Part of Private Business. – in the House of Commons am ar 18 Chwefror 1935.
The House has listened with the greatest attention and interest to a closely reasoned and most temperate Debate, which has been remarkable for the even balance of opinion on both sides. I have lost count of the exact number of speeches for and against the Motion. These circumstances are rather unusual on a Private Bill when we are more accustomed to all the speeches being on one side. The Minister of Health in addressing the House on such an occasion as this does not, save in the most exceptional circumstances, consider that it is his duty to argue for or against the Motion. There may be circumstances in which it would be his duty to maintain one side as against another, but I am sure hon. Members will agree that this is not such an occasion. The function of the Minister of Health is to do his best to assist the House to come to a conclusion and form a free judgment on the question.
The position to-night is that if we pass the Instruction it rules out from the consideration of a Committee of this House the proposals of the Metropolitan Water Board with regard to a water reservoir at Walton, which, as has been rightly said, is half the substance of the Bill. If, on the other hand, we do not pass the Instruction, it is clear that we are not thereby coming to a final conclusion on the matter. All we are saying is that this Bill should follow the ordinary procedure of the House and go to a Committee, who can deal fully and adequately with questions of this sort. What is the frame of mind in which hon. Members find themselves on this Bill? I think hon. Members may find themselves in the position of saying that as it is an issue involving a matter, of public moment, so great and vital, that the House ought not to come to a swift decision and remove it from the consideration of their own Committee.
What is the nature of the issue? It is not my intention, and I do not feel competent, to take a part in the arguments before the House, but it appears to be a case in which both interests are public interests. The case put before us on behalf of the Metropolitan Water Board, by the hon. Member for Mitcham (Sir R. Meller) and hon. Members who have supported the Bill, is that it is a matter involving the strongest and highest public interests, but, on the other hand, the case put before us by the hon. Member for Chertsey (Sir A. Boyd-Carpenter) and those who support him, is that there are also strong public interests on the other side as well. As to the nature of the interests involved in the case of the Metropolitan Water Board I will not state them in my own words but invite
hon. Members to look at the manner in which they have been set out by the Metropolitan Water Board. I have before me a statement of the Metropolitan Water Board, and when I try to form a judgment as to the nature of the issues involved my attention is attracted by the following passage:
The proposed sites are not only the most suitable but also, in the case of reservoir No. 1 at Walton, the only practical one for the purpose in view.
That is an opinion which deserves the consideration of the House in arriving at a judgment. What is the purpose in view? I am sure the House will recognise the magnitude of the issues involved. On the second page of their statement they say:
The urgent necessity for additional storage accommodation to meet the growing needs of London and adjoining districts cannot be disputed.
It is not disputed by anyone, and such necessity has been emphasised in my experience at the Ministry of Health during the recent prolonged drought. I can confirm that statement from my own knowledge, because I remember during last summer being applied to by the Metropolitan Water Board to issue emergency orders. The next statement is one which I think sums up the great importance of the issues involved:
The board feel impelled by a sense of their public duty and responsibility for the supply of water to state unequivocally that the powers sought by the Bill are essential for ensuring an adequate supply, and that if these powers be not granted the supply will be seriously imperilled in the event of a period of severe drought.
The observation which must arise upon that is that the House has entrusted the vital responsibility for the supply of water to the people of London to the board, and when the body to which this important task has been entrusted says that such and such a measure is essential for securing an adequate supply, the House will certainly be inclined to think that that statement requires most careful investigation and consideration. I am sure we shall all do well to think once and twice before deciding whether it is safe or wise to judge the matter without giving it that full consideration.
Let me turn to the case as put before us by my hon. Friend the Member for Chertsey. There, again, I am sure that the House will find matter for serious interest. My hon. Friend dwelt upon the question of food supply. No consideration that raises that point can be lightly dismissed. He dwelt upon the national need for employment. Again, however small the case might be, that is an argument which the House will not lightly turn aside. There was a third point to which the House will attach even greater importance, and that is the extreme importance of doing nothing to discourage successful efforts in the way of agricultural research. I must not presume to have any acquaintance with the technicalities of that matter, but I feel the strongest sympathy with the argument that we cannot spare any profitable and useful work that can be done in the direction of such research.
The position then emerges from the discussion that we have here these great and serious public interests on the one hand, and on the other hand we have to consider the material, relevant and weighty matters advanced in the case put before us. If the House came to the conclusion that matters so serious should be judged with the most, I will not say elaborate, but the most searching procedure which this House has instituted, would not that indeed be a sound conclusion? There is one matter on which I must say a special word. My hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin (Sir A. Wilson) argued that this matter ought not to be decided until a report has been received from the Inland Water Survey Committee which was recently established by me for the purpose of water research. It is most natural, since that committee is only a recent institution, that there should be some misunderstanding, but I should make it clear that it would be altogether a. misapprehension to think that such a matter as that which we are now considering would come under the consideration of the Survey Committee. That committee has been established for the purpose of a statistical research into the water resources of the country, and it would be quite outside its terms of reference for it to take into consideration specific schemes of water supply.
One last word upon this bearing of the case. The House might very naturally be inclined to say that the Minister of Health has a special interest in water supply, that he is likely to have water on the brain in these days, that he is likely to take a more favourable view of water supply than of any contrary interest, and that he should co-ordinate water supply with the other interests of the nation. I thought it right on this matter to consult with my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, who is acquainted with aspects of which I cannot have knowledge. The result of that consultation is that the Minister has asked me to inform the House of his opinion on the matter. He is very much concerned with the interests of such institutions as the farm in question, with all its importance to agricultural research, but he agrees that the appropriate and most thorough way for considering these interests and their coordination with the public interest of water supply would be by reference of this matter to a Committee of the House.
The House will be grateful to my hon. Friends the Members for Chertsey and Mitcham for having called attention to aspects of the matter which, in the opinion of all of us, deserve the most careful consideration, but my own conclusion in this Debate is that all these things can most properly be considered by a Committee of the House. In that event my hon. Friends will be able to congratulate themselves that by their action they have done what is necessary to secure attention to the interests concerned.