National Voluntary Service.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 6 December 1938.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr James Maxton Mr James Maxton , Glasgow Bridgeton

I am saying that there was very great reluctance on the part of people in that class of society to part with their property for the public good. Have I made that plain? Is it clear and distinct that the hard fact is in the statistics of this country? It is there in the National Debt, to the extent of £8,000,000,000. No hon. Member will tell me that is not so. Therefore, I say that if the Government want a war it will be their war and not my war. If they need to make preparations in advance for it, well, good enough, but I am not supporting them in it. In the last War the difficulty was not in getting men but in getting materials, and if I were in charge of affairs at that bench, with the responsibility of putting the nation on a war basis from a peace basis, it is not the men that I should be looking after, but the property. I should start now with a register of property and a scheme to make it possible that the nation can get it when it requires it.