Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 3 Mai 1922.
I should like to take up one or two points by the hon. Member for Preston (Mr. Shaw). It is not often I am in agreement with him and his colleagues, but on this occasion, in the main, I am entirely in agreement. I only disagree on one or two matters of detail. The hon. Member made a moving appeal to employers in this House, and in the country to show some generosity in this matter. I disagree slightly with that. I do not think that the extra burden that is to be laid upon us as employers in order to give extra benefits can really be described as anything serious. I do not think we shall have to exercise, anything so noble as generosity in paying up that little extra premium which we may be called upon to pay. I understand that the insurance companies concerned in this branch of the business have shown some real generosity, and have accepted the principle of taking reduced profits as compared with those they previously received. I admit that in many cases insurance companies which deal with employers' liability insurance have made very large, profits in the past. I know that from personal experience. But as the whole object of these insurance companies is to make profit, one cannot say that they are acting unjustly because those profits happen in the past to have been high. At any rate, they have now accepted the principle of reduced profits and the generosity for which the hon. Member opposite appealed is really being shown not so much by the employers as by the insurance companies. The hon. Member hinted that insurance companies put very great difficulty in the way of men getting compensation when they had been insured with them. I may say that my experience, and the experience of other employers to whom I have spoken on the matter is quite opposed to that suggestion. We never had the faintest difficulty with the insurance companies in that regard.