Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 31 March 1939.
The object of the Clause is, as the hon. Gentleman says, to enable vehicles to be billeted in any building or on any land when a state of emergency exists. The classes of vehicles which may be billeted, and the prices to be paid for billeting, are to be prescribed in regulations made by the Army Council with the consent of the Treasury. The payment will be fixed in accordance with the classification of the size of the vehicles, and the normal rates will be paid, except where land is vacant land, in which case, of course, no payment of compensation will arise. I do not think that any hardship will be placed upon anybody, because we shall pay what is just and fair in an emergency in which the country has to be protected and the soldiers have to be moved.