I will deal, if I may, with the question which has just been asked, and will make a perfectly categorical statement on it. I held strongly that it was impossible for these words, even if they remained in the Clause, to affect the case of any worker who worked or had worked at a place where no dispute was in progress, and that there was no danger of his being refused benefit, because he belonged to a union that was financing a strike at another place. There is, in my opinion, absolutely no doubt as to the soundness of the right hon. Gentleman's answer, and, in order to make myself more certain still, I consulted the solicitors of the Ministry of Labour, who have a very wide experience of the administration of this Act. Their opinion confirmed my own. Not satisfied with that, I submitted the matter to the Law Officers of the Crown, and their opinion coincides with the opinion of the solicitors to the Department, my own opinion, and, what is more valuable than my own opinion, the opinion of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Spen Valley (Sir J. Simon). I venture to suggest, therefore, that, if a contrary opinion be held, there ought to be some substantial ground for it—there ought to be some substantial ground for disagreement with everyone who has been connected with any Bill on this subject, and with all the legal assistance that we can get. I venture to put the authorities that: I have against any authority that may be quoted in contradiction of the opinion expressed.

Now, with regard to the matter itself. I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will allow these words "trade union or" to be deleted. There is no question, and I make no question, about the position that existed at our last discussion. There was a Motion for the deletion of the Clause, and I had to choose between what I thought was a certainty of losing my Clause or saving what I could, and I took the line of saving what I could. About that there is no question whatever. But I venture to suggest to the right hon. Gentleman that these words do not help in his desire, or at any rate do not give him any guarantee that the other words do not give, but do introduce certainly a danger that we want to avoid at the Ministry of Labour. If at the Ministry of Labour we have to take sides in any branch of our work, and to make inquiries as to trade unionism and non-trade unionism, it cannot be a good thing for us, and I myself fail to see any case of any trade unionist directly interested, participating in a dispute, who, if these words were out, could possibly get benefit in that dispute. I do see difficulties if the words remain in—difficulties of interpretation, difficulties of inquiry, and a state of things arising in our exchanges that I think would be highly undesirable from an administrative point of view. I make a strong appeal to the right hon. Gentleman, seeing that he is positively safeguarded against any case that I can see by the words he has already inserted and the words of the original Clause, to withdraw his Amendment to insert these words, which give him no further guarantee, but do give us a guarantee of certain trouble and a possibility of difference as to opinion and law, and possibly a difference of treatment of men according to whether they are trade unionists or not. That would be absolutely fatal if it arose, and I think it would be better to avoid the possibility of its arising, seeing that every safeguard is given in the other words of the Clause.