I want to reinforce the final words of my hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen (Dr. King). I represent the Burgh of Clydebank, which was badly bitzed in 1941. For the first two or three years after I first came to this House in 1951 it was my regular function, week after week, to support claims to the War Damage Commission for damage done in that burgh. Many of the domestic claims were very serious, some heartrending, but I always felt that some of the most unfortunate claims were those made on behalf of churches used by small congregations, who very often found it very difficult to claim enough to replace their buildings.

This is the second time today that the House has been debating the Second Reading of a Bill in which Scotland has an interest, in which the Secretary of State for Scotland has an important part to play, and his Department in Edinburgh is involved, but no Scottish Minister has been present to answer questions that Scottish hon. Members might wish to put. It is, perhaps, fortunate that I have no purely Scottish question to ask.

I support everything that has been said by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Newport (Sir F. Soskice) and by my hon. Friend the Member for Itchen. Those of us who lived and worked in bombed cities during and after the war can wholeheartedly support the Economic Secretary when he says that this insurance scheme was a great act of faith in Britain's ultimate success. It was drilled into me as a boy that saving, the act of preparing for the future, was not just a speculative act., or one taken for easy or quick gain, but an act of faith in oneself and in the society in which one lived.

The war damage scheme was a great act of faith which gave a great deal of confidence to people, and lifted their morale in those difficult times. It is unfortunate that only now, 19 years after the end of the war, are we able to wind up this tremendous enterprise of collective compensation of people for their individual losses. Nevertheless, it is an example of what a well-organised community with faith in itself can do.

We have, with reasonable equity and justice, repaired the material losses suffered by a large section of the community, and it is a wonderful achievement. Unfortunately, there are some losses that we can never repair, but it is a great compliment to the nation that we can now rest assured that, in the main, we have replaced for individuals the material things lost as a result of enemy action.

Let us hope that we never have to reintroduce a war damage insurance scheme again, though we know that, if we had to, our people could again carry it through with success.