Orders of the Day — ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE BILL [Lords].

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 27 Gorffennaf 1923.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Lieut-Colonel Maurice Alexander Lieut-Colonel Maurice Alexander , Southwark South East

I rise for the specific purpose of saying that I have listened with very great diffidence to the hon. and learned Member for South Shields (Mr. Harney), and to the hon. and gallant Member for Central Nottingham (Captain Berkeley), and I must confess that, after listening to their arguments, I can come to no other conclusion than that the Attorney-General has made out a very strong case. I stand on this side of the House equally as ready to defend the liberty of the subject and the right of trial by jury as anybody else in any other section of the House, but at the same time I would like to say that Clause 2 of this Bill does, in my opinion, give a much greater certainty of trial by jury than people have at the present time. One has heard, after a great deal of elaboration, what we had in 1914, and what great hardships are going to be inflicted if this Bill becomes law, but if one takes the serious argument of the hon. and learned Member for South Shields, he pointed out that before, people had an absolute right to a jury, and that now they have a right to a jury if they ask for it. I would like to ask hon. Members where the real difficulty arises. Surely people who have any right to ask for a thing, and the law gives them that right, are not suffering, and, after all, people who are before a Court and are directly interested in their own particular action, must be left to be the best judges of their own desires.