Part of Orders of the Day — Reorganisation of Offices (Scotland) Bill. – in the House of Commons am ar 9 Gorffennaf 1928.
The hon. and learned Member still persists in saying it did not include travelling expenses. If it did not, it only makes my case all the stronger. The fact remains that a board of that kind does not have the same efficient control of expenditure with the same efficient results, and I am very strongly of opinion that the proposal made by the Liberal Land Report which was just recently issued, is the proposal which now the Secretary of State for Scotland is adopting in regard to the Board of Agriculture. [HON. MEMBERS: "A new Coalition."] I do not mind a coalition of efficiency at any time. I may be prepared to coalesce with the hon. Member for Bow and Bromley (Mr. Lansbury) provided he wishes to see something done in the interest of the country as a whole and to see that something is efficiently performed. There is no doubt about it; this Committee which investigated the case of the Board of Agriculture was a purely independent Committee. It was a Committee which had no axe to grind and which probably had no love or great respect for the Scottish Office for all I know, but the fact remains that that Committee did, after careful and impartial consideration, come to the conclusion that the most effective way of dealing with the land settlement problem of Scotland was the proposal now before the House for the reorganisation of the Scottish Boards. Therefore, I, for one, support that part of the Bill.
Now let me say where I find some little difficulty. I have a little difficulty in regard to the Board of Health, for I confess that if I had the opportunity of speaking on the Board of Health separately I should probably find myself inclined to vote against the proposal for abolishing it. I have watched with great interest the work of that Board, and I congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on having so efficient a Board. I do not think there is a report which appears from any Government Department of the same value or merit as the report which is annually produced by the Scottish Board of Health. "By their fruits ye shall know them"—and I know that the late Lord High Commissioner for Scotland, the hon. Member for South Ayrshire (Mr. J. Brown) recognises that. I am quite convinced that the Scottish nation as a whole has every reason to be proud of the work which that Board does, but we are dealing now with the general proposition whether in the interests of efficiency or not we should consider the advisability of maintaining the Board system. As I have already said, I have very great objection to the board system, though if it were going to deprive us of our feeling of Scottish nationality, I would even probably support the board system, but I am at variance with my hon. Friends above the Gangway. I do not think for a moment that it affects the question of Scottish nationality. I had a guarantee on the Second Reading that every young Scotsman who is fit to compete for a place in the new Scottish organisation system, will be entitled to compete and entitled to get his place.