Colonel Sir James Greig: The Germans did not think they were going to pay in 1870.
Colonel Sir James Greig: What we are attempting to do now is to make a fund which will support itself and not come to the terrible end as did the fund to which the right hon. Gentleman referred.
Colonel Sir James Greig: It has been suggested in this Debate that no concessions have been made to the wage earners. May I be allowed to quote what the Royal Commission says on this point? During the course of our inquiry we received many complaints that certain items should be allowed for Income Tax purposes which are not allowed at the present time. They give a certain number of them, and then they proceed in...
Colonel Sir James Greig: Is the hon. Member referring to the statement which suggests that the Corporation Profits Tax should be put on the co-operative societies?
Colonel Sir James Greig: I would point out, firstly, that the speech to which we have just listened suggests that the hon. Member quite misapprehends the object of this Bill. The primary promoter of the Bill is the executive of the trade union to which the hon. Gentleman has referred. The law is organised as a trade union in both its branches and the head executive of the solicitors' branch is the Law Society.
Colonel Sir James Greig: It is not to make it difficult to get into this branch of the profession. That is what has been misapprehended by hon. Members. The object is to regularise the qualifications which a man must possess before he gets in. There are two sets of persons whom this Bill will affect. There is the young man beginning his career, and who becomes an articled pupil to a solicitor. There is another class...
Colonel Sir James Greig: That I am not here to answer for on behalf of the Law Society. But I can say it has carefully controlled solicitors in the past and with very great discretion. What I am now pointing out is that they are well-fitted for that discretion. The criticisms we have heard to-day are very largely, may I suggest, Committee points. With the principle of the Bill I thoroughly agree. Although as a member...
Colonel Sir James Greig: May I ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will consider leaving this matter to the Committee and not putting on the Government Whips—leave the House to decide it as last year?
Colonel Sir James Greig: What wonder!
Colonel Sir James Greig: The Solicitor-General and his experts are to be congratulated on the reception which has been accorded to the Bill. The criticisms are mainly such as may be met in Committee. There have been some observations which seem to indicate that some hon. Members have not quite realised what the Bill actually does, or what the history of it has been. The hon. Member for Bodmin (Mr. Foot) suggested...
Colonel Sir James Greig: We all welcome the utterance of the hon. Gentleman who has just spoken for the first time, and we all remember ill this connection the poignant circumstances in regard to the Member who was his father, but whose untimely death has led to his being here. I am sure the hon. Gentleman will be a great acquisition to our ranks. If I may venture to make one comment upon what, he has said, I should...
Colonel Sir James Greig: Hear, hear!
Colonel Sir James Greig: 29. asked the Prime Minister whether, having regard to the existing inequalities in the civil and criminal law as between men and women, he will consider appointing a Committee, departmental or otherwise, to investigate the matter with a view to legislation to remove such of these inequalities as may be deemed advisable?
Colonel Sir James Greig: I think the right hon. Gentleman and those who support his views, are too meticulous as to the keeping separate of these forces. Everybody knows that the Army Annual Act except when an alteration is going to be made in the body of the military forces of the country is purely a continuing Act, and is only necessary because it has been decided in the course of our constitutional history that...
Colonel Sir James Greig: I should not have intervened had it not been for an observation which fell from my hon. Friend the Member for Greenock (Sir G. Collins). He told us that he had been to the country on which this money is going to be spent, namely, Iraq. I know that, and he was one of the gentlemen, if I mistake not, who convinced a great many of us after that visit that Iraq was one of the richest countries in...
Colonel Sir James Greig: The Amendment does not cover the cases in the contingency to which my hon. and gallant Friend (Colonel Ashley) referred. Suppose the Free State Government is not formed, this Amendment would not operate, because it refers to judges, officials, members of police forces, and other public servants who are discharged by the Government of the Irish Free State. It is far better, instead of putting...
Colonel Sir James Greig: I do not think the two Noble Lords who have spoken in support of this Amendment can really know what it means. They cannot have read the consequential Amendments to which it is introductory. If they will turn to page 29 they will find the Amendments which must follow on this if it is carried. One is to this effect: Clause 1, page 1, line 9, at end insert: —'(2) the appointed day shall be...
Colonel Sir James Greig: These Amendments are also in the name of the Noble Lord the Member for Aldershot (Viscount Wolmer) and others.
Colonel Sir James Greig: You must define the appointed day.
Colonel Sir James Greig: The effect of these Amendments is to put it in the power of another place to stop the Bill from coming into operation at all. Those who agree with the Government in this matter intend to support the Bill as it stands, with the object of making it definite.