I listened, as I always do, with very close care and attention to the explanation which my hon. Friend has given of his Clause. I think he has hardly done justice to the facts of the case. While he has generally sketched the programme which led up to Clause 15 of the present Bill, he has in some particulars omitted to lay before the House clearly all the information of which it should be fully seized if it is to understand the full import of this Clause and how it comes to be proposed. May I explain it, without offence to my hon. Friend, as I understand it? It is to give power to the Electricity Commissioners to exclude part of a power company's area. I take no exception at all to the proposed provisions regarding the supply given on generating stations being transferred. On that point, I am more or less in general agreement with him. I am confining most of my remarks to the operation of the Clause as it is given effect to in Sub-section (1), paragraph (b). Paragraph (b) states that any part of that area which at the time of the local inqury on the scheme to which the Order establishing the joint electricity authority gives effect, may be excluded from the area. I will leave paragraph (b) for the moment, because I should like to direct attention to the declaration made by the Parliamentary Secretary in Committee, which he has lightly touched upon this afternoon. He said: When this Bill was introduced it met with a great deal of opposition and a very large number of Amendments were tabled for the protection of the existing statutory rights of power companies, and there was grave danger—I say this quite advisedly— that the Bill would not have had a favourable reception in another place but for some such Clause as Clause 16,"— which is now Clause 15— being inserted and it was therefore accepted by Lord Peel. On the strength of that acceptance of the Clause many Amendments disappeared from the Order Paner and the passage of the Bill was facilitated. Subsequently, in the same speech, my hon. Friend made a few other observations in the same sense. He said: The power companies were seeking to protect their position in the other House and this Clause—I must state it quite frankly on behalf of the Government—was given to them as a measure of protection, and from the main object and intention of the Clause it is quite impassible for me, speaking on behalf of the Government, and as my Noble Friend said in another place, to depart. That was the position so far as Clause 15 was concerned. I have only read what my hon. Friend said in Committee because I think the House should be fully acquainted with his words there. Am I right in saying plainly that those statements made by my hon. Friend were definite, binding, irrevocable pledges of His Majesty's Government? I think I am. I do not think my hon. Friend will challenge that they were binding, definite, irrevocable pledges.

We now turn back to Clause 14 of the principal Act. My hon. Friend states that this Clause now proposed only gives effect to certain provisions of Section 14 of the principal Act. But it was because Section 14 was in the principal Act that the power companies originally were anxious to obtain this new Clause in the Bill of this year, so as to have subsequent legislation, making it perfectly clear that you had no right, if a power company was able and willing to supply in a given area, to excise a portion of that area.

To go back to the point at which I broke off in paragraph (b). What must the Electricity Commissioners do now, if this Clause is adopted, if they wish to cut out a portion of a power company's area? The first thing they could do would be to institute a large number of inquiries, and the moment those inquiries are instituted it is automatically in the power of the Commissioners, when they make an Order setting up a joint electricity authority, to omit from the area of the power company any portion where it so happens that a supply is not given at that particular moment. What is the effect of that? There are several power companies in the country at present where in fact supplies are not being given, but, where, in fact, supplies will be given the moment any consumer wishes a supply, and where, in fact, arrangements are tentatively being made, no doubt, for supplies at present, and money has been spent in anticipation of putting supplies into those areas. If this Bill became an Act, it would be within the power and within the jurisdiction of the Commissioners, after inquiry in certain areas, to exclude large portions of areas where in fact there may have been money spent in anticipation of putting supplies into those areas. I am sure my hon. Friend must have omitted that consideration. I am not anxious to prolong discussion or to delay the proceedings. I think my hon. Friend will admit that in Committee I did everything to facilitate the passage of the Bill, but I cannot possibly allow this Clause to pass as it stands without some strong opposition, unless I have some undertaking that, he is prepared to insert simple words which will reinstate the position and will give effect to the definite, binding pledge given upstairs. The second and third Amendments in my name do no more than give effect to the pledge my hon. Friend gave on behalf of the Government. If he says he will not accept those words, I shall have a good deal more to say. He remains silent. He referred in his speech to an undertaking given in Committee to discuss the matter with the Power Companies' Association.