Part of Private Business. – in the House of Commons am ar 18 Chwefror 1935.
There is no two months' notice yet. I have not heard of it, and I know of no evidence that has been produced to the board on that. The board have sought the best advice they can with reference to this scheme. They are prepared to produce their technical and other advice. I have no doubt that the petitioners against the Bill will be prepared to produce their 'evidence and have it tested by examination and cross-examination. This is not the place where we can go into the merits or demerits of the petition put forward. There is another place where the merits of the Bill and the merits of any application against the Bill can be properly heard.
The hon. and gallant Member for Hitchin addressed a letter to-day to the "Times" in reply to a letter which had been put in by the chairman of the board. I do not think he wants to mislead the House, but he has not made a full note of the report of the Llandaff Committee. Perhaps he is not aware of the provisions of the paragraphs to which he referred in his letter. My hon. Friend's first quotation, from paragraph 123 of the report, is based on the assumption that the population of "Water London" will be 12,000,000 in 1941, whereas up to this year, 1935, it is only 7,250,000; and from the information which we have obtained and the calculations that have been made, it would seem we shall not reach in 1941 anything like the population figure suggested by the Llandaff Commission.