Sir Douglas Hogg: ...it is unwise to turn rebels into martyrs, but surely it is wrong, in order to try to coax the law breakers into a limited obedience, a temporary obedience to the law, to outrage and sacrifice the feelings of thousands of law-abiding members of the Church of England who have never sought to depart from its doctrine and who resent a change being forced upon them. To us it seems that this...
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...been imposed, and a great deal of time was spent in Parliament in thrashing them out and in trying to arrive at a fair scheme, and the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer does not feel that it would be possible to make the modification suggested.
Sir Douglas Hogg: ..., which was the first full year of preference, down to 4½ per cent. in 1926–27, showing a very remarkable response to the 2s. 6d. per gallon preference granted. The Chancellor of the Exchequer feels that it would be impossible to grant a bigger proportion of preference in the ease of Empire brandy without at once creating a demand for equally favourable treatment from the Home Country...
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...ship-owning company which necessarily and rightly builds up reserves in order to meet the fluctuations of business and in order to increase its fleet as the old ships get worn out. The Government feel confident that the Clause, with the Amendment which we are putting down, will not in any way interfere with a business of that kind. We agree entirely with the right hon. Gentleman that it...
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...to accept the Amendments which have been indicated, and are anxious and ready to meet any legitimate criticism which may be made as to the undue apprehensions which this Clause may arouse, yet we feel bound in duty to ask and press that the Committee shall accept the essential features of our scheme and shall indicate that tax dodging of the character we have indicated in the illustrations...
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...legitimate argument to put before the men in such a case. Can the Committee doubt that a very great number of the members of a trade union; when they were faced with such a position, would at once feel that, in order to strengthen the hands of their negotiators, they must vote in such a way as to give them authority to call a strike? The result of that would be, of course, that in the...
Sir Douglas Hogg: It may be convenient if I answer the right hon. Gentleman at once. I fully understand the point he has put forward, and I feel it the more because it was the point which occurred to myself and which I put to the draftsman before I allowed the Amendment to be put down. What the right hon. Gentleman says is that this Amendment does not enable any of the assets of a trade union to be transferred...
Sir Douglas Hogg: These names give rise to a certain merry feeling on the part of hon. Members. The numbers of the first are, 2,515, in 1925, and of the second, 3,682, in 1925. The unregistered employers' trade union which has a political fund is the National Farmers' Union. Of course, I cannot give particulars about that at present. In answer to the right hon. Member for Burnley (Mr. A. Henderson), I do not...
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...all must remember from not very ancient experience, but within the last 12 months, the tremendous inconvenience and hardship and suffering of the use of the strike weapon for political purposes, I feel it is full time that the community should assert itself and that Parliament, as representing the nation at large, should lay down in clear and unmistakeable language that while a strike for...
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...point to meet, which involves, for the reason I have shown, some substantial amount of risk, but which, at the same time, is a real point which, I know, has oppressed the minds of those who feel, quite as strongly as I do, that it is essential that the general strike shall be prohibited, and put outside the law.
Sir Douglas Hogg: ..., subject, however, to the provisions of Section 2 (4) of the Act. In rising to move this Resolution, which stands in the name of my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary (Sir W. Joynson-Hicks), I feel sure that all the House will agree with me in expressing regret at the cause which prevents him from being present. He has now, on eight successive occasions, had to move in this House the...
Sir Douglas Hogg: I quite sympathise with the object of the Amendment. The difficulty which those advising me feel in accepting it is that at present we do not know what will prove to be the most convenient date for the Board's financial year to come to an end. I do not think the offer to put in any other date meets that difficulty.
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...a more expensive scale, with leading counsel, experts and so on. However desirable that might be from some personal points of view, we do not think it is in the public interest. The Government feel, therefore, that the provision which has already been made under the statutory rules and orders is as far as we can properly go, and we cannot ask the House to accept this Amendment.
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...the hands of existing authorised undertakers rather than a great central Board—which has the incentive of the possibility of reducing the cost to themselves of the current which is generated. We feel that it is more efficiently done if the stations are in the hands of the existing authorised undertakers, be they public or private authorities, rather than if they are handed over to the...
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...the view of the Board, then, under proviso (b), they have a right of appeal on any question of cost to the arbitrator, and on any technical matters to the Electricity Commissioners. The Ministry feel that these protections are sufficient and that it would not be practicable or reasonable to go further than we have already gone in protecting the position, having regard to the importance of...
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...anybody in the country who is not affected by this Bill. There is, first of all, not only every owner of a selected or a non-selected station—because the non-selected people are just as likely to feel aggrieved by, not having the privilege of being selected stations as the other people are who are invited to become selected stations—but, in addition to that, every district through...
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...it to a free vote of the Committee to decide as they thought fit. I am proposing to take the same course this evening. My reasons for taking that course are, that on the one hand there is a strong feeling among Members of my party against what is known as municipal trading, a feeling which to a large extent I share, but on the other hand one has to remember that this particular power has...
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...profoundly regret that this Motion has been brought forward, because, after all, we are all Members of this House of Commons, and we are all jointly custodians of its traditions, and I cannot help feeling that a Resolution put down in these circumstances and using this language is putting upon our Parliamentary system and upon our Parliamentary honour a stain which even its certain and...
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...for Caerphilly (Mr. Morgan Jones) asked me whether or not an offence would be committed if someone got up to make a speech, not intending to preach sedition, and was then so carried away by his feelings that he proceeded to use words which were calculated to cause sedition. He said that such a thing had happened in his own case.
Sir Douglas Hogg: ...it is a little beyond the question with which I am now dealing. There are two questions which have been put to me, one, whether it is an offence if without intending to make a seditious speech your feelings carry you away and you use seditious language. The other question is, what evidence ought to be sufficient to prove an offence. With regard to the first question, I would say that if...