon by industry in order to save coal in the production of power. The British Government has for many years supported the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. That organization has given the taxpayers' money to research associations but its recommendations have not been adequately adopted by a considerable number of industrial con-
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cerns, although if that had been done enormous economies might have been effected.
Let me particularize very briefly. As long ago as 1944, and again in 1946, Dr. Oscar Faber pointed out method after method by which factories might immediately have saved fuel. I am not laying emphasis upon the modernization of machinery because that was, of course, difficult during the war, but heating appliances in factories are often in the wrong place and radiators are kept on far too long. I have been in factories where throughout the dinner hour electrical machinery was left running, consuming fuel wastefully which we desperately needed to conserve. In one great factory in which I was there were doors as tall as this Chamber left open at either end of the building and there was sometimes a 20 or 30 miles per hour breeze blowing through the factory, destroying the whole of the heating arrangements for the 7,000 workers employed, diminishing production and wasting the fuel employed in heating.
Dr. Faber suggested that in an emergency we might in the first place reduce the actual temperatures in the factories by, say, from 2 degrees to perhaps 5 degrees so long as we maintained an even temperature for the workers. He recommended the turning off of radiators before they became so hot that it was obvious the workers were working in too heated an atmosphere. He recommended the checking up of jointing in the roofs to prevent heat escaping, which is another source of waste of fuel. He recommended mechanically-operated doors so that there would not be these draughts destroying the warmth built up in the factories at the cost of coal. He recommended the thermostatic control of heating—so simple and so easy and yet so seldom used in very many of our great industrial establishments. He underlined again and again the utilization of waste heat as a simple and inexpensive means of saving fuel. The insulation of buildings was, of course, too difficult a problem to deal with during the war but it should be borne in mind in the factory buildings which are now being constructed.
I would quote one other authority, and that is Oliver Lyle. He wrote a paper which was read throughout the country early last year, and I may say that he presented it to an organization which is largely supported by members of your Lordships House—the Parliamentary

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Scientific Committee, of which I think at that time the noble Viscount, Lord Samuel, was President. Oliver Lyle was even more specific than Dr. Faber. He pointed out four methods by which something could have been done immediately to prevent the waste of fuel in industry and to ensure its better utilization. First of all, he pointed out that many of our machines were very much out of date and were running under conditions which resulted in a lower output than that which might have been obtained if minor modifications were made to them, such as having lighter moving parts, better lubrication, better bearings or better design. He estimated that we might have effected a saving in this country form this source alone rising to 23,000,000 tons of coal a year.
His second main point concerned railway electrification. One railway has been partially electrified but none of the others have moved in that direction, yet the extra efficiency to be gained from the electrification of our railways was estimated by Mr. Lyle as likely to result in a saving of 9,000,000 tons of coal per year. The Weir Committee (which reported on this matter previous to the publication of this paper) estimated that by the electrification of our railways we could save 10,000,000 tons of coal a year. But what did the railways do about it? They did very little in the years before the war, with the one exception of the Southern Railway, to whose directors we should be, I think, very grateful for the electrification projects which they put into effect on so many of their lines in the southern parts of this country.
There is one other point I would make, and it is concerned with waste in collieries. In collieries we have found winding engines discharging their exhaust into the air. In one case, a colliery was heating the water for the pit head baths by electrode heaters supplied from the grid, while the waste heat from the winding engines was being discharged into the atmosphere. The iron and steel industry has done a great deal. From 1913 to 1937 they have reduced the number of hundredweights of coal per ton of pig iron from forty-one to thirty-three. In 1941 a committee appointed by the much-maligned Ministry of Fuel and Power—I refer to Dr. Grumell's Committee who examined the position in 1941 and 1942—reported that investigations carried out by the Committee show that in general the standard
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of fuel efficiency in industry was still low, in spite of the economies effected since 1914, due to inefficient tactics and the existence of old-fashioned and inefficient plant. According to Dr. Lyle's estimate these alone could have built up a gradual saving of 37,000,000 tons of coal a year.
There is one other industry I would quote, and that is the brick industry. Why is it that in the production of one type of brick—flettons—we use 2½ cwt. of coal per 1,000 bricks, whereas in other makes of bricks the average consumption is 11 cwt. of coal per 1,000 bricks? The difference between 2 cwt. per 1,000 to 11 cwt. per 1,000 represents a waste of something like to tons of coal for every house built in this country—10 tons of coal unnecessarily wasted if bricks other than flettons are used. I am not aware whether there is something in the clay of Peterborough which makes the fletton bricks able to use less coal.
VISCOUNT SWINTON: They are not four times as efficient, and the explanation is entirely in the clay.
LORD MARLEY: Then in that case it is a pity that we have not concentrated, and did not concentrate during the war, in the utilization of Peterborough clay, of which there are unlimited quantities in an area with excellent accommodation and water supply and thus save coal, instead of leaving it to the private industry organizations to make bricks with this wastage of fuel. We have a right to know whether industry in fact has responded during this past twenty years. I venture to say that the reason why some industries have failed is because coal has been so cheap and so abundant that it was not necessary to trouble to economize. Yet coal is the property of all the people of this country, and has been for very many years, and no one has a right to waste what is public property.
So far as it has wasted coal, industry stands condemned for contributing to this crisis over the past twenty years by wasting unnecessarily the national assets. I am not touching upon domestic heating and I am not touching upon the failure to bring in district heating, which has been talked about, written about and examined, and which we are assured could save something in the neighbourhood of 27 per cent. of fuel for the same amount of heating. I am not touching upon smoke abatement.

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Millions of pounds a year are wasted in sending fuel up chimneys which, by proper re-utilization by the furnaces, could not only have saved fuel but have saved us unnecessary laundry bills—which I think is a very personal and difficult problem, even to members of your Lordships House—amounting to millions of pounds a year. The question on the Order Paper asks for information as to the preventing of a recurrence of these problems in the future. One method of preventing a recurrence of a similar crisis in the future is the education of managements in industry to understand the possibilities of saving coal and of better utilization of coal, and the urgent demand that the resources of this country shall be used in the best and most efficient way in the days which are to come.
5.45 p.m.
LORD HUTCHISON OF MONTROSE: My Lords, I am grateful to your Lordships' House for allowing me to address you now instead of a little later on, and I want to make just a few observations on this terrible coal crisis. The problem really is not so much a problem of production as of transport, and personally I do not blame the Minister of Fuel and Power nearly so much as I do the Minister of Transport. In a great many pits in the country there is plenty of coal which cannot be moved. In Scotland our production has been going up steadily, and last year it was very good indeed. In our own mines, mines that I know so well, we are steadily going ahead as regards production, but in order to get that coal to the industrial and home users it has to be conveyed either by waggon, ship or lorry, and it is no use until it is delivered at the points where it is to be used. To-day, partly owing to the fact that so many waggons and hundreds of locomotives have been sent to Europe—that is, Germany and elsewhere—we are short of haulage power. We have done nothing—partly owing to the fact that we have been through a very devastating war—to improve the garages which receive the coal at the various large cities, such as London, Birmingham, Manchester and other places.
The result is that coal trains come in and they have no room for fresh loads until the waggons have been emptied and the empty trucks hauled back. The round turn should be made quick enough to bring in fresh supplies of coal. The Government would do well on their
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medium-range policy to look into this question of transport, especially as regards the terminal places to which the coal goes. I have had experience in coal fields in Scotland, where again and again we have been held up by the fact that waggons filled with coal have not been hauled out by garages to make room for empty waggons to come in to take the coal coming straight from the washers and cleaners. This transport question also includes that of the coastal shipping, that is, small ships of about 1,700 to 2,000 tons. This shipping is a very important means of transporting coal, especially coal coming to London and elsewhere. Those ships, as your Lordships know, were used very largely during the war for Admiralty purposes, and the result is that many of them have not yet come back to conveying coal. Consequently we are now short of small coal-carrying ships. Places like Merthyr and Burnt Island and West Coast ports are willing or able to fill up these ships, but the ships are not there to take the coal. This transport question, and the question of distribution when the transport arrives is, to my mind, one of the reasons why we have suddenly come against this jam.
I do blame the Ministry of Fuel and Power, who all along have had the statistics of the various conditions of stocks all over the country. When they saw those figures going down they should have had the courage to deal with that question of stocks and tell the country what they had to give up in order to enable stocks to be built up to a safe proportion, especially as the winter was coming along. The weather undoubtedly has had a very serious effect on this shortage, but it is partly due to the fault of the Government in not taking earlier steps to build up stocks. Bearing in mind all these large generating stations for electricity, the gas works and the consumption by big consumers of coal, it was perfectly obvious what was going to happen. Stocks went down from three weeks supply to a fortnight's, and then down to ten days' and a week's. Obviously stocks had to be piled up if we were to get through the winter.
The Government have taken drastic steps, indeed somewhat too drastic, but the country will back them up in seeing the crisis through. It is no good looking back to find recriminations as to who is to

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blame, and so forth; the thing now is to get out of the difficulty and to get back fairly quickly to creating the stocks needed by large consumers of coal. Of course, the closing down of any industry—the motor industry, the steel industry, the cotton industry or anything else—always has repercussions. Immediately you close down a large industry, all the trades making raw materials or spare parts get choked up with stock and have to close down. So it is a regular snowball which rolls back on everyone, down to those at the very beginning. Perhaps the Government ought carefully to consider how long they are going to carry out the very drastic programme they have laid down at the present moment. The sooner they can vet rid of this drastic programme the better it will be for industry and for every one else.
I believe we shall get all the coal we need, provided we can move it. The best mines now are gradually improving in production. They are getting more mechanized and the bands moving the coal from the face to the hoppers at the bottom of the shaft are having an appreciable effect on increasing output in various pits. The pits in the North, round which an American deputation from the Mineworkers Union have been going, are among these. No doubt a report will be issued, and from remarks we have heard on the field it will not be very pleasing. Of course, American coalfields are one thing—there you have big pits of level coal, whereas we have all kinds of dips and faults which are rather more difficult to handle, and this they have to appreciate. It is a very good thing for people from fields other than our own to come here and say what we ought to do to bring them up to date.
However, in the programme to get over "the jam" now, it is necessary to do something which is going to give quick relief. I believe that by handling the transport side we will get quicker relief in this unfortunate position, than by trying to deal with production to any drastic extent. Production is gradually getting better. More men are going back into the pits—at least into our pits in the North. We have had many men from the Services returning to the pits, and I have no doubt the mining population will face the problem and put in their best work in order to give the country what they need. Also, I am
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certain that our people want to be told the truth. They will stick it and see it through, but they will not stand unnecessary hardship. When they think it is unnecessary they will kick. The Government would be wise if they looked very carefully at this programme, and made the worst part of it extend over as short a period as possible: that is, until we get back to a reasonably safe level of stocks.
The bottle-necks in the larger centres are a terrible thing. You get bottle-necks when a train runs in and there is no labour to unload, resulting in people using waggons for storage. The curse of the coal trade is that so many coal pits and coal companies own their own waggons. The result is that they use these waggons for storage, though they ought to use them only in carrying coal from the pits to the user. We have also to do something to improve the labour situation in distribution from the coal arrival point to various user points. It is not good enough to use men from the Army and the Navy to act as coal heavers. Perhaps a great deal might be done in settling the question of foreign labour. What the miners dislike more than anything e...se is for foreign labour, Poles, and so on, to go down into the pit when they do not understand the language. It is only now, during this crisis, that we shall be able to get the Miners Federation to accept a small percentage of dilution of labour, with Poles and others, but it is no good sending down foreign workers unless they are trained.
The Government ought to start now with a training scheme, so that men will be available when the better weather comes along to take their place and gradually work into the scheme of coal production. Any training scheme should see that workers should be very carefully trained before they go down the mines; in fact, they must be so before our men will accept them. After all a careless or ignorant worker may do infinite damage and risk the lives of many men working there. We ought to learn our lesson from this situation. We have had coal crises again and again, but never one like this. It is partly due to neglect so far back as October. We ought to have started then to pay attention to the extra pressure on our stocks.
If we want to get the country back on a level keel again, I think transport is likely to give better and quicker results

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than the production side. The production side is all right, and gradually improving. Furthermore, I have no fear but that ultimately we shall have very fine coalfields throughout this country. In the old days we used to export over 50,000,000 tons of coal. Where has that production gone to? It will come back; the coal is there. There are new sinkings taking place in various parts of the country. New fields will come into operation. What is needed now is a short-range policy to get over our present difficulty. I do not want to detain your Lordships any longer, as others want to speak, but I thought I would give my view on the transport question.
6.0 p.m.
LORD SHEPHERD: I understand that the noble Lord who has just spoken is attending this House for the first time following a prolonged illness. I am sure that your Lordships would wish me to convey to him our pleasure at seeing him amongst us once more, and to express the hope that we may hear him speak frequently in the future.
I hesitate to address your Lordships at this late hour, and I only do so because I feel that it is right that someone from these Benches other than the Minister should say a few words in support of the Government and their Ministers. The debate, in so far as it has been critical, has been conducted on a basis far too narrow to bring good results. We have been talking about a crisis. The crisis, however, arises out of the action of the weather upon a problem that has existed for generations, and it seems to me that something has been lacking on the part of noble Lords who have spoken, in that nothing whatever has been said about the problem while a good deal has been said about the crisis. We have been reminded every few years that such a problem does exist. There have been committees and there have been commissions. Quite a number of the chairmen of these commissions have been members of your Lordships' House. They have reported to you in no uncertain terms.
To one of those commissions I wish particularly to refer—that is the Commission which was presided over by a former Lord Chancellor, Lord Sankey. In the twenties of this century, he and his Commission reported on the conditions in the mining
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industry, and recommended, in the strongest possible terms, the nationalization of the mines. It is the opinion of our Party, and it is the view of the Government that if the Governments that have been in office since that period had put the Report of Lord Sankey's Commission into operation there would have been no crisis at this moment because there would have been no problem. There could not have been a crisis without a problem. For the fact that there is a problem the present Government is not responsible. Its existence is the responsibility of the Governments of the last twenty-five years, and we shall be misleading the people of this country by our discussions, even though they may be heated, if we forget to inform them that there is a problem as well as a crisis.
Now I want to do an even more unpopular thing. I want to say a good word for Emanuel Shinwell. He is a man with a temperament. He is a man with a vigour of expression. Few people, even amongst his friends, escape the exercise of his critical faculties. But there is no keener intelligence in the Government than that of Emanuel Shinwell, and there is no Minister, at this moment, who has concentrated so much upon his job as Emanuel Shinwell has done. We are not doing a good service to the people of our country if we convey to them the impression that this crisis, arising out of the problem, could have been prevented had it not been for one man. The Minister of Fuel and Power is a loyal member of the Government. The actions that he takes are the actions of the Government. The policy that he follows is the policy of the Government. So, if there are to be bouquets thrown or if there are to be condemnations uttered, please let them be directed to the door of the Government rather than to that of an individual.
VISCOUNT ELIBANK: He is more than an individual; he is a Cabinet Minister.
LORD SHEPHERD: Quite true, but we know that Emanuel Shinwell could not have carried out the coal policy of this Government without the co-operation and consent of his fellow Ministers. That being so, the responsibility is then transferred from the Minister to the Government.
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: Would the noble Lord say that no Minister who

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makes a failure is ever to be held responsible for his failure because the responsibility has at once to be borne by the Government? That seems to me a very strange doctrine.
LORD SHEPHERD: I am not contending that for one moment; I am dealing with the case of Emanuel Shinwell. At some other time, perhaps, there may be an opportunity of talking about the subject in general terms, but that time is not now. There is another point which I wish to mention, because I think that the position of the Government in this matter has been thoroughly misunderstood. Some noble Lords have spoken to-day as if the simple decision of the Government lay between a very heavy system of rationing and the methods which the Government have operated during the last few months. There has been no such choice open to the Government. We know that, apart from those matters, the Government have been preoccupied during that period with other important questions. We have had to borrow money from America in order that the dollar exchange may remain steady and enable us to purchase the things that we require. The race in the time between now and the expenditure of that loan to achieve some measure of prosperity is an ever-present consideration, and if noble Lords may forget it, in a debate of this kind, rest assured that the Government cannot.
Therefore, when they have to consider a problem like that which relates to coal, the Government have to think not only of the things that concern this country within, but also of the things that concern this country throughout the world. Supposing that in October last the Government had not waited; that they had not allowed things to go by chance but had brought in their system of rationing. What would have been the attitude of noble Lords opposite? It would, of course, have been the attitude which noble Lords opposite have taken up recently in debates in this House. Is not the Government being pressed constantly to get rid of controls, to get rid of rationing? Can there be any doubt that if the Government had proposed, in October last, a drastic scheme for the rationing of coal, noble Lords opposite would have been loud in their condemnation?
VISCOUNT MAUGHAM: I doubt it very much.
LORD SHEPHERD: The noble and learned Viscount opposite said he doubted it very much; but if we are to judge noble Lords by their speeches and by their Motions in this House we can only anticipate that what happened when bread was rationed would happen when coal was rationed.
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: I am sorry to interrupt the noble Lord again, but is he saying that the Government did not do what they thought right in October because they were afraid of criticism? That is how it appears.
LORD SHEPHERD: No, the noble Lord must not read that into what I am now saying. The Government at that time knew that if they were to ration coal it would lead to extensive short time in industry. That extensive short time in industry would have led to a reduction in exports, and would have widened the breach between ourselves and solvency. The Government, rightly or wrongly, decided that they would run a risk in the hope that they might weather the storm. Therefore, if the Government are to be condemned it is not because they have been neglectful; it is because, in trying to carry on our country's trade as smoothly as possible without undue disturbance of industry, they have run into a weather crisis which has brought about the present immediate situation.
VISCOUNT ELIBANK: May I ask the noble Lord whether he was a member of the Government, because he says he knows of these interesting facts.
LORD SHEPHERD: If the noble Viscount is a diligent reader of The Times, or if he is a diligent reader of the speeches that are delivered in another place, he will not need to be told by me that these are the points that have been raised in speeches in another place and in the Press. They give the reasons why Government policy has followed the line it has done. I try to read, and I try to accept what I read when I believe it to be right, and it is on that basis that I am speaking to your Lordships to-night. Finally, I want to say just a brief word about the future. We must get a substantial number of young men into the coal industry. The old men now there cannot produce the goods that are required, and the industry has to be made as attractive as possible if the younger

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men are going to be enticed into it. When these young men are brought back into the industry, I am confident that they will do their best if whatever Government are in control of the mines act fairly with them. The difficulties in the trade union movement, the difficulties in the workshop, and the suspicion that exists, are not the result of the teaching they had at school, nor are they the result of the teaching they have had from the Labour movement. They are the lessons they have learned from a bad social and industrial system, and we, on these Benches, are convinced that unless we can co-operate one with another for the public good, under public organization, we cannot break through the difficulties that exist and thus restore the people of this country to prosperity.
LORD TEYNHAM: My Lords, I think it is very important that we should get this whole crisis into its proper perspective, and I fully support the views put forward by the noble Viscount, Lord Swinton. This is not only a short-term crisis but also a long-term crisis which has involved the nation at the present time. It is also true to say that the cold weather has precipitated matters, but if the crisis had not arisen now it would most certainly have arisen a few weeks later because of the continual drain on our stocks which have not been replenished since the summer. I hope the Government will be able to inform your Lordships why they waited until Friday of last week before making known the drastic cuts which the Government considered were necessary to put upon electricity, and to impose these cuts on sections of this long-suffering nation at a time when industry was approaching the week end, thereby making it doubly difficult for industry to produce any emergency plans. We are all aware that criticism will not immediately release the supplies of coal at the pithead, and that what is wanted are constructive ideas and suggestions.
The present form of rationing can never be very effective for technical reasons. The periods of the cuts are far too short. They are so short that the furnaces at the power stations cannot be put out, and the best that can be done is to bank the fires. It is for this reason that the saving in coal is so very small. A far more comprehensive scheme of rationing will
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become necessary, not only until the movement of coal from the mining districts becomes possible, but also until the production of coal has been increased. Surely it would be possible to work out a scheme so that for a period industry and domestic users could be rationed on their normal requirements. Meter readings would indicate the consumption of electric power, and if the ration percentage were exceeded power could be cut off from the offending parties. What is more, industry would know what power was going to be available to it, however small, and could make plans accordingly.
I understand that the Minister of Fuel and Power consulted only the Electricity Board and the Commissioners, and did not take the power and distributing companies in to his confidence before making the cuts we have to-day. If this is true, it really is a most astonishing position, and I hope His Majesty's Government will be able to give some explanation of this state of affairs. It appears that it is only during the last twenty-four hours that really active steps have been taken to make use of all the resources of the country to combat this immediate crisis, and also to call upon the Armed Forces to lend their assistance for the movement of coal from the frozen North. We have been told that colliers laden with coal and bound for London River have been held up in the Tyne by fog. Surely these ships could have been put into convoy and escorted by one of His Majesty's ships equipped with radar, to assist them in navigation? Convoys were not stopped during the war because of fog—I have had personal experience of that—and I cannot help feeling that a little more forethought and planning from a Government of planners would have eased the situation. We have heard of 3,000 coal waggons which cannot be unloaded because their contents were completely iced up. Yet a little organization of a steam jet from a railway engine or some other appliance would have got over the difficulty.
I am glad to see from this morning's papers that the crisis is at last being really appreciated by the Government in all its magnitude, and a special Cabinet Committee, under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, has been formed. Full warning had been given by the great industries, especially by the electrical supply companies, to the Minister of Fuel and

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Power that the situation would arise. Their warnings seem to have been disregarded. Stocks of coal could have been built up during the summer months of last year if a proper co-ordinated rationing plan had really been commenced. It has already been remarked in your Lordships' House that bread rationing was introduced last summer as a national measure, but why was not electricity rationed? Why was electricity not considered of equal importance, and also rationed? Was it fear, on the part of the Government or further unpopularity on account of more austerity measures, or was it because the Minister of Fuel and Power was engaged upon the production of the Electricity Bill and did not see the dangers that lay ahead? One is driven to the conclusion that it is a combination of both fear and preoccupation.
I should like to draw your Lordships attention to one other point. When the mines were under private ownership, in the years before the war, the coal was properly graded and screened and the ash content kept down to a reasonable figure. At the present time I think it is true to say that from twenty to twenty-five per cent. of the coal delivered to industries consists of ash, which has no heating value whatever, and (what is important to note) this is equivalent to thirty coal trains a day, carrying ash about the country and serving no useful purpose. Perhaps I can put the matter in another way by saying that this ash content is equivalent to a loss of 3,000,000 electrical units a day, which is equal to the output of an electrical power station of the size of Fulham Power Station. I hope that the National Coal Board will take steps to get rid of this ash and this wasteful transport as soon as possible. Another point to which I would draw your Lordships' attention is the attempt to convert industry to oil-burning plant, which, although it may not be realized, is proving a failure, largely due to the fact that on most factory sites there are no adequate storage facilities for oil and it is most difficult to arrange for them.
We must look very much further than to these palliatives for our salvation. We must produce the coal we require for our industries or we shall quickly become a second-rate agricultural nation, unable to maintain our present population and with a standard of life going back to some
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centuries ago. We must face up to the real facts in the coal industry as they are to-day and not try to gloss over the unpalatable truths which some noble Lords on the other side may not be ready to admit. It was mentioned by the noble Viscount, Lord Swinton, that in 1946 the production of coal was less than that in 1941 by 26,000,000 tons, notwithstanding the increase in mining machinery during war years and the return from the Forces of men who had left the industry in 1941. Perhaps I can put the matter in another way by saying that the output of coal per man per annum in 1946 was 259 tons as against 296 tons in 1941, a drop of 37 tons per man per annum since 1941, the last year in which the mines were under the control of the industry.
LORD STRABOLGI: Would the noble Lord allow me to ask him a question on that? I know he will not mind. Is he taking into account the fact that most of the young miners went into the Army or other industries in 1941, and that we have not been able to get them all back?
LORD TEYNHAM: I quite appreciate that it has not been possible to get them all back, but a great many of them have returned. Perhaps if the noble Lord will allow me to continue my argument, he will see what I am getting at. The immediate problem, to my mind, is how to restore these 37 tons per man per annum. Perhaps it can be summed up in the words "the will to work." Given the will to work, more and better machinery, improved underground layouts and transport will produce more coal with fewer men; but unless this will exists, not all the machinery which can be made available or the most far-reaching plan that can be produced by the National Coal Board will be of any use at all. This lack of the will to work can be traced to many reasons, perhaps the strongest of which is lack of incentive. In these days, after a certain point, money will not buy anything that is more desirable than leisure. The miner cannot with his extra earnings buy anything that he would like to have, and perhaps what is more important, he cannot buy those particular things he would like to buy for his family. Under our present economy, the goods are simply not in the shops and they cannot be bought. He is, therefore, quite content to work five days a week or less. I have little doubt that if incentive, and, what is also important, discipline, could

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be restored to the mines, we should see very great improvements.
We must make it really worth-while for the miner to do a full and a really good day's work every working day, and avoid the penalties and consequences of slackness and irregularity. The miners task is not an enviable one. I have myself been down a number of mines, including some of those with a very short life and in very poor state before the war, and I know something of the conditions under which the miners have to work. I am in favour of giving special consideration to them, and the provision of every amenity which would tend to lighten their labour and bring back that incentive to work which is so necessary in this industry to-day, the industry above all others on which England's greatness has been built. We are on the threshold of a great national disaster. The sands are running out, and we must plan not only for a short-term policy but for a long-term policy which will lift the coal industry out of its difficulty and restore this nation to the proud position which it has been accustomed to hold amongst the nations of the world.
6.25 p.m.
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: My Lords, I suppose when noble Lords went away last Thursday nothing seemed more unlikely than that there would be a debate on coal this week. Now it is quite clear that we are in the middle of a crisis of the first gravity involving every industry and practically every home in the country. That is the measure of the suddenness with which this great cloud has come upon us. It is the measure too, am afraid—if noble Lords opposite will forgive my saying so—of the contempt or, at any rate, neglect with which the Government have treated Parliament in this matter. At any rate, I am sure that it will now be recognized in all quarters of the House that a free and full discussion of the matter in Parliament is absolutely essential.
The debate which is now coming to an end has, I think, been in full accord with the highest traditions of your Lordships House. It has been serious; it has been constructive, and, on the whole, mere debating or Party points have been avoided by both sides. For instance, we have not had the very disingenuous argument that
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was used by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in another place when he said that the present difficulties are partly due to the fact that we have had under a Labour Government full employment in time of peace for the first time in the history of this country and that the assessment of our industrial needs was therefore difficult. No doubt that would be very successful amongst the right honourable gentleman's supporters.
What are the facts? In April, 1920, that is, sixteen months after the First World War, the figures of unemployed were 337,000—I am giving the round figure. In January, 1946, which is seventeen months after the Second World War, the number of unemployed was 401,000. I am not producing these figures to make any Party point at all, but merely in order that the true facts should be made known. I would say that such reckless statements as those made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer cannot serve to clarify the position in which we are at present; they can only serve to muddy the waters. Neither have we had to-day the rather crude argument which has been used, and which I thought rather more reminiscent of a private school than Parliament: "Yah, what about the Tories before the war and their 2,000,000 unemployed." I thought I detected the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, getting a little near to it in his speech, but he very properly restrained himself.
We on this side of the House would be very ready at an appropriate time to discuss the pre-war unemployment position. No doubt it might have been very differently handled, and possibly it might have been handled better than it was. We have all learned a great deal since then, as the White Paper on full employment to which all Parties subscribe shows. At any rate, I would submit to your Lordships—I am no economist—that that crisis has not the slightest relevance to this one. The pre-war situation arose from a great international depression which started in the United States and gradually spread over the rest of the world. The noble Lord, Lord Pakenham, will correct me if I am wrong, but I think it arose from a great number of different considerations, and partly from over-production leading to an unwillingness on the part of buyers to buy all that was produced. The noble Lord will say if that is inaccurate. In any case, the present position is quite

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different in its origin and in its nature. It is purely local. There is no question of any unwillingness on the part of buyers to buy; buyers are panting to buy. There has never been such a sellers market. The present position arises purely from the under-production of a particular commodity—coal. To try and draw such an analogy between the two crises seems to me to be an insult to the intelligence of Parliament.
I would like to say one word about the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd. He tried, I thought with considerable skill, to divert the attention of the House from the present crisis, on which the Government have clearly done extremely badly, to a general problem which he says has lasted for years and years and years. On that general problem we have, of course, had a great deal of discussion—the noble Viscount the Leader of the House will remember the discussions in recent years—on various occasions and over the Coal Industry Nationalisation Bill in particular. But the fact remains that in this situation the Government, faced with a certain set of circumstances, had to do the best they could in those circumstances. We on this side of the House believe that the Government could have done very much better; we believe that almost any Government could have done better. We believe they have been guilty of a grave dereliction of duty, and I submit that we are bound to say so.
I would like now to turn to the main theme of the debate, and I hope that I shall be able to maintain the high tone which has hitherto characterized it. I will try to keep off Party lines, for I really believe that the situation is much too serious for that. I may, indeed, criticize the Government, but it is not because they are Socialists it is because they are inefficient. It is on the grounds of inefficiency—and this is clear from the speeches of the noble Viscount, Lord Swinton, the noble Viscount, Lord Samuel, and many others—that the charge against the Government is serious, and serious indeed. I think it is quite evident from what has emerged from the debate in this House and in another place that the Cabinet, or at any rate the Minister of Fuel and Power, must have known weeks ago, and even months ago, the appalling danger in which this country
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stood. The Minister has indicated himself that all would probably have been well but for the unexpected bout of cold weather. Of course, we must all of us recognize, if we are at all fair-minded, that the weather conditions are entirely exceptional, and they must have put a very severe strain upon the resources of the country. There is no difference of opinion about that.
But is it, in fact, any excuse for the breakdown that has occurred? During the war the noble Lords, Lord Wootton and Lord Leathers, to whom the country owes so much, were constantly faced with unexpected problems of this kind, almost every day and certainly every week, but they always exercised foresight, and so they had an alternative plan when the emergency came. Trey always had, I believe the expression is, "something in the kitty," and that was the measure of their success. After all, it is the primary duty of responsible Ministers to provide against emergencies, however improbable those emergencies may be, and to warn the country of the danger of such emergencies. But the Knister of Fuel and Power took a very different course. He seems neither to have recognized himself nor to have discussed with other interests concerned the possible future perils which faced the country. He made no plans; he just hoped for the best.
It is not as if the Government had not had their attention drawn to the gravity of the situation. The House has had already some examples of those warnings, and I do not want to weary your Lordships by undue repetition. I would, however, like to give one quotation which has not been made by any noble Lord. As far back as October 16 of this year there was one member in another place, with a special knowledge of the coal industry, Colonel Lancaster, the Member for the Field Division of Lancashire, who, after reviewing the figures of production and consumption, said this:
"If the figures I have given prove to be correct, we shall face a crisis in February of next year. One of two things will happen. Either we shall have to discontinue entirely our exports, or some considerable sections of our industry will have to go on slow time and there will be a great deal of domestic distress."
When I read those words in Hansard—and I think your Lordships will agree that they turned out to be a remarkably accurate forecast—I looked forward to seeing

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what were the comments made by the Government spokesmen on a prophecy so formidable as that. What did I find? There was no reference of any kind to the speech. Apparently it was not considered worthy of any comment from the Government Front Bench. Then there was the warning to which the noble Viscount, Lord Samuel, has referred, which was given by the electricity companies, which only drew the comment from the Minister—the noble Viscount, Lord Samuel, did not make reference to the comment—that it was a lot of nonsense and just propaganda. I would remind the House that these companies that gave that warning and so accurately forecast the future are the same companies which are now to be taken over by the State, because it is asserted by the very Ministers who were responsible for the present catastrophe that they are incompetent.
Week after week and month after month, the effect of Government statements has been to lull Parliament and the people of this country into a false sense of security. I do submit to your Lordships that that is a terrible indictment both of the Minister himself and of the Government who allowed him to say these things. Even on Thursday last, when the storm was about to break, and when the Government's own supporters were seriously worried, the Leader of another place did his utmost to avoid the debate, and the Minister when he did speak attempted to describe the proper anxieties of the critics as Party propaganda. I feel sure the noble Viscount the Leader of the House who is going to wind up this debate will not attempt to take up that attitude this afternoon. Believe me, these things I have said are being said by thinking men and women of every Party all over the country to-day. The truth is, and the whole country now knows it, that this crisis has been brewing for months. No doubt it was brought to a head by the cold spell. That was very bad luck for the Government. But they had no margin of error. The Government was not like Joseph, that admirable administrator, when the lean years came. I am sorry to say that they seem to me to bear a far closer resemblance to the Foolish Virgins. No preparations of any kind seem to have been made against what may be called unforeseen contingencies.
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I understand—and no doubt the Leader of the House will deal with this when he replies to the debate—that the Government are at present engaged in negotiations to arrange for double-bunkering of ships which visit the United States. I personally hope that the Government will succeed. In the present emergency we cannot neglect any step, however deplorable that step may be in itself. But that is in fact—and we must not blind ourselves to it—buying American coal. If we are now prepared to take such a step in spite of the drain upon our dollar resources, why did we not do it in, say, September last, when it was clear that a crisis was impending and when that crisis might still have been averted? That would have been the time to buy that coal. There appears to have been no foresight at all. Moreover, it is evident from the facts which have been exposed by the noble Viscount, Lord Swinton, and by other speakers, that no plan was worked out before-hand—no plan of any kind, not even the first elements of one—in this country in conjunction with the industries concerned. As I understand the position, even the electrical companies which were to operate this scheme were not informed before-hand of the steps to be taken and only heard about it after the Minister's announcement was made on Friday. Can anything excuse incompetence of that kind? It is the worst which I remember in my public life. The noble Lord, Lord Lucas, in the debate upon the Address chastised the Opposition for what he called the "economics of the jungle". I must say that I prefer the economics of the jungle to the economics of the bungle.
Even now we do not know the full extent of this calamity. At one moment I see it suggested in the newspapers that there will ultimately be 3,000,000 people out of work, at another moment I see the number has risen to 5,000,000—that is not people now out of work, but those who will be out of work—and another estimate, which is darker still—and here I am quoting from the Minister's own statement to the Press—is:
"If consumers do not co-operate in this period of emergency we shall find ourselves in a position of complete disaster."
And when he was asked what that meant, he said, "No fuel for electricity at all." Without, I hope, being accused of scoring a Party point, we may fairly ask what the Government propose to do to remedy this

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frightful situation, the hard, cruel facts of which the most reverend Primate spoke this afternoon in such moving terms. It is evident that there is no complete immediate remedy, although of course we can employ measures of alleviation such as were suggested by the noble Viscount, Lord Swinton, the noble Lords, Lord Lucas and Lord Teynham, and others. Things of that kind can be done, but, broadly speaking, for the moment the country will just have to clench its chattering teeth and to show that courage and endurance which it always shows in times of serious crisis.
We must, all of us, of course, do exactly what the Government tells us in this emergency. I have gained the impression from the newspapers that the response of the public has not been so good as might have been hoped. That no doubt is due to the fact that the public has been so bullied and badgered with rules and regulations during the last few months that it has become rather allergic to them. That is one of the results of this policy of bureaucratic interference upon which the Government have embarked. But in this emergency no patriotic person must allow such ideas to influence his mind. The country is in danger and we must all do our utmost to pull together and to get it out of its present mess. That is a public and a personal duty, however stringent are the measures which may be necessary. But the people of Britain may, I think, fairly ask what steps the Government (to whom, after all, they entrusted their welfare two years ago) propose to take to prevent a recurrence of the present deplorable situation. This is not merely a temporary problem due to an unfortunate turn of the weather, as has been suggested in some quarters. We have authority for that from Sir Hartley Shawcross himself who is, if I may say so with all due deference to him, worth his Weight in gold to this country because he can always be depended upon to let the cat out of the bag. In a speech which he delivered at Prestwich over the weekend, after a rather obscure remark in which he said "These are great days we live in," he went on to say:
"This immediate emergency—this weather-produced crisis—will pass in a comparatively short time, but we shall still be faced with the permanent problem that fuel consumption is running ahead of supply, and the position next winter will be at least as serious as now unless we can find a remedy."
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That is, of course, perfectly true. But what do the Government propose to do about it? What: is their target for coal during the coming year and how do they propose to attain it? I hope we may have some information about that. There are certain steps which can be taken immediately. The noble Viscount, Lord Swinton, suggested some, and the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, in what I thought was an extremely interesting speech, suggested some more, while others have come from different parts of the House. I would like to suggest another, and I do so with all deference. I suggest that the Government would do well to move the Minister from his present post. I do not say he should be dismissed; that is a matter for the Prime Minister and not for me. Nor do I say what I have said in any personal spirit. I have not the honour of having more than what may be called a nodding acquaintance with Mr. Shinwell. He may be the most admirable and charming of men personally, but from now on—and the Government would do well to recognize it—nobody in this country will believe a word he says. He has entirely lost the confidence of the public. The noble Lord, Lord Shepherd, in his speech thought, as I understood him, that this loss of confidence ought to be extended to the whole Cabinet: it was unfair that it should only apply to Mr. Shinwell. If that is his view, I do not mind. He can have it whichever way he likes.
LORD SHEPHERD: We are very much enjoying the speech which the noble Viscount is making, but we understood him to say at the beginning that it was to be a non-Party speech. That is a very strange non-Party speech.
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: I do not think that is a Party point. After all, it is nothing to do with the Opposition qua Opposition which Ministers the Government have. On the whole, the more inefficient those Ministers are, the better it is for the Opposition. I ought to be pressing the noble Lords opposite to keep Mr. Shinwell in his present job, if I were speaking merely from a Party point of view. But I am speaking entirely from the national point of view. I therefore repeat that, whatever Mr. Shinwell's merits may be, I feel certain that at the moment he would really be far better off in another job.

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The second step is that the Government must find (they may say this is rather a large order) some means of increasing the production of coal. I know very well that they are already attempting to tackle this problem. Up to now they have had a certain success—perhaps not enough, but a certain success. They have tried to increase the number of workers in the industry. The number who have gone in and the number who have gone out up to now about balance each other. Unfortunately, it appears that our young men no longer want to go in the coal mines. The Government view, as I understand it, is that the fact that the coal mines are nationalized will improve the atmosphere and induce a change. That may be so; I wish I could believe it, but I do not see any great sign yet of a change of heart. I wish the Government luck in their efforts and I hope that all will go well. It is to the interests of all of us that the number of workers in the coal industry should be increased. It may be that some further inducements could be offered to the miners in the form of better rations, more food and drink. I know there are great difficulties attaching to any proposals of that kind, because almost certainly there would be immediate similar demands from all the other heavy industries. I do not press the proposal, but I should be interested to know what the Government's view about it was.
There was another suggestion which I think was put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Teynham, that more goods should be released for the home market. The idea is, I take it, that the miners would get their share of these goods, and that the possibility of buying goods for themselves, their wives and their children, if they were in need, would provide an incentive to produce more and earn more. I shall be quite interested also to know whether the Government have considered that possibility. Then there is the proposal for the introduction of foreign labour, which has been put forward by several speakers to-day. It has, of course, been tried in other countries and it sounds a pretty easy way out. But I must confess the more that I personally look at this proposal, the more I recognize that we must not under-estimate the difficulties of it. I think they are considerable. There
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are the difficulties of language, the difficulties of housing, the difficulties of introducing an alien population with different traditions and a different way of life. No doubt every possibility, at any rate of temporary expedients, must be explored by the Government, but that one does seem to me—although it is worth considering—to have very real difficulties attaching to it. At any rate, whatever may be said about this proposal or about that proposal, all of them are in the nature of palliatives; they do not touch the real root of the problem.
As one examines—as I have tried to examine, and as I suppose other noble Lords have examined—this most complex and difficult situation, I have been driven back to the conclusion that the only real solution lies in the hands of the miners themselves. It is not disputed, I think, in any quarter of the House that the production of coal per man has steadily gone down year by year since before the war. I believe there has been a slight rise within the recent weeks, but it is still far below the pre-war figure. Over five years before the war, some figures I have—which do not entirely coincide with those quoted by the noble Lord, Lord Teynham—show that the men on the colliery books produced 299 tons per year per man, and in 1946 they produced 270 tons per year per man, which means a reduction of about ten per cent. I think the figure given by the noble Lord, Lord Teynham, of 37 tons is probably a difference between the categories of men who were employed; but my figure, in fact, does come from the Statistical Digest, and I believe it to be quite correct.
It is not my purpose to-day, in any sense of the word, to criticize the miners. I have a very high respect, as I suppose we have all in this House, for that very sturdy community. Their reduction of output is no doubt partly due to natural weariness, spiritual and physical, consequent on six years of war. They had a very gruelling time in the war, and one must understand that an experience of that kind leaves its after-effects. It is also partly due to their getting less food than they did before the war of the type to which they were traditionally accustomed. Finally if I may say so with all deference, it is partly due, I think, to the unremitting propaganda of the Labour Party and other more extreme groups, over a long

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period of years, who always told them that with the coming to power of the Labour Party there would be less work and more wages for everybody. That has been said throughout this country, whereas any competent observer could have told that after the dissipation of all our resources in the long war everybody would have to work very much harder than they did before, if we were to keep our heads above water.
But the hard fact remains—possibly because the miners do not even yet entirely recognize the full dangers of the situation—that the individual miner is producing less than he used to do, in spite of the fact that there has been the introduction of mechanized equipment into a number of pits. I am told that if the individual miner were hewing as much coal as before the war our present difficulties would never have arisen with regard to supplies of coal for home use—I do not mean the export trade, but for home use. Millions of working men would not now be without a job. Millions of women and children would not now be living in the utmost discomfort without light and without heat, and our vital export industries would not now be fatally hampered. I would ask the Leader of the House to say whether in his view that is true. It is surely only fair to the country and to the mining communities themselves that the truth should be known. I would ask also whether, if what I have said is true, the Government have made the position clear to the National Union of Mine Workers, and what has been their response.
I would ask finally whether the Government has told the National Union of Mine Workers, without mincing words, what is the grim alternative. Coal is the lifeblood of the body of industry, whether that industry be nationalized or un-nationalized. If that blood does not flow freely through the veins the whole body will die. That will mean untold misery not only for their fellow workers but for the miners themselves and their wives and families. It may mean, if the situation gets had enough, starvation for some. It must mean a catastrophic fall in the standard of living for everybody. In my opinion this ought to have been said publicly by the Government long ago. Are they willing to say it now, and are they willing to appeal to the mining community, who have always shown
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themselves patriotic, sensible and courageous, to step up production at toast to the pre-war level?
I fully realize that plain speaking of this character is difficult for any Government, and it is especially difficult for this Government. It means doing something which is extremely unpalatable to them, and indeed I have a shrewd suspicion that the reason they have not done something of this kind already is that they have been reluctant—and I say this in no offensive sense—to take action which would be likely to alienate large sections of their supporters. But there is something more important than any individual section of the community, however powerful, and that is the welfare of the country as a whole. Unless the mining community can be made to realize—as I cannot believe they do now—the full gravity of the situation (which cannot be over-estimated), it will not merely mean that the Labour Government will fail, which seems to worry Sir Hartley Shawcross so dreadfully, judging by his weekend speech, but, as he quite rightly added, the whole prosperity and future of this country will be at stake. If it is not an impertinence for me to say so, this is the testing time for Labour. This is the time when they must show whether they are statesmen or mere creatures of certain sectional interests. I am sure that all of us, whatever our Party may be, will be patriotic enough to hope that the Government will come to the right decisions.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: My Lords, I am sure that there is no difference of opinion as to our agreement with some of the important opening statements of the noble Viscount who has just sat down. He drew attention to the value of full and free discussion, and we have had one of a singularly high character this afternoon, and it may well be that there will be more to follow on this topic, or what may arise out of it. I would like to say at once to the noble Viscount, and the other noble Lords, that the Government court full and free discussion on this issue and will do everything they can, without reserve, to inform the nation as to the facts of our economic position, because there is every advantage in the public knowing them, fully stated, rather than half stated as they are sometimes. I would like to remind your Lordships that some time ago the Lord President of the Council announced that we were preparing a Paper which

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would shortly be issued on this subject. I can tell your Lordships that very much work has been done on that Paper, and I feel sure that when it is published—which I hope will not be very long hence—there will not be a single member of your Lordships' House on either side who will say we have failed to be frank with the people.
Before coming to the main issues of the case I must say I was exceedingly attracted by a single feature of the noble Viscount's speech. I shall read it again in a quiet moment by the fireside and I am sure I shall cherish it in my memory, because he insisted so many times that his observations were not in the least in a Party spirit. He said the Attorney-General was worth his weight in gold because he let the cat out of the bag. I think that is a strange metaphor which he must have invented while he was on his legs. Why a man should be worth his weight in gold for letting cats out of bags I am not sure.
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: It depends on the cats.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: That is the point I had in mind; it must have been a cat exceedingly welcome to the noble Viscount. He valued it so highly that I think it must have been a Party cat. He drew attention to the Government and said, I think, that it had chattering teeth.
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: I said, I think, "the country."
VISCOUNT ADDISON: I understood the noble Viscount said "the Government."
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: I said "the country," in view of the Government's lack of preparations, has no option but to clench its chattering teeth. I am sorry the Government's teeth are not chattering: perhaps they should be.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: I took the delightful phrase down and I understood it was the Government which had chattering teeth, but I will not stress the point. What struck me about the tone of the noble Viscount's observations in this regard was, shall I say, its exhibition of impartiality. I am sure he gave it a high degree of priority and I shall look at it again in that light. However, to put aside lighter matter I should like to say how much we all feel just as the right reverend Prelate
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does about the miseries that must attend these deprivations. I feel sure that that is fully realized. Before I finish I hope I shall be able to throw some light on the facts. I am quite certain the people of this country will rally to the needs of the situation with their accustomed fortitude.
In answer to various questions as to the facts, I have just been supplied with the figures of the savings of the first three days and I will read them to the House. The savings on Monday, the first day, were 22,550 tons of coal; on Tuesday 24,500 tons of coal; on Wednesday 26,300 tons. So that there is 73,350 tons in all, which I should say is a very gratifying response. The small but steady increase in these three days has proved, I think, that the public response is sincere.
VISCOUNT SWINTON: Are these figures for the whole country or that part of the country in which the Friday scheme came into operation?
VISCOUNT ADDISON: It relates to power stations' savings in the area to which the limitation applies. As I go along I will try and reply to some of the points, but before coming to the main case it may perhaps be as well if I gave now the reply to the questions which have been asked in respect of bunkering. The noble Viscount kindly gave me notice of this question, and I may say that it has been put to the Minister in another place to-day. The question was:
On what authority and for what reason were instructions sent out relative to the bunkering of ships on the week ended February 8, and on whose authority and for what reasons was the order countermanded?
The reply is:
"As a precautionary measure I gave instructions on Thursday, February 6, to hold up foreign bunkers, but I issued further instructions withdrawing the ban on Friday, February 7, before the debate in the House that afternoon."
There is a quite definite and explicit reply with regard to foreign bunkering, for a similar question was put to the Minister in another place to ask him what was being done about it. His reply was:
"No such negotiations in Washington are in progress but I hope arrangements can be made as a temporary measure to revert to the system of double-bunkering on the other side by shipping companies."
VISCOUNT SWINTON: The Reuter despatch to The Times was then quite untrue?
VISCOUNT ADDISON: I have not the text of the Reuter despatch in my hand, but this reply was given in another place on Tuesday last. Well, my Lords, the Government have been accused all through of a lack of foresight and of a lack of preparation before-hand in the accumulation of adequate coal stocks—that is the gravamen of the charge. Let us just look at some of the realities of the situation. The power to accumulate coal stocks clearly depends upon the weekly use of coal as compared with its production. There has been a very remarkable increase in the demand for coal both from industry and from electricity undertakings, and it is a factor, of course, in the active employment of the country that this should be so. So it could only have been possible to have diverted coal from industry in the summer-time, for the accumulation of stocks, by the restriction of certain activities in industry. That is a mathematical certainty; it is the only way in which it could have been done. Stocks, also, are accumulated against expectation, and it is reasonable to base your expectation of demand on what happened in previous years.
Let us now look at the situation as it really was. We were endeavouring—and I knew of no adverse criticism—as we have been endeavouring all along, to keep industries, and particularly those that make goods for export, as fully employed as possible, and there is no doubt that when you allow for the steel industry, the railways, and other industries, from which you cannot divert coal, you are limited to those manufacturing industries which, in the ordinary way, use, I understand, about 40,000,000 tons of coal. You may say that the railways, gas and water undertakings, coke ovens and the collieries themselves are ruled out. They must have their full supply. So you are limited to what you can take out of the rest, and "the rest" really comes down to the coal used by other industries that is, 40,000,000 tons—and the coal used by households. Those are the two big classes of users who are left. Restriction in the use of household coal has brought consumption down from 40,000,000 tons per annum to 29,000,000 tons. That is a very large reduction. Therefore, you are practically driven—apart from what you could get by further restricting the householder—to the industries to which I have just referred.
VISCOUNT SWINTON: But we could get coal by buying abroad, as we are now buying in America.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: Allow me to develop this please.
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: My Lords, may I just say that we, on this side of the House, do not wish to appear to be guilty of any discourtesy to the noble Viscount the Leader of the House, but we would ask him to remember that this is a question and not a Motion, and therefore my noble friend Viscount Swinton has not the right to reply. So if he finds himself obliged now and then to intervene for the purpose of clarifying a point I hope that the noble Viscount, the Leader of the House, will understand.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: Of course, I understand. The noble Viscount, I am sure, will treat me as I always treat him—that is, quite fairly. But I am entitled to reply to criticisms that have been made, and that is what I am trying to do. I proceed now to rule out all the vast users of coal in respect of which you could not possibly have made any reduction. When you rule them out you are left with groups of industry using coal to the extent of 40,000,000 tons and the householders from whom to take your parings in order to accumulate stocks. It is true, I should think—I must put it in that form—that by restricting a considerable number of industries in the summer-time—I cannot specify them now—it might have been, and would have been, possible to have saved a certain amount of coal and to have diverted it into stock. Welt, I think it is fair to ask what would have been the criticism if, in the summer-time (because that is the only time when you can think about accumulating stocks), the Government had issued a number of regulations restricting the use of coal by a vast series of the smaller user industries. I am certain that we should have been met by something like the delightful phrase which was used by the noble Viscount a few minutes ago. He said, I recall, that we are: "being bullied and badgered to death by bureaucratic interference." That is what would have been said without a shadow of doubt. And it would have been exceedingly difficult, at that time, to make a case for restricting the supplies of a vast number of industries in order to accumulate a stock of coal.

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It is all very well to be wise after the event, but what we deliberately decided was that it was not right, then, to pare coal off great numbers of industries with the inevitable result that enormous dislocation would have been caused in our manufacturing entity. That was our deliberate conclusion, and I believe that, with all their sapience, if noble Lords opposite had been in our place they would have come to the same conclusion. Those are the reasons why it was not possible to divert coal from industrial use into stock. There is one other consideration which has not yet been mentioned but to which attention ought to be drawn—that is the user of coal. I will return to this in a moment, but I pause to say that I think that the House owes a great debt to Lord Marley for the entirely disinterested speech which he made, in which he drew attention, giving chapter and verse, to the—shall we say—waste of coal. I can tell him that one of the decisions of the Government with regard to long-term policy is that we must take as much advantage as we possibly can of the lessons of science and apply them to industry so far as they relate to the better utilization of coal. But, incidentally, there are some very remarkable facts with respect to the utilization of coal by electrical undertakings and industry about which this country has had no chance of doing anything since 1938.
I am taking now the last complete year before the war. Let me give you some figures relating to the sales of electricity by distributing companies. These figures are in terms of millions of units. For domestic purposes, in the last complete year before the war 5,360,000,000 units were sold. For industrial purposes, 10,311,000,000 units were sold. That is the amount that was sold by all the electricity companies. In 1945—I have not the complete figures for last year—the figure for domestic consumption was 8,848,000,000 units, and the industrial figure was 17,692,000,000 units. In other words, the sales in 1938 were 15,671,000,000 units and in 1945 they were 26,540,000,000 units. That means that there was an enormous increase in the demand. But bear in mind that during those years it had not been possible to re-equip our generating stations. We were engaged in the war, and the result was that the demand on the generating
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plants, substantially now, in the condition they were then, has had to be met from the existing stations. However, so far as the long-term plan is concerned, it is quite evident that a pressing need of this country is to increase the generation of electricity on a very large scale. That is perfectly evident.
I should like to say a word with regard to a question which another noble Lord used—I think it was the noble Viscount, Lord Swinton. He asked whether we were proposing to make use of the smaller units of electrical generation which had been used by the Army and other people during the war. I may say that we are, and that the possibility of using them is being actively pursued. That is only by way of interjection, but it answers his question. The result of this enormously increased use of electricity during a time when there was no opportunity at all of increasing the capacity of the power stations is reflected in their use of coal. For instance, the weekly consumption by electricity undertakings of coal in 1939 was 306,000 tons, while in 1946 it was 504,000 tons, so there is an additional 200,000 tons per week going into these power generating stations.
Noble Lords will say: "You must have known all about that in June. Why did you not allow for it?" Well, here I have a rather elaborate table—though I will not weary your Lordships with the whole of it—from which I will give the House the sum and substance of the estimates which were made, not by the Government with chattering teeth, but by the experts in the industry, and very competent people no doubt. Of course, we had to go by these estimates. From November 1 to December 27 the estimate was that the power stations would require an average of 557,000 tons a week. They actually used 584,000 tons in November, and 646,000 tons in December. Take the first dismal two weeks which we are now finishing. The estimates were that the requirements for the week ending February 1 would be 676,000 tons; but the actual consumption was 727,000 tons. The estimate for the week ending February 8 was 647,000 tons, and the actual quantity used was 732,000 tons—something like 80,000 tons more in one week. With all the animadversions on my right honourable friend the Minister of Fuel and Power, I do not think he can be blamed for differences of that amount.

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These were the estimates made entirely bona fide by those who were running the industry, and I have given them to you with the figures of coal that were actually used.
VISCOUNT SWINTON: Will the noble Lord allow me to interrupt? It is very important to get these right because there is a complete challenge between what the power companies say and the figures which have been given to the Minister. I will not follow it further now, but I am informed that the amount the power companies said would be required was 559,000 tons every week. This was the July figure, and, of course, there is a much greater increase in consumption in November and December. Now the Minister is giving some other figures, and I would only ask him this: Are these figures he has given us in that estimate the figures given to the Minister by the power and distributing companies, or by the Electricity Commissioners, or somebody else? I think that is a fair question.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: It is a perfectly fair question. I am having it verified, but my information is that the figures were supplied by the Central Electricity Board.
VISCOUNT SWINTON: Oh! the Board.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: It is all very Well, but I have complete confidence in the Central Electricity Board. It is a very competent body of people. And who else were the Government to ask for estimates? We had to get our estimates from the authoritative body that is in charge of the whole business, and that was the right body to go to. These are the figures they gave, and it is a fair case to make that it would not be reasonable to expect the Government, or the Minister of Fuel and Power, or anybody else, to anticipate, with these figures before us, the enormous actual consumption.
VISCOUNT SAMUEL: Is not that the reason why you have to have large reserve stocks?
VISCOUNT ADDISON: Of course it is, and if the noble Viscount could have suggested any practical expedient whereby we could have accumulated large stocks it would have been exceedingly welcome. It was the inability to devise that expedient without chopping industry to pieces that led to the situation. There has
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been, and is, a much greater consumption of coal in the power stations than was anticipated, even in the winter. Of course, the consumption is higher in the winter, and the estimates were much higher for the winter than for the summer. The point I am making is that the discrepancy was very great. It was not just a few odd tons, but a very large difference between the actual consumption and the estimate given beforehand. No doubt this is due to the large sale of electrical gadgets, of which we have been told, which are now in very many more households than they were. As the noble Lord has told us, they were bought, and people buy electric fires to keep themselves warm. Of course they do. Their purchase was due no doubt to the in-creased use of electricity. I must ask noble Lords if they are going to condemn the Government for allowing people to buy these things, because that is the in-reference. Then they must be willing to say that if they had been in office they would have accepted the responsibility of telling the public they would not be allowed to buy.
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: The noble Lord, Lord Lucas, from the other side of the House, was the person who raised the question of electrical appliances.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: I submit he was not.
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: Yes, I think he was.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: The noble Viscount, Lord Swinton, quite properly pointed out that people buy electric fires in order to use them, and several speakers have pointed out that there was a large increase in the manufacture and supply of electrical gadgets to be used in houses.
VISCOUNT SWINTON: The noble Viscount has referred to me. It is perfectly true I raised this in the first instance. I said that from the figures in the Digest of the sales of these gadgets it must have been perfectly obvious to the Government how greatly the consumption would be increased. I did not comment further upon it. The noble Lord, Lord Lucas, said—I paraphrase his words—that no Government in their senses would have allowed the sale of such things if they could not provide the electricity for them. That is what happened.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: I am only saying that this Government did not decide to stop their sale. We accept the responsibility for that. All I have to say is that if there is any complaint about their use making a large drain upon electricity, the only way to have removed the cause of complaint was to have prevented the sale of the apparatus. That is the point I am making. We did not prevent the sale of the apparatus and I think we did rightly. It is true that the production of coal has not kept pace with the demand, and here I come to some of the points raised by the noble Viscount who last spoke. I would like to say how much I appreciate the way in which he dealt with them, but I think that he did not attribute sufficient weight to a very, very important matter. In 1941 young miners were recruited wholesale for the Army. That was a mistake. We recognized it later on. Those men who went into the Forces were, of course, the pick of the miners. Thereafter followed five or six years of weary war. We all recognize that mining is a very trying occupation. In view of the fact that so many of the active young men went away and left the much older men in the pits, it was only to be expected that output per man would decline. I do not think that that is an unfair statement.
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: No.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: It was inevitable, and I am sure that the noble Viscount would be the last to make any—
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: I did not for one moment wish to make any charge against the miners and, indeed, I never did so. All I said was that it seemed to me the only immediate cure for the situation was if they could be persuaded to produce a little more to tide us over this emergency. I realize that the miners have had a very hard time.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: I know that the noble Viscount put it that way, and he put it perfectly fairly. The point I am making is that the explanation for the fall in output per man from 1941 to 1946 is, in the main, due to the type of the men working in the mines, being the older men. We abstracted, in very large numbers, the ablest of the young miners, therefore the men who remained were older, and one could not have expected their output to be so high as that of the young
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men whom we took away. However, I am glad to say that lately we have had some much more encouraging figures. Perhaps the House would be interested if I gave them. The figures I am about to give are the average weekly increases over the figures for the corresponding period to the previous year. There has been no increase in men. The number of men is substantially the same, because those who have come in have really replaced those who have gone out.
In September the miners produced an average of 110,000 tons a week more than in the corresponding month of the previous year. I will not give the figures for every month. In December the increased output was 235,000 tons as compared with the corresponding month in the previous year. For some reason in the first week of January there were 420,000 tons more than in the corresponding week in the previous year. That seems to have been an exceptional week, because on the 11th, 18th and 25th there were increases of 228,000, 264,000 and 258,000 tons. I think it is fair to say—and I am sure the House would like me to say—that, notwithstanding the horrible weather and the conditions at the pits, last week they actually produced 70,000 tons more than for the corresponding week of the previous year. Therefore, it is fair to claim that progress of a very substantial kind is being made in the right direction. However, that does not in any way minimize the importance of the fact that in this country we must increase our output of coal. There is no question between us about that. The figure of 200,000,000 tons was mentioned by some noble Lord. All I have to say is that it would be gratifying indeed if there were some improvement on that figure this year. I hope that we may be able to exceed it, but I am not an expert in these matters. At all events, I should like to assure the House that the Government are doing everything they can to devise ways and means of assisting to increase output. I want to say something with regard to a matter mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Teynham. He said, as I understood him, that a lot of this coal had 30 percent of ash in it.
LORD TEYNHAM: 20 to 25 per cent.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: This much-maligned Government only became responsible for the coal mines on January 1.

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Therefore one cannot expect these bad habits of turning out this poor stuff, which have grown up, to be minimized in the course of a few weeks. They have grown up under the former system. Let us hop, that before long they will be eradicated.
LORD TEYNHAM: The mines have been under the control of the Government since 1941.
VISCOUNT ADDISON: Yes, but not the Labour Government.
VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: Would the noble Viscount not agree that Mr. Bevin, Mr. Attlee and Mr. Morrison were members of the Labour Party?
VISCOUNT ADDISON: Yes, they were—and very fine members—but they were otherwise occupied. In those days we had not nationalized the coal mines and, although there was nominal direction: they were really being operated by the same people. However, there is no doubt at all that there is great need for improvement in the equipment of the mines, in the transport of coal from the face, and in a hundred other ways. All I can say is that I am sure, having settled the issue last year, we all hope that the National Coal Board will get on with the job and make good progress. Referring to the employment of foreign labour and other matters of that kind, I should like to say that the discussions with the unions are characterized by remarkable good will. There is everywhere a disposition to do everything possible to help the country in various ways with regard to labour, improved output and so on.
May I mention two or three other things to which reference has been made) The movement of ships is as follows. Twelve ships carrying 21,000 tons have reached London in the last twenty-four hours. Between noon on Tuesday and noon on Thursday fifty-one ships in all left the north-east coast for London carrying 104,000 tons. A further thirty ships carrying 25,000 tons left the north-east coast for other ports. There are still six ships held up in the north-east coast ports and a further thirty-one are loading to-day. I find, unfortunately, that I made an incorrect statement a few minutes ago which, of course, I must correct. I said that, notwithstanding the atrocious weather, the miners actually increased coal production last week by 70,000 tons. That was a mis-statement and I must
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correct it. It should have been minus 70,000 tons. Nevertheless, considering that a large number of collieries were out of action and in view of the severe weather, I think that that was a remarkable effort, and I am sure that your Lordships will wish to express your appreciation. With regard to emergency measures, these are already familiar to your Lordships as a result of the published statement. I would mention that there are 95,000 railway wagons loaded in transit at the present moment compared with an average used of 65,000, and vast numbers are being brought into use. I referred earlier to the published statements on this matter which will be found in the official publications which come out this evening.
With regard to long-term policy, I should be very happy indeed if some time in the immediate future we could have an opportunity for discussing these matters. The proposition is too long, too big and too attractive to go into fully at this stage. I know that your Lordships want to get away. Perhaps when the Paper to which I have referred conies out we may have a suitable opportunity for discussing it. Nobody realizes more acutely than His Majesty's Government the need for the improvement of the organization of this industry, and the need for a greater output of coal, upon which our whole industrial and economic system is based, and we shall spare no effort to achieve that end. I think it is fair to say that many of the animadversions to which I have listened to-day have been, shall I say, rather coloured in their disposition, and I think an impartial examination of the actual facts of the case as they were last summer, and as they have progressively been since, coupled with the greatly increased use of electricity both by industry and the household, will explain a great deal. In conclusion, I would say that, as we well know, it is extraordinary easy to be wise after the event, and my conviction is that if noble Lords opposite had been in our place they would probably have taken the same decisions in the summer.
VISCOUNT SWINTON: Before the noble Viscount sits down—which always seems to me to be rather a curious way of putting it—I wonder if he would deal with one specific, point which is not at all a Party point. I quoted two statements of

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the Minister of Fuel and Power, one made on Friday and the other on Monday, that he expected, if there were reasonable savings, that this rationing would only last for, I think his words were, three or four days, or a week at the most. The noble Viscount has told us very fully what is the result of the saving of the three days. Can he tell us whether that forecast of the Minister is likely to be right, or would he give any other?
VISCOUNT ADDISON: I am afraid that the forecast in those terms must have been a little sanguine. I am not at the moment able, and I do not think that the Cabinet would be able either, to give any immediate forecast. It is better to be frank about it. The weather is beastly cold, and it remains so, and I do not think it would be right to make any promises at all.

EAST DURHAM (CONSERVATION OF WATER) SPECIAL PROCEDURE ORDER, 1947.
Report by the Chairman of Committees of the House of Lords and the Chairman of Ways and Means of the House of Commons under Section 3 of the Statutory Orders (Special Procedure) Act, 1945, that no Petition has been presented against the Order: Laid before the House (pursuant to Act), and ordered to lie on the Table.
House adjourned at seventeen minutes before eight o'clock.