Part of Orders of the Day — Agriculture Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 5 June 1947.
Mr Wilfrid Roberts
, Cumberland Northern
12:00,
5 June 1947
I am surprised that the Minister has found it desirable since the Bill was drafted, and since the Committee stage, to ask for the extra power which appears in the new paragraph (d) which he is to propose. The power in the paragraph (a), seems to be so wide that I wonder whether he will explain why he specially wants to take this power, which is a lesser power than the power which he has already. I do not understand it, and it raises in my mind the possibility that he wants to make use of the new paragraph which he is to move at, perhaps, some not too distant date. We would like to have an assurance now that he is not contemplating using this new power in the near future. It occurs to me that we may be faced with a dollar crisis, and I would like to ask the Minister whether that has anything to do with this new provision—whether it is his intention to make use of this power in the next year, say. Do I understand from the Minister that he does not mean to use this power?
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