I have no desire to prevent the hon. Member for Wallsend (Miss Ward) from showing that she does not belong to the Majority who can be described as "Yes-men" supporters of the Government, but I must say that I hope she will take, perhaps, a better opportunity, when next week the Opposition raises a general Debate on the proper co-ordination of war effort, of showing that her Constituency is adequately represented. What I am anxious about is that a Debate which has been raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Westhoughton (Mr. Rhys Davies) should not be allowed to "peter out" without an adequate answer to the powerful case which has been submitted by my hon. Friends the Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Leslie) and the Member for the Clayton Division of Manchester (Mr. Jagger). They represent two quite distinct trade unions for distributive workers, covering between them the great majority of the organised retail distributive workers, and in that capacity have to speak also for the still larger number of distributive workers who, in a trade which is comparatively badly organised, in the mass need a good deal to be said and done for them if they are to get justice in regard to their working conditions and proper opportunities for social enjoyment.

There is an important issue to be faced to-night by reason of the statement made by the Home Secretary. An Order which was made last October limited the hours during which shops can remain open, especially during war-time. I want to know what is the answer of the Home Office to the pertinent cases which have been put to my hon. Friends as to the effective working of that Order by very large and important bodies of workers in those organisations which already give trade-union conditions. It is useless to put forward the kind of scattered arguments that we have heard to-night about the position of retail traders when we find that organisations employing tens of thousands of distributive workers, and catering for all domestic needs have yet been able, without hardship, to provide supplies for their members and customers while not merely observing what is the Order of the Home Secretary but giving what ought to be the general decent conditions in the trade. In all the great industrial centres where there is strong working-class opinion we have found over and over again that people are always willing to adjust their lives, as far as they can, to the introduction of social reforms which benefit other classes of workers. Such reforms have been very long delayed. They have called for 50 years of agitation on the part of shop assistants.

According to the reports that I have about the announcement made to-night by the Home Secretary, I feel strongly that a retrograde step is being taken. I cordially agree with the hon. Member for the Clayton Division that what is needed is not a reactionary step such as the Home Secretary has announced but an actual improvement in the machinery directly controlled by the Home Office for seeing that the effective hours are observed under the Statute, as regards both the general conditions of shop assistants and the hours for juveniles and young persons. I am appalled that, in the present circumstances, we should have had such an announcement. I may say to my hon. Friends who have spoken for the distributive trade unions that we could hardly have expected very much better, having regard to the position in which the Government have allowed the so-called negotiations on the general conditions of the shop assistants to fall, after three and a half years of conferences. We cannot hold the present Home Secretary responsible for that, because he has not been connected with them for so long.

Hundreds of thousands of shop assistants will, to-morrow morning, learn with concern that even the very small improvements in their conditions which have accrued as a result of these Orders are to be taken arbitrarily away in the course of the next few weeks, in a statement in which, as reported to me, the Home Secretary said that he had no power to intervene. That is the most amazing statement of all. Last September we sat here, in order to assist in whatever was proper measures to secure the prosecution of the war to a successful issue. Day after day we passed, not one or two Acts, but tens of Acts, in order to secure the objective of the Government. Here we are now, with an actual Order operating under the emergency powers then taken. There is not the slightest reason why the Home Secretary should not continue this Order. He should, in my view, limit the leniency of operation of the present powers of local authorities which impinge on the proper conditions which ought to be maintained, not only for shop assistants generally, but especially for the army of women assistants who have now to be trained to take the place of men during the war. I should very much regret it if this section of the Debate on the Adjournment should close without some reply from the Government front bench on the facts which have been submitted by my hon. Friends.