Mr George Ridley: Does the right hon. Gentleman wish to tell the House that the sub-nutritional standard of the Indian peasant and thousands of deaths are due to a form of local government only a few years old?
Mr George Ridley: Most Members who have so far taken part in this Debate, and I have no doubt most other Members who will take part, have done so with a background of personal and administrative experience in India itself which I cannot claim to have enjoyed. I speak only as a warmly sympathetic observer of the Indian people. With regard to the intervention which the hon. and gallant Member for Wycombe (Sir A....
Mr George Ridley: For reasons which I hope will be obvious to the hon. and gallant Member, I do not wish to pursue this point. It is the fact in this great tragedy that the air is thick with chickens coming home to roost. No one can read the White Paper without gathering the impression that this terrible tragedy in India is surrounded by a mixture of hopeless gloom and dull complacency. There was, it seems to...
Mr George Ridley: What right has he now to make a claim under Common Law?
Mr George Ridley: When the hon. Member for West Birmingham (Mr. Higgs) was addressing the House, he was responsible for such an exaggerated description of the Bill as makes even a supporter of it like me move to correct him. The hon. Member said that for the time being this Bill deals adequately with the situation. I think that this Bill will alleviate very substantially many hard cases, and that it is...
Mr George Ridley: asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he can give any information regarding the constitution and status of the Council of British Societies for Relief of Enemy-Occupied Territories?
Mr George Ridley: I intervene in this Debate with some hesitation because, so far, the participants in it have been experts in one faun or another. I can claim to be no more than the voice of that ordinary man to whom my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister referred. The test of what should or should not have been done in civil aviation is in the end to be found in the way it affects the lives of the...
Mr George Ridley: (Clay Cross): I should not have contemplated saying anything in this Debate, but I thought it a little cowardly that a back bencher like myself, who has taken no part in this matter, should not say with what great regret and disappointment we listened to the Under-Secretary's speech to-day. Indeed, I think a statement in Secret Session would have given the country more satisfaction and could...
Mr George Ridley: Would the right hon. Gentleman consider a little further the suggestion made to him by my hon. Friend the Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. Silverman)? Is he aware of the deep feeling in the House on this matter and that many Members are anxious to have an opportunity of examining most carefully the proposals of the Government before the Debate?
Mr George Ridley: I am glad that the Minister has resisted the Amendment for the reasons which he has just expressed. The right hon. Gentleman who moved it surrendered his own case when he talked of people in receipt of £420 per annum as "comparatively well-paid managers." How can he say, in the absence of knowledge, whether they are comparatively well paid or not? They may be managers of very small...
Mr George Ridley: asked the Home Secretary whether he can say on what dates, round about the beginning of the war, Mr. D. F. Springhall left and returned to this country?
Mr George Ridley: Can my right hon. Friend say what was the declared purpose of the business of Mr. Springhall?
Mr George Ridley: The hon. Member for Walsall (Sir G. Schuster) speaks not only with knowledge, but with authority in these matters such as few hon. Members can rival, and even fewer hon. Members would think of challenging. In the light of that fact the first part of his speech in which he-drew attention to what he regards as the realities of the Indian situation, was all the more impressing. I cannot help...
Mr George Ridley: Will the right hon. Gentleman consider the legal position in which a man can be condemned to death for murder even though it has not been proved that he committed the murder?
Mr George Ridley: Will the Minister consider the possibility of issuing a statement which will describe the scope, conditions and terms of the existing road control?
Mr George Ridley: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of War Transport, what further steps are being taken to organise road transport so that it will play a more effective part in the war effort; and whether the necessity for doing this is being considered, especially in relation to the heavy call which is expected will be made on transport undertakings in the course of the current year?
Mr George Ridley: Does either my hon. Friend or his Noble Friend take the view that when these rearrangements are completed we shall have reached a satisfactory position in road transport organisation?
Mr George Ridley: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of War Transport the broad outline of the proposals formulated by his Department for the post-war reorganisation of transport; and to whom have they been submitted?
Mr George Ridley: Will they be laid before the House?
Mr George Ridley: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of War Transport whether he is now able to state the revenue of the controlled railway undertakings for 1942?