§ Mr. J. Fosterasked the Attorney General whether in view of the fact that many tenancy agreements depend on the end of the emergency which was the occasion of the passing of the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939, he will cause regulations to be issued for the purposes of the construction of tenancy agreements specifying the date on which the emergency shall be treated as having come to an end, as has been done in the case of tenancy agreements dependent on the end of the European war.
The Attorney-GeneralS.2 of the Validation of War-Time Leases Act, 1944, under which Orders in Council have been made declaring the end of hostilities in Europe and with Japan for the purpose of certain tenancy agreements, does not cover the case which my hon. Friend has in mind. It was not the purpose of that Act to interfere with the construction of tenancy agreements in which the parties expressly limited the term of the agreement to the duration of a particular Act of Parliament or of the emergency which occasioned the passing of the Act. Careful consideration has been and is being given to the question whether any statutory provision would be helpful for the purpose of interpreting tenancy agreements not covered by the Act of 1944. But having regard to the variety of expressions used in many such agreements, the present view is that any statutory provision would be more likely to be disadvantageous than helpful, and that it is better to leave it to the courts, in disputed cases, to decide what was the intention of the parties.