Oral Answers to Questions — British Army – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 5 Mehefin 1945.
Mr. E. P. Smith:
asked the Secretary of State for War if he will now lift the ban imposed on near relatives visiting their kinsmen in Dungeness.
Sir J. Griģģ:
The by-Laws restricting entry to the Dungeness controlled area will be revoked as soon as it is safe to do so. In the meantime, persons who can satisfy the local military authorities that they are relatives or residents in the area, will be permitted to enter it to visit them.
Mr. Smith:
Is my right hon. Friend aware that the area of Dungeness is like a vast concentration camp and that, though I have a pass to take me anywhere in my Division, it took me three-quarters of an hour to get into it the other night and that while I was there three men home on leave were refused admittance?
Sir J. Griģģ:
I do not wish to be accused of undue subservience to the hon. Member or to his constituents, but the defence Laws are concerned not with security in the ordinary accepted sense of the word but with the safety of the persons entering the area.
Mr. E. P. Smith:
asked the Secretary of State for War whether he will take steps to provide main water for the inhabitants of Dungeness whose wells have been poisoned by the seepage of Army petrol and who, at present, have to depend upon supplies brought every three days or so and deposited in tanks scattered haphazard about the village.
Mr Herbert Williams
, Croydon South
Can my right hon. Friend say why petrol has been allowed to seep into these wells? Why could not it be kept in a proper place in containers?
Mr David Kirkwood
, Dumbarton District of Burghs
That is the way to talk to the hon. Member.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
The House of Commons votes by dividing. Those voting Aye (yes) to any proposition walk through the division lobby to the right of the Speaker and those voting no through the lobby to the left. In each of the lobbies there are desks occupied by Clerks who tick Members' names off division lists as they pass through. Then at the exit doors the Members are counted by two Members acting as tellers. The Speaker calls for a vote by announcing "Clear the Lobbies". In the House of Lords "Clear the Bar" is called. Division Bells ring throughout the building and the police direct all Strangers to leave the vicinity of the Members’ Lobby. They also walk through the public rooms of the House shouting "division". MPs have eight minutes to get to the Division Lobby before the doors are closed. Members make their way to the Chamber, where Whips are on hand to remind the uncertain which way, if any, their party is voting. Meanwhile the Clerks who will take the names of those voting have taken their place at the high tables with the alphabetical lists of MPs' names on which ticks are made to record the vote. When the tellers are ready the counting process begins - the recording of names by the Clerk and the counting of heads by the tellers. When both lobbies have been counted and the figures entered on a card this is given to the Speaker who reads the figures and announces "So the Ayes [or Noes] have it". In the House of Lords the process is the same except that the Lobbies are called the Contents Lobby and the Not Contents Lobby. Unlike many other legislatures, the House of Commons and the House of Lords have not adopted a mechanical or electronic means of voting. This was considered in 1998 but rejected. Divisions rarely take less than ten minutes and those where most Members are voting usually take about fifteen. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P9 at the UK Parliament site.
