Everyone must have the most profound sympathy with this Motion, and we can all, without exception, give the Government every encouragement that they will get the necessary amending Measure, if it is full and ample enough, put through with the minimum consumption of the time of the House. A great deal of unwise legislation has been passed within comparatively recent years, but the Workmen's Compensation Act was one of the most brilliant conceptions that ever came from the mind of that great statesman the late Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. Its wisdom always struck me as a member of the legal profession in this, that it very largely eliminated litigation and put an end to incurring costs. Previously, we had the Employers' Liability Act, which led to an immense amount of perfectly futile litigation. No doubt these were profitable to the profession to which I belong, but no man in that profession worthy of his salt ever wishes to see litigation go on that could be avoided. I say that not ironically, but with perfect sincerity. The beauty of this Act was that it placed the burden on the industry. That is where I join issue with the hon. Member who last addressed the House, and who wishes to see the Government putting its clumsy and bureaucratic hand into this matter. When it made the employer liable for sums which were small and tentative to begin with, but which extended during the War—and I think the figures given by my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for East Rhondda (Lieut.-Colonel Watts-Morgan) show they are capable of very considerable amplification—the admirable point about that was this, that not only did it provide guarantees for compensation where accidents occurred, but it was a prevention of the occurring of accidents. The reason is perfectly simple. I had professional experience of it myself in connection with the placing of the insurance of very large works on one occasion. By being able to show that great and extraordinary precautions were taken by the management of that particular works whereby there had been an almost entire immunity from accidents over a very long period of time, I was able to make representations to the tariff office—because all the best of the insurance offices are joined together in this—and on my representations in this particular case, they reduced the rates very substantially because of the freedom from accidents. When you impose this liability upon a particular employer you join his duty with his interests. The first thing that enters his head then, if it has not done so before, is to secure to the absolute maximum the greatest possible immunity from accident for all his workpeople.

Nobody wants compensation for accidents; what they want is to secure that there shall be no accidents. That is what we should all aim at. No money can compensate for the loss of even a finger. We do not want to see any workman mutilated in any shape or form, and there should be every possible step taken to avoid injury of any description. The result of the operation of the Workmen's Compensation Act was that even the most selfish employers—and there are some, I admit—got busy to see that there was as complete immunity as could possibly be secured against accidents to their workpeople, and if you increase the rate of compensation you secure that immunity further and further. I believe it is possible in almost all industries, except mining and those affected by the works of nature, to obtain almost complete immunity, but you have got to get the British working man to take a great deal more care of himself than he does. He is a very courageous individual, and he takes risks that he ought not to take, and many people have wondered at seeing the casual way in which he takes very great risks. I believe that if you once let a body of bureaucratic Government officials shove their clumsy fingers into this admirable scheme, in which the interests of the security of the working man and compensation if he is injured are so indissolubly welded together, you will divorce the one from the other, and you will have the thing relegated to the mere sphere of compensation, because, mark you, if you insure industry as a whole, you will not have the individual incentive on the employer which you have at present, and if you once let the Government get its hand in, instead of having the impulsion on each employer to do his best for his own workmen, it will be a case of each letting the other fellow look after the matter. That is why I would urge that in the interests of the security of the workers we should keep the Government out of it.

There is one other point to which I would refer. I wish there were more provision made in these Acts for the administration of the funds which are recoverable. Workmen are sometimes persuaded, through zeal and the belief that they can engage in some commercial undertaking in which their previous training has not given them the necessary experience, to settle a claim for a lump sum, and in a few months sometimes the whole sum is lost.