Schedule

Part of Orders of the Day — Expiring Laws Continuance Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 2 December 1952.

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Photo of Mr Frederick Willey Mr Frederick Willey , Sunderland North 12:00, 2 December 1952

Those are the bases upon which this legislation was passed. I again emphasise that if the Home Secretary is saying that this should be continued on other grounds, he once again faces the issue that in doing so he must ask the House to reconsider the matter, and to consider permanent legislation. Furthermore this legislation was agreed to by the House on a specific pledge by the Home Secretary and the Government that it would not be continued a day longer than was necessary. If the Home Secretary now argues that it is necessary, he must argue that it is necessary in the context of the discussions on the 1939 Act.

The Home Secretary must also consider if there is any alternative course he can follow? The hon. Member for Farnham (Mr. Nicholson) in 1939 put his point of view very shortly, and I wish to put it to the Home Secretary now because it is a matter to which he should give full thought. The hon. Member said: I do not think I have any great claim to speak on this, because I have been in the House only for the last half hour, but I do not wish to let slip the opportunity of expressing what I most profoundly believe. This Bill is only tinkering with a very great problem indeed, which will not be dealt with by such provisions. As far as methods are concerned, if the Home Secretary thinks that they are likely to be efficacious the House is bound to give him these powers, and then to keep a close supervision over him in order to see that they are not abused. But even if you succeed in suppressing these terrorist acts, the way will be open for similar acts on the part of other dissatisfied people. The only remedy, in my belief, is a system of identity cards. I do not see the need for a passport system between this country and Ireland, but I believe the police will always be hankering after extra powers as long as they cannot identify any particular criminal. I think the Home Secretary would receive wide support in the country if he introduced legislation along these lines."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 24th July, 1939; Vol. 350, c. 1090–1.] What the Home Secretary has done during the last 12 months has been to abolish identity cards, but not a word of protest from the hon. Member for Farnham.

10.0 p.m.

I should like the right hon. and learned Gentleman to direct his mind to that matter. Here we had a system of identification, invaluable to the police, which had been put forward during the debate on this Bill as an alternative, and quite frivolously and flippantly, at a stroke, the Home Secretary wiped out that safeguard, but nevertheless comes back to this Committee and says that he would like to continue this Act for another year.

I conclude by saying no more than this. My hon. and learned Friend has quoted the late George Lansbury, and I think that on this issue the late George Lansbury made some mistakes. [An HON. MEMBER: "No."] I think, however, that we all respect him, and he appealed to Irishmen to try to resolve these difficulties. The Home Secretary may feel that the action he has taken is not directed against the Government of the Irish Republic, and that it is directed against the people who are as much the enemies of the Government of the Irish Republic as they are of Her Majesty's Government. The trouble is that that point of view is not appreciated in Ireland.

The continuation of these powers is regarded as a slur by many people most critical of the I.R.A. and who utterly disassociate themselves from its activities. I would earnestly appeal to the right hon. and learned Gentleman, whatever he does tonight, to keep this matter under serious review, because if he can afford to make a gesture and say that this distrust is no longer abroad, and that he is not automatically, as it were, continuing this Act of Parliament, then I think that he would be making a further contribution towards real understanding North and South of the Border.