Mr Robert Morgan: I am not concerned with popularity, either inside or outside the Committee. The mover of the new Clause made it clear that he did not expect this prohibition at the present time. He went out of his way to say that it would not come into effect until 1947, when we all hope that the war will be over. Some Members have spoken against the Clause in so drastic a fashion but the hon. Member for...
Mr Robert Morgan: I understand that the Bill gives mandatory power to the Burnham Committee.
Mr Robert Morgan: There are many of us in this Commitee who are very anxious to get on with the Bill. This Clause has been discussed from every possible angle. Would it be in Order now to move that the Question be now put?
Mr Robert Morgan: Mr. Morgan rose in his place, and claimed to move, "That the Question be now put."
Mr Robert Morgan: I am very keenly in favour of the Amendment moved by my hon. Friend the Member for Kilmarnock (Mr. Lindsay). I could have wished for something definite to go on, in the way of a decision to raise the school leaving age to 16, before, say, 1970. It will be a very good thing to get our bright pupils up to the age of i6 and to let them see definitely that there is something other than the...
Mr Robert Morgan: I fully agree with the hon. Member in the Amendment which he proposes.
Mr Robert Morgan: We want to get one point quite clear. Obviously this last paragraph was put in for some reason. There is a danger, and since the Parliamentary Secretary has been speaking I have felt more and more alarmed. It looks as though allowances will be made only for those who are to be trained as teachers. Why was this paragraph put in?
Mr Robert Morgan: Is the hon. Member assuming that the parents of these children do not feed them at home? I know parents who would go without themselves, in order to feed their children, and I think it is a very wrong assumption and a libel on parents.
Mr Robert Morgan: I should like to endorse what has been said by the hon. Member for Aberavon (Mr. Cove). I understand, Mr. Williams, that we are also considering the second Amendment which is to be proposed by the Minister.
Mr Robert Morgan: I am as anxious as anybody on the Front Bench to get on with the Bill. I very much appreciate what the Minister has said about teachers assisting in the provision of meals. The Amendment is rather of a negative character and I would like to see a more positive form which enjoins the local authority to provide the necessary staff to do the work so well done by the teachers in the past.
Mr Robert Morgan: I beg to move, in page 44, line 30, after "child", to insert "or young person."
Mr Robert Morgan: I beg to ask leave to withdraw the Amendment.
Mr Robert Morgan: I rise only for a very few moments to support the Amendment. I make no apology for doing so. I have visited many of these schools and, incidentally, I would not like it to go from this Committee that there were no enlightened authorities tackling this job. While some people are dealing with this matter very well indeed, there are others who are not taking the necessary trouble—I would not...
Mr Robert Morgan: Do I understand the hon. Gentleman is ruling out the possibility of day centres and is thinking only of residential centres?
Mr Robert Morgan: I support the Amendment. The hon. Member for the University of Wales (Professor Gruffydd) and I have very much the same views on educational matters generally, but I was rather surprised to hear him proclaim the doctrine that although he blessed the White Paper and this Bill he did not envisage raising the school-Leaving age to 16 within the next six years. In my Second Reading speech on the...
Mr Robert Morgan: I should be sorry to quote my right hon. Friend incorrectly, because I have a great admiration for what he has done, but my memory would be playing me very severe tricks if I said that I had not heard him say that he wanted to raise the school-leaving age to 16 in a short time. What is a short time? That is the question at issue.
Mr Robert Morgan: asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the allowances paid, respectively, to boys directed to work in the coalmines, to civil servants, to evacuated teachers, to mobile workers, to evacuated children and to soldiers quartered on civilians.
Mr Robert Morgan: I am not clear as to the wording of this Amendment. I am just as anxious as the mover of the Amendment to see this Bill carried through as quickly as possible, but I understood from the Minister that he was going to allow extra time in special circumstances, whatever those special circumstances might be. What I think my hon. Friend the Member for the University of Wales (Professor Gruffydd)...
Mr Robert Morgan: I think it would help us to get on with the Bill if the Minister could give us an assurance that, when we get to the First Schedule, this will be fully threshed out and the facts put before us. We are afraid that if the Debate lingers on we shall come to the Guillotine stage, and this will not get the proper hearing that it ought to have. If we could get an assurance at this stage it would...
Mr Robert Morgan: Is the hon. and learned Member suggesting that the Minister should place his Orders on the Table so that they might be discussed?