Sir Robert Hamilton: 69. asked the Postmaster-General the position regarding the application by the Zetland County Council for the installation of wireless communication between the islands of Papa Stour and Foula and the mainland of Shetland?
Sir Robert Hamilton: 5. asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps have been taken by the Herring Board to carry out a scheme of advertisement in foreign countries?
Sir Robert Hamilton: I do not think the Committee need hesitate to allow this financial resolution to go through. The Bill that will be founded on it is merely to fill up certain gaps in legislation already passed.
Sir Robert Hamilton: I am happy to be in a position to-day of being the first to be able to congratulate the right hon. Gentleman upon the very admirable way in which he has presented his Estimates for the first time at that Box. Had he not told us, or had we not known we should not have thought that he had only been six weeks at the Colonial Office, but that it was more like six years. He spoke with a wonderful...
Sir Robert Hamilton: No, Sir. I do not intend to move any reduction because that would immediately limit the Debate. As you have ruled that we might have a general Debate on the two subjects, I have refrained from moving a reduction.
Sir Robert Hamilton: After that interlude, I will pass to another subject, and that is the economic policy that is being applied in our Colonial Empire. I agree most thoroughly with the right hon. Gentleman in the exposition he gave of the manner in which the Colonial possessions are being developed and the object of the development. It was obvious and followed as a matter of course that when this country ceased...
Sir Robert Hamilton: May I ask whether the inquiry will be extended not merely to the financial aspect of the Act but into its general working?
Sir Robert Hamilton: 40. asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he is now in a position to make a further announcement on the question of the provision of air travel facilities for Members of Parliament?
Sir Robert Hamilton: I beg to second the Amendment. I do not propose to take up the time of the House, because the case has been very clearly put by my hon. Friend.
Sir Robert Hamilton: I have listened to the greater part of this Debate, waiting to hear some constructive proposal from some of the hon. Members who have been criticising the Government for not showing a more decided policy in this connection. The hon. and gallant Member for Bournemouth (Sir H. Croft), who has just sat down, made a very fierce attack on the Government, but he did not suggest what he wanted to...
Sir Robert Hamilton: It is no use going back into past history and saying what you expected might happen. We have to deal with the present position, with what will be the position in the future, and with what manner of control or influence we, on this side of the Channel, can exercise on the future destinies of Ireland. Does the hon. Baronet suggest that we should amend the Statute of Westminster? There is...
Sir Robert Hamilton: That is quite true. We realise them now, but that Statute of Westminster gave the freedom to our Dominions that our Dominions wanted. Is it suggested anywhere in this House to-day that we are going to diminish the amount of freedom that our Dominions enjoy to-day? There is some difference, it is true, with regard to Ireland, because the Treaty was embodied in a Statute. A Treaty which is...
Sir Robert Hamilton: If I were in Scotland it might be a Scottish opinion. At the moment I am in London, but it is not an opinion which is confined to either. It is an opinion which I have found to be widening very much in the country. At first everyone was in favour of an Imperial tribunal, but the people are getting so dissatisfied with this wretched dispute carrying on, that they say—
Sir Robert Hamilton: My hon. Friends in the party for which I have the honour to speak have altered their opinion, as I know that others have altered theirs. I frankly say that I have altered my opinion, and I think that there are a great many other people who have altered their opinion in the same direction, for the reason that they want to see an end put to this miserable dispute which is keeping the two...
Sir Robert Hamilton: Is it not a fact that Abyssinia has taken, and is taking, steps to abolish slavery?
Sir Robert Hamilton: On the point of Order. There is a general understanding, I think, on all sides of the Committee that what you have suggested should be done, that the two portions of the day should be divided and that as soon as the health part is dealt with, which I hope will not take very long, in view of what the right hon. and learned Gentleman has said, we shall then get on to the Department of Agriculture.
Sir Robert Hamilton: The Secretary of State, in introducing the Estimate, touched upon a number of interesting points, but I noticed that he did not refer to the various marketing schemes which are in existence in Scotland at the present time, an omission which the Noble Lady has gone a considerable way to make good. I do not propose to enter upon the very complicated and difficult question of milk marketing, or...
Sir Robert Hamilton: I understand that on the figures it should yield 3 per cent. but the actual holdings have only been in existence for a very short period, and the Secretary of State hopes, as we all hope, that in future the rent will be there. There are one or two matters to which I particularly desire to refer. On page 166 of the Estimates there is the general heading "Agriculture (Scotland) Fund (including...
Sir Robert Hamilton: The speech of the Secretary of State ranged over such a number of very important questions in all parts of the world that one is tempted rather to follow him in his passage from one Dominion to another, but having regard to the hour I propose to confine my remarks to one particular subject. Before doing so let me refer to the figures he gave with regard to the Ottawa Agreements, rather...
Sir Robert Hamilton: 14. asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what action, if any, has been taken by the Government of Cyprus to set up a juvenile court and provide for the treatment of young offenders on the lines laid down in the Young Offenders Model Ordinance circulated to Colonial Governments in 1930?