Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: You will tap the barometer quite often? Sir J. Anderson: I hope so. I come now to an entirely different problem, which was raised by my right hon. Friend the Member for East Edinburgh, by my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall (Sir G. Schuster) and by my hon. Friend the Member for East Birkenhead (Mr. G. White)—the question of the unbalanced Budget. My right hon. Friend the Member for East...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I would like to ask the Leader of the House whether he has considered the question of extending the time for to-day's Debate on the White Paper on Employment? There is a very large amount of interest in this question and possibly he might consider whether to-morrow—the middle day of the Debate—he could allow an extension of time, in order to give an opportunity to a very large number of...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: Will the right hon. Gentleman not commit himself against the proposal at the moment, until he has taken advice through the usual channels?
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I do not wish to occupy too much time on that point, but if the hon. Gentleman wants an answer, I suggest that he should turn to a paper called "Labour," in which there is an important article by Sir Walter Citrine on this White Paper, and he will see that Sir Walter Citrine quite frankly says that if there is co-operative action all round, the trade unions will have to consider practices...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I do not object to the interruption at all. It was an important point. Having dealt with that point, I turn to the issue of general unemployment. In the first place, if the Government propose to intervene in this matter, the White Paper specifically suggests that they will need much fuller statistics. They will need, in fact, a barometer which will tell them the economic weather, in relation...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I have always taken the view that economic realities cannot be disregarded, but the principles of finance have been too rigidly interpreted.
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: Ought the hon. and gallant Member not to thank all the Members of the House of Commons, any one of whom could have blocked the proposal?
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I have followed the argument of the hon. and learned Gentleman with a great deal of attention and interest. He is a lawyer and I would like to ask him this question as a lawyer: does he think that the kind of person whom he is contemplating would sit on this tribunal, would feel at all capable of exercising the kind of non-judicial powers which the hon. and learned Member wishes to impose on...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: In spite of what has been said on both sides of the Committee the Labour Party, as such, has not any particular policy in this matter.
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: Whatever has been said by the hon. Member who moved the new Clause, or whatever has been said behind me, the Labour Party has not expressed its views specifically on the new Clause, or on the principle that lies behind it. I want to make that clear. As for the merits of this proposal, the Labour Party have always pressed for high rates of allowance for children and have been successful with...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: If it would not be possible to have labour officers in all the consulates, would the right hon. Gentleman see whether this admirable experiment, which has justified itself at Washington, may not be repeated in some other parts, at any rate, of the United States?
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: (by Private Notice) asked the Prime Minister whether he has any statement to make as to when the interim report of the Conference on Electoral Reform and Redistribution of Seats presided over by Mr. Speaker may be expected?
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: In common with many of those who sit on these benches, I have listened to the speech from the Noble Lord the Member for Lanark (Lord Dunglass) with a great deal of misgiving, for reasons that I shall adumbrate later when I come to consider the formation of the machinery for post-war security. But before I come to that, there are other matters on which I wish to touch. I rise in this Debate...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I am not denying the defects of the League, and I quite appreciate the point which the right hon. Gentleman has made, that there was not a strong membership of the League. That is quite true. Nevertheless, I am still of the opinion that had there been sufficient courage, the action taken by the Duce could have been prevented by the existing powers of the League. However, that is all past...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I quite appreciate the point; the Noble Lord need not have interrupted, because I did not say anything different from that. What he did say was that we are not to think of the interests of the whole world, we are to subordinate those—
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I do not want to put it too strongly. He did pose the issue that the selfish interests of this country might conflict with those of the world; that we had to put our own selfish interest first; and that, if we had that backing, instead of putting our whole strength and weight on the world mechanism we should put it on this regional organisation of the western Powers in Europe, and that that...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: When the right hon. Gentleman rose to move the Second Reading of the Finance Bill, he pointed out that it was some considerable time since we had had a Finance Bill in which there was no substantial change in taxation and that, although such a thing was not without precedent, at any rate it was unusual. I think the same statement applies in regard to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the supplies of coal to merchants have been actually cut down at a time when the public are led to believe that they are going to have more? This has resulted in very great difficulty in some places where merchants have not been able to supply even 1 cwt. a week.
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I think that there is only one sentence that I need say—"He who wills the end wills the means." That is a view of the House of Commons of this matter.
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: Before we part with this Clause, I would like to ask the Government to explain the principles on which they are proposing to act in this matter. I notice that an Amendment that was down on the Order Paper in the name of one of my hon. Friends, to include all public utility undertakings, has not been called. I would like the Government to explain why they have taken this course, and I would...