Mr Worthington Evans: I beg to move, That this House censures the Government for its policy of continuous additions to the public expenditure at a time when the avoidance of all new charges and strict economy in the existing services are necessary to restore confidence and to promote employment.' 4.0 p.m. This Motion, which stands in the name of my right hon. Friends and myself, is a Motion of Censure on the...
Mr Worthington Evans: Hon. Members may say, "Cannot these borrowings be repaid out of the Insurance Fund?" Any pretence that that is possible at a future date is knocked on the head by the Government actuary. He reports that even if the administration of the Fund is tightened up so that 10 per cent. of those now drawing upon it are struck out of benefit, and even if the benefit were reduced by one-half, the Fund...
Mr Worthington Evans: I ask the Government what they are going to do. It is no use for the Government to reply that they intend to wait until the Royal Commission has reported. That means a delay of, perhaps, two or three months. It means continuing to borrow £1,000,000 a week for current liabilities. It means an unbalanced Budget. It means a continued depression of the British financial system, both at home and...
Mr Worthington Evans: Two or three months.
Mr Worthington Evans: Cannot the right hon. Gentleman expedite publication, as, next Wednesday, there is a Motion for a Vote of Censure which will probably raise this question? If he does not publish the memorandum until after that, he will deprive the House of information except such as has been given in the "Times."
Mr Worthington Evans: I wish the right hon. Gentleman could be more hopeful in the matter. It is only a question of printing. Surely he could promise it by the end of this week?
Mr Worthington Evans: 83. asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the sum of £1,110,000 transferred from the Exchange account to the Exchequer, or any part of it, was included in the receipts estimated in his Budget; and whether it is intended to make any further transfers in this financial year?
Mr Worthington Evans: Does the right hon. Gentleman intend to use it as miscellaneous revenue?
Mr Worthington Evans: Can the hon. Lady say whether the committee has reported, and whether the House is going to know what the report is?
Mr Worthington Evans: Will that early date be before Christmas?
Mr Worthington Evans: I congratulate the Secretary of state for War on the speech which he has just delivered. The right hon. Gentleman has relieved a great many of our anxieties, and he has given expression to intentions which I feel sure he will do his best to carry out and which, in our judgment, are in the right direction. I was not sure whether the right hon. Gentleman admitted that the recruiting position...
Mr Worthington Evans: That, of course, is true, and it does affect the question to some extent, but what I want to point out is that the children who are now 16 or 17, and who would come to recruiting age during the next two or three years, are going to be fewer in number because births during the early War years were certainly fewer. The right hon. Gentleman is not going to get help in that direction, and he will...
Mr Worthington Evans: Both Opposition were represented, and the result was that the Clause was redrafted entirely and brought back as an agreed Clause. It now forms part of the Bill, but it is quite unlike the Clause which the Chancellor of the Exchequer originally proposed. It is an improved Clause which will do what the Chancellor of the Exchequer desired to do. Consider what happened with the one-man company...
Mr Worthington Evans: I am greatly disappointed that the Government are not prepared to accept this Amendment, because it seems to me that there is an unanswerable case in its favour. The Financial Secretary said that the hon. and gallant Member for East Fulham (Sir K. Vaughan-Morgan) had overwhelmed us, but I can assure the right hon. Gentleman that he has not overwhelmed us with the answer he has given to the...
Mr Worthington Evans: I beg to move, as an Amendment to the proposed Amendment, in line 2, to leave out the word "eighteen," and to insert instead thereof the word "twenty-seven." The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the Amendment that he has moved, has met us to a very slight extent. In Committee I pointed out that, in the case of a transfer to a company, there would have to be inquiries roving back over a very...
Mr Worthington Evans: By whom?
Mr Worthington Evans: Three years ago?
Mr Worthington Evans: I do not venture to put my opinion against that of the Attorney-General and I confess that, at first sight, his point appears to be right. That was not, however, the view which I took on reading the Order Paper and the Bill itself. If the Attorney-General feels any difficulty from the draftsman's point of view in accepting this Amendment perhaps he would accept the Amendment in the name of...
Mr Worthington Evans: I think it would be highly desirable, because, without wishing to argue the matter, I may say that considerable doubt have been felt on this side of the House as to whether or not our point was covered. I understand that the Government have no wish to do otherwise than accept the spirit of the Amendment. Perhaps they will also accept the words. The alternative form to which I have referred...
Mr Worthington Evans: It is difficult to follow the Attorney-General's argument. He wants severance from the property, and I agree that there is a test there, whether the man still retains an ownership or control as owner in a property which he is purporting to pass over to a company, but the ownership of shares does not entitle him to the benefit of the property in any way. He would have exactly the same rights...