Mr James Reid: I wonder whether the Under-Secretary could explain the drafting of this Amendment? I think I am right in saying that the result of this Amendment will be to allow certain persons described in the Amendment to become absent voters. In order to become an absent voter, one has to start the procedure a good long time before the date of the poll—I am not quite clear how long, but it is a good...
Mr James Reid: If the hon. Member will withdraw the Amendment and reintroduce a better Amendment on the Report stage, of course, we will have no more to say. But it really does not seem a very satisfactory state of affairs simply to say that the matter will be re-examined when, so far as we can see, undoubtedly some amendment will have to be made. When we come to the Report stage we might find, at some hour...
Mr James Reid: The Under-Secretary is quite right when he says that this is a drafting Amendment. Unfortunately the drafting appears to me not to be good. Let us examine it for a moment. The Subsection as it stands reads: A person registered as a Service voter may vote by proxy unless either he is entitled under Subsection (4) of this Section to vote by post or … and there is another alternative....
Mr James Reid: Surely, the hon. and learned Member does not suggest that merely to make an application, no matter how irrelevant, entitles one to get on the absent-voter roll, That cannot be so. Indeed, Clause 9 (1) deals with what happens after the application is made. One must comp13, with the terms of Clause 9 (1), and must get the application granted under that Subsection before becoming an absent...
Mr James Reid: The right hon. Gentleman has given convincing reasons why the name should stay beyond a single election, because there might be two elections within six months. I can see great difficulty in the alternative of an indefinite period under Subsection (3). You get on the new register as an absent voter for an indefinite period. Nobody checks up what has happened to you and you can go on voting by...
Mr James Reid: There is one other point upon which I should like to have information. It is highly desirable that there should be on record, and available to the public, as much information about this complicated question as possible. At first sight, this part of this Clause looks very simple, because Subsection (1) appears not to be connected with any troublesome regulations about time limits, or forms, or...
Mr James Reid: I should like to ask the Home Secretary about Subsection (7). We were told by the Under-Secretary at the beginning of our discussion on this Clause that it was an error to say that a person appointed a proxy, and so we put in words a little bit awkward, but which expressed, with reasonable accuracy, the fact that the proxy was appointed for someone. But, apparently, a person who made this...
Mr James Reid: It seems obvious after this discussion that there will have to be some redrafting of this provision. The Attorney-General has had two shots at it. He may have convinced himself, he may have convinced some of us, but I am afraid that he has not clarified the minds of all present.
Mr James Reid: The purpose of a Bill is to be intelligible to the King's subjects, and not merely to persons who have had long experience in these matters. Surely it would be very much better, rather than that this argument should proceed further, that the right hon. Gentleman should withdraw this Amendment and reconsider the matter?
Mr James Reid: I am afraid that it is difficult at this time of the morning to keep abreast of the proceedings. If that is so, we must have been nodding.
Mr James Reid: On a point of Order. We are surely entitled to an opportunity to vote against Clause 12 if we so desire? It was impossible for us to determine what you were saying, and it was impossible for you to determine what we were saying. I heard hon. Members shouting "No" when, perhaps, they thought you were putting the Question. To put the Question in those circumstances, and then to say that the...
Mr James Reid: asked the Minister of Food what was the consumption in Great Britain for the first half of 1947 in pounds per head per annum of each of the kinds of food shown in Table XXVIII; and what was the daily intake for the first half of 1947 of each of the items shown in Table XXIX of the Economic Survey for 1948.
Mr James Reid: On a point of Order. For the further course of this Debate, it would be most useful to have your Ruling on this matter, Major Milner. If you look at the Supplementary Estimates, you will see that the original Estimate for transport, warehousing and ancillary services was £29,300,000. The Estimate, as now revised, is £22,300,000. Therefore, less has been spent than was contemplated under...
Mr James Reid: As I was responsible for asking for the last Ruling, Mr. Beaumont, may I say that I understood your predecessor to rule that if there was any change in the Supplementary Estimate either upwards or downwards compared with the original Estimate, that was a matter for Debate; but he was not asked to rule, and did not rule, that we could discuss matters that remain unchanged in the Supplementary...
Mr James Reid: Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether any of these goods are being imported into these Colonial territories, or territories outside the sterling area; and, further, whether the supplies in these territories, after these reductions have been made, are approximately equal to or greater or less than the supplies per head at home?
Mr James Reid: Is the hon. Lady's reason for refusing these allowances that she thinks that the doctors do not know their job, or that she does not trust them, because there seems to be no other reason?
Mr James Reid: Is it really necessary for these vessels to go into mourning to celebrate their transfer to national ownership?
Mr James Reid: In view of the information given by the Minister on Monday night, comparing the new prices with the old, and in view of the disclosure of certain old prices from time to time, why cannot we have this matter disclosed, instead of endeavouring to discover the answer by putting bits and pieces together?
Mr James Reid: Does the right hon. Gentleman intend to publish the Bodinnar Report or any part of it, so that we may see on what this new order is founded?
Mr James Reid: Can we have part of it?
