I think everyone will agree that this has been a distinctly interesting Debate and has thrashed out the whole subject in a way which is most helpful to those who are concerned. I should like to express, and I am sure I am voicing the feeling of the whole House, our gratitude and thanks to my hon. and learned Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Mr. Holman Gregory) and his Committee for the Report they have given us. It is, in my judgment, one of the most valuable and instructive Reports that any Departmental Committee has ever presented, and I believe it has done a very great deal to make this subject thoroughly understood, and if only more people would read and study it there would be less trouble in the way of those who want to make some change in our present system. One thing is perfectly clear and that is the complete agreement that something must be done. It is very interesting to observe that four hon. Members who have spoken, connected I know in a large way with Labour, my hon. Friends the Member for North Cornwall (Sir G. Croydon Marks), the hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Colonel P. Williams), the hon. Member for Carlisle (Mr. Carr) and the hon. Member who has just spoken have supported some change and some improvement as whole heartedly as any hon. Member opposite, and it is clear that something will have to be done. The War Additions Act, which came to the rescue of men who are in receipt of compensation for injury during the period when prices had risen and the ordinary compensation for wholly inadequate, came to an end this year. I do not believe a single hon. Member, no matter where he may sit, would suggest that we should allow the War Additions Act to lapse and put nothing in its place. We are faced therefore with this position. Either we must do something this Session or we must include the War Additions Act in the Expiring Laws Continuance Act at the end of the Session.

It would be very unsatisfactory to allow this Session to go by with nothing done, and for that reason I hope the House will accept the Motion. I hope it will be clearly understood that I am not in any way accepting or pledging the Government to any detail of reform that has been put forward. There are certain things on which we are all agreed and one is that the old maximum of £1 and the maximum of £300 in the case of fatal accidents are inadequate, but while we are all agreed that they are inadequate, there is by no means a unanimity of opinion as to what they ought to be converted into and what the sums should be. Equally with regard to matters of compulsory insurance and State insurance. Compulsory insurance was strongly recommended by my hon. and learned Friend's Committee. Un- doubtedly, there is a great deal to be said for it. There is also a great deal to be said for State insurance in a matter of this kind, but it is perfectly clear from the Debate to-night that there is no unanimity of opinion upon it. Therefore it would be idle for me to attempt to suggest to the House to-night what line the Government would take on either of those two points. We are, however, agreed upon general principles, and we are agreed upon this, that the main things that we ought to aim at are, first of all, the prevention of injury altogether, and, secondly, the best possible means for recovering the worker and bringing him back for the use of the State and the use of the industry. These are the two main principles that we must have before us. I believe that the average employer in this country really does appreciate these two main principles, but the difficulty is to agree upon the best method of carrying them out.

There are many points in the Report of my hon. and learned Friend's Committee which are very highly controversial, and it may be very difficult for the Government, when they are introducing a Bill, as I hope we shall be able to do, to deal with these highly controversial points. When, therefore, I say that in drafting a Bill I shall always have before me the recommendations of that Report, I must not be taken as pledging myself in any way to bring in a Measure which deals with every recommendation they make. This is a great national question, and I entirely agree with my hon. Friend the Member for North Cornwall that this is no party question. The best method of proceeding is to endeavour to get agreement between all the parties concerned. By agreement between the parties concerned we can do more to bring in effective legislation than we can by having what would develop into a real party strife on the Floor of the House.

I have already approached men who represent the employed, and men who represent the employers. I am hoping that when they have considered, each of them, their own proposals, and I have myself put forward certain general proposals as a sort of basis for discussion, that we shall be able to get a committee, consisting of representatives of the workmen and representatives of the employers, and that we shall be able to thresh out a certain measure of agreement which will, at any rate, give us the basis of a measure which will be introduced into this House. It may very well be, and it probably will be, that there will not be agreement upon all points. I can well understand that it will be very difficult, indeed, to get an absolute agreement upon a question which involves the fixing of a definite sum of money. It may be very difficult, indeed, to agree upon the best method of calculating what is a fair payment for the injured workman, or what is a fair payment with regard to the child of the man who has suffered fatal injury. These are matters of very considerable difficulty, but, at least, discussion round the table can do no possible harm, but may lead to very great assistance in regard to this important matter.

Now with regard to the other points, such as the protection of those who are employed by employers financially weak. I agree with one of my hon. Friends who said that it is not the case that so many cases occur where the employer is financially weak, where a man gets no compensation or where an employer goes bankrupt. Those cases are recorded and they are not many. But anyone who has practised in workmen's compensation cases knows that there are many cases all over the country where a wholly inadequate sum is accepted in settlement because, if not, nothing at all would be received. Some method must be proposed to meet a difficulty of that sort. Whether we shall be able to come to such a measure of agreement in our discussions with regard to our proposed legislation for this Session I do not know, but at least we can try. Therefore I hope sincerely that within a very short period we shall have a round table conference which would enable the Government to bring before the House a Bill which, even if not agreed in all its provisions, and I am sure that it will not be, and which may not be accepted by those who are outside the conference, will at least have a very large measure of support in this House, and may, with the assistance of Debates in this House, be made a really effective and good Act of Parliament. That is the position which the Government take up to-night.

I am sure that the House would not ask me to pledge myself as to any of the various details which have been men- tioned in the course of the Debate. They are extremely interesting and instructive, but, having regard to the position which we have taken, I do not think that it would be proper for me to give a Government opinion and then to ask both sides, employers and employed, to come and discuss the matter in a conference. I think that the proper thing for us to do is to keep silence upon those matters until we know what measure of agreement between those chiefly concerned can be reached at the conference. There are many points which have been raised in the course of the Debate which are of very great interest, into which I should like in many cases to have entered, but I think that it probably would not be the wish of the House that I should do so now. I know that, there are many shortcomings in the Act as it exists. I have heard heartrending cases of legal inefficiency described by my hon. Friends opposite, but I must say that I should like to hear the explanation of the County Court judge before accepting those cases entirely as they have been stated. Equally there are many cases which are very grave to the employer.

We want to remove these cases, and the best way to remove them is to get both parties together and to thrash out the best method. We are all agreed that something must be done. We are all agreed that this is not a party but is a national question, and in spite of the strictures of my hon. Friend we are all agreed that it should be a charge upon the industry of the country. The industry, of course, means the people engaged in the industry, with this addition, that the State has not got any person to whom it can pass on this burden of compensation. It is paid by the individuals who constitute the State. They have got to bear the burden themselves, and cannot even make the purchaser pay. We are agreed upon general principles, and therefore I hope, with the assistance of hon. Friends who have kindly promised to assist me, and with the assistance of employers, we may thrash out a Bill which we can bring to this House with a promise of a fair measure of agreement, and that we shall, before this Session has passed, have passed a Measure which will put the whole subject of workmen's compensation upon a much more satisfactory basis.