Captain William Benn: asked the Secretary of State for India whether he can indicate the attitude of His Majesty's present Government towards the problems facing them in India?
Captain William Benn: Will the Prime Minister consider issuing as a White Paper the Norwegian Government's statement relating to the invasion of Norway?
Captain William Benn: I do not know that I have much to complain of in the tone of the right hon. Gentleman's speech, but one thing that he did not tell us, that he did not even mention, and certainly did not impress on us, was the immense importance for the House of the Motions that we are passing to-day. We are now assuming, possibly for 12 months unless the Orders are revoked, the responsibility for the...
Captain William Benn: asked the Minister of Labour how many of the men employed immediately before the war in the railway works at Dukinfield have been retained; how many have found alternative employment; and how many are now unemployed?
Captain William Benn: Is the position that so far as service in the naval, military and air forces and detention abroad are concerned, the articled clerk receives this advantage, but that when it comes to a man who is a conscientious objector or is performing another public service, he does not receive the rights conferred in the earlier Sub-sections but is dependent on the discretion of a new authority, namely,...
Captain William Benn: That seems to me, on the face of it, to be objectionable, because this House has decided that conscientious objectors shall not be put in a worse position if a tribunal has found that their objections are well based, whereas this Clause gives to another authority the power to re-try their case. That appears to penalise conscientious objectors, who, Parliament has declared, should be in the...
Captain William Benn: Then we can take it that the Solicitor-General has assured us that this Sub-section in no way denies to a conscientious objector the protection of the law?
Captain William Benn: Was that Measure actually enacted or is it still in the form of a Bill; and can the right hon. Gentleman state the estimated yield in the United Provinces of such a tax?
Captain William Benn: I am sure that everyone ho has listened to the right hon. Gentleman has admired the great clarity with which he expounded this Bill. It is a very complicated Bill, but nothing could surpass in clearness the method adopted by the right hon. Gentleman in presenting it to the House. It is, as he said, a Bill which deals with a number of defects which have become apparent in the Government of...
Captain William Benn: I did not make any such observation, and I would beg my hon. Friend not to go to critics opposite for his sources of information.
Captain William Benn: It was even within the realm of what may be a local tax or duty. It limits the power of a local authority to raise money within a fixed limit.
Captain William Benn: I understand that the purpose of this is to enable the time which is spent in the employment of the Indian Provinces by civil servants of this country to be reckoned as pensionable. I want to ask whether the additional pension which may be payable in respect of that time will fall upon the revenues of this country or on those of India?
Captain William Benn: Does the obligation to inform Parliament which exists under the principal Act also exisť in the case of modifications made under the Regulations?
Captain William Benn: I hope the Government will accept the Amendment. This Bill is a great improvement on the Act, but I think that everything which the hon. Member for Dundee (Mr. Foot) has said will be admitted by the Government to be true. The Amendment really means that the chief officer of police will have to have reasonable grounds for believing that the case is one of emergency and that the interest of...
Captain William Benn: I should like at the outset, if I may, not only to express my pleasure at seeing the Prime Minister back, but, inasmuch as we are discussing this afternoon a House of Commons matter, to pay a tribute, as a Member of the House, to the conduct of the Prime Minister, not as Prime Minister, but as Leader of the House. Amidst all that he has to do, that he should find time to sit here, as Leader,...
Captain William Benn: Is it intended that the Motion in relation to the Report of the Select Committee on the Official Secrets Acts should be moved by the Minister of Shipping?
Captain William Benn: There are two phases of this matter, the war phase and the peace phase. We are dealing here with peace powers. As the Secretary of State has truly said, everybody, including the journalist, whose grievances were the origin of this Bill, is subject to very much more severe restrictions under, I think, Section 80A of the Defence Regulations, than ever existed under Section 6 of the Official...
Captain William Benn: Is there any objection to setting a precedent, especially in view of what was said by the hon. Member for East Birkenhead (Mr. White), in order that all the work done on this Bill should not be sacrificed? Could not a Resolution be drafted, and find acceptance by the whole House perhaps, to carry the Bill over?
Captain William Benn: (by Private Notice)asked the Under-Secretary of State for India, whether His Majesty's Government have any statement to make on the position in India as disclosed by the announcement and correspondence published by the Governor-General which appeared in Monday's newspapers?
Captain William Benn: May I ask the right hon. Baronet two questions arising out of that reply? First, is it not possible by further discussion with Congress to overcome these difficulties about the scope and constitution of this Constituent Assembly at the end of the war? Secondly, do the Government realise what a serious and almost impossible responsibility it is to lay upon this House to undertake support of,...
