Mr Frank Griffith: Is it not the case that the right hon. Gentleman is now putting before us the real essence of what we have to discuss? Yet none of that is in the Bill. If this Bill is passed, the right hon. Gentleman can do what he has just indicated, but he can also do a great variety of other things.
Mr Frank Griffith: The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Keighley (Mr. Lees-Smith) claimed that the Bill would secure the substitution of civil courts for military courts. I do not know where he got that idea. He cannot have got it from the Bill, but he may have got it from the right hon. Gentleman's explanation. Our whole difficulty is that the Bill and the right hon. Gentleman's speech are so different....
Mr Frank Griffith: None of this is in the Bill.
Mr Frank Griffith: I should like to thank the hon. Member for Westhoughton (Mr. Rhys Davies) for saying a kind word for the legal profession. It so rarely happens in this House that the slightest charity is extended to this deserving class. I am in favour of this Bill, and the only question that has occurred to me is why Clause 2 was found necessary. I had some experience in conducting these cases and I...
Mr Frank Griffith: As one of the members of that Committee, may I ask the Minister to say a word in regard to Article 5 (2), because when the September Warrant was issued there was no subject which caused so much alarm and despondency among Members of this House, and members of the British Legion, as the working of this provision.
Mr Frank Griffith: As a member of the War Service Grants Committee, I would like also to pay my tribute to the Minister. That applies not only to his actual statement to-night, but to his chairmanship of that Committee. I am afraid that we were always asking for more, but we did not feel at any time that we are up against a brick wall; at least, if there was a brick wall it was not the Minister. It was...
Mr Frank Griffith: I entirely agree that we should proceed on the basis of the contribution, but the test of need should be what the contribution was. I accept the present as an improvement on the last Warrant.
Mr Frank Griffith: On the first point, surely the Government have to make up their minds whether the children would be safer under the one plan than under the other. If they are of the view that they are more safe when they are spread, why not spread them? The responsibility is equally taken if you leave them where they are.
Mr Frank Griffith: It is always a pleasure to listen to the right hon. Gentleman, but I cannot help thinking that on this occasion his speech will create considerable dismay among those who are interested in this problem. His attitude throughout appeared to be profoundly negative. It seemed that wherever an idea found its way out of the pages of the report of the Commission, he set himself to chase it back...
Mr Frank Griffith: The hon. Gentleman who has just sat down has, by his own speech, given a most convincing reason why it is desirable to publish the Oliver report. He has been standing there and saying, "You must not assume that this report would have been in your favour." He has implied to us that if we did get this report, we would be very badly stung and wish we had not seen it. Surely that is a very...
Mr Frank Griffith: The Minister has raised the question, and before we reach the Amendment the Debate is still open to the House. I was wondering whether it was not in Order for hon. Members who speak in the same part of the Debate to pursue the same subject.
Mr Frank Griffith: I associate myself with the Amendment moved from the Front Bench above the Gangway, and in both its parts; that is to say, in approval of Part I and in emphatic disapproval of Part II. I should like to say how glad I am that it was the hon. Lady the Parliamentary Secretary who moved the Third Reading of the Bill. I think the House is greatly indebted to her for the clarity of her explanations...
Mr Frank Griffith: The fact that the Minister, in his short speech on this important subject, concentrated almost entirely upon verbal matters leads me to believe that he is not quite easy in his mind about it. I am certain that my hon. Friend the Member for Dundee (Mr. Foot) is perfectly ready to do anything which will clear up any purely verbal defects in the Clause, and the point made by the Minister would...
Mr Frank Griffith: I beg to move, in page 21, line 28, column 2, to leave out "rules" and to insert "regulations." The Schedule says that regulations in the Unemployment Act, 1934, shall be passed on into this Act. The Amendment makes a substantial difference, because rules are things which can be made and slipped in without anyone noticing them, whereas regulations have to have the positive assent of the two...
Mr Frank Griffith: I beg to ask leave to withdraw the Amendment.
Mr Frank Griffith: I am very much obliged to the hon. lady for inviting us to a conference for this purpose. I should view the acceptance of the Amendment with considerable apprehension, because it would turn what I have rather regarded as a Measure brought forward in a time of emergency and with emergency considerations in the mind of the Government into a permanent arrangement, so that pensions administration...
Mr Frank Griffith: The Minister of Health in this matter resembles a certain young lady of Riga, who, it will be remembered, smiled as she rode on a tiger. He has failed to consult the other young ladies who rode the tiger before— which is somewhat negligent on his part. If he had had the Minister of Labour sitting constantly at his side, to inform him of his experiences, he would have had a more modest idea...
Mr Frank Griffith: Into the atmosphere of this House.
Mr Frank Griffith: I do not quite understand the suggestion of the hon. Member. If he means a co-ordinating Minister with responsibility to Parliament then I will agree with him.
Mr Frank Griffith: Is the hon. Member not assuming now that not only are these present regulations to be revised, but that they are to be revised in a particular respect? Is that not pure speculation?