Mr John Rawlinson: Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman can state whether the Bill extends to tenancies created last year? If not convenient, I do not press the question now.
Mr John Rawlinson: I do not propose to trouble the Government with the large questions of principle which have been put before the House by various Members, and notably by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Spen Valley (Sir T. Whittaker), who gave forth principles which sounded even more excellent because they were the same speeches as we made in rather different language in 1910. I feel that those...
Mr John Rawlinson: I should have thought there would not be very much trouble in answering a simple question such as whether or not the rateable value is gross or net?
Mr John Rawlinson: Therefore you have got it at net for this country. I am not concerned with Scotland. Now take the other alternative. There has been a good deal of demand for houses during the War at Cambridge. Would the Bill apply to a lease made last year in Cambridge? I have no doubt it would. A lease was entered into, we will say, of one of the houses of a rateable value of £40, the standard rent being...
Mr John Rawlinson: What is going to confine it to that?
Mr John Rawlinson: I am afraid that I agree with the right hon. Gentleman who introduced the Bill that this Instruction may require words to make it quite clear to us.
Mr John Rawlinson: As the Amendment of the hon. Member (Mr. Rowlands) was negatived, is this Amendment in order? Is there any difference between this Amendment and the other Amendment?
Mr John Rawlinson: I differ very much from the hon. Member who has just sat down in some of his remarks. The right hon. Gentleman below me (Mr. Clynes) drew a very eloquent picture, with which I entirely agree, of the sufferings of the middle-class. He said, quite rightly, that manual labour has received very much larger remuneration during the War than brain labour in comparison with what it received before....
Mr John Rawlinson: Surely the Government has submitted this Bill as one carefully thought out! It is somewhat extraordinary when an hon. Member gets up to move an Amendment, the purport of which he is not allowed to describe, the Government accept it. Before the question is put, and before this most drastic change is agreed to—and I am not saying that it is good or bad—I submit the Government should give...
Mr John Rawlinson: May I point out the I difference between the Bill as it stands and the Bill as it will be amended? The Bill as it stands is going to operate from the 4th March, which is not the date of the passing of the Bill but the date when the matter was brought forward by the Government in this House. That is a very common and a proper thing to do, but it is very different from passing retrospective...
Mr John Rawlinson: It was retrospective from the date the Bill was brought in, not from the time of its passing. Following that, this Bill should date from the 4th March.
Mr John Rawlinson: I would like to know from the Secretary for Scotland what the effect of the Amendments which we have accepted will be in the concrete cases to which reference has been made? For instance, where the tenant under a notice to quit had his tenancy determined on the 26th or 28th of December last, and some other tenant has been put into possession, does he save his rights under this Bill as against...
Mr John Rawlinson: I hope the Government will give some answer to the series of questions which have been put on matters which require elucidation as to the effect of the retrospective provision as to which difficulties must arise. As this Debate may be read by a large number of people before the Report stage it is certainly, I think, necessary that the questions should be answered so that they may understand...
Mr John Rawlinson: I am willing to put my questions to anybody on the Front Bench who will answer them.
Mr John Rawlinson: May I congratulate my hon. Friend upon the great success of his excellent speech and upon the many things which he said with which one agreed so strongly? I have never believed in State registration for nurses, and I am afraid, although I listened very attentively, that the hon. Member has not convinced me now of its adequacy. I am not going to move the rejection of the Bill or to do...
Mr John Rawlinson: Is the Amendment of the Government intended to include the ordinary furnished lodgings arrangements whereby people can get rid of a tenancy by a week or month's notice, as the case may be? Is it meant to apply to people who have lived, say, in furnished lodgings for two years on a weekly or monthly tenancy? Would not the words exclude those cases which are really intended to be included? It...
Mr John Rawlinson: Is my right hon. and learned Friend quite sure of the wording? The original Bill was supposed to apply to furnished houses. Every flat in London has a certain amount of attendance in regard to stairs, or lights, or something of that sort.
Mr John Rawlinson: Parts of the dwelling house.
Mr John Rawlinson: I am doubtful whether the Government have had a very clear view. An opinion was given the first day as to the working of this Act by, I think, the Lord Advocate himself. It was to the effect that this Act applied to furnished lodgings. That was true, but the right hon. and learned Gentleman came in somewhat hurriedly, and the Bill, as I have said before, was not in charge of a lawyer at the...
Mr John Rawlinson: The right hon. and learned Gentleman was not here the next day. The Minister of Education was in charge of the Bill at that time. The right hon. and learned Gentleman no doubt on the third occasion did withdraw the interpretation. That is perfectly right. The fact of the matter is that the stages of this Bill were taken quickly, and we passed this legislation through the House without proper...