Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: The hon. Member for the Itchen Division of Southampton (Mr. Morley) drew a poor sort of picture when he spoke of the breakaway union and asked how we could put up with that sort of thing, with a lot of unions all over the place. The National Union of Railwaymen is a railway union, and these busmen want to have a union of their own.
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: If it were intended to start a breakaway union of railwaymen I could understand the hon. Gentleman's remarks, but since they want to start a union for busmen I cannot see the relevance of his remarks. The hon. Gentleman also asserted that we on this side of the Committee are showing a strange interest in trade unionism. It may interest him to know how I became involved in this question. The...
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: That is the history; I know it personally. Hon. Members opposite are jeering because they think I am talking against trade unionism. I am not. I am in favour of trade unionism. After that, arrangements were made, as we have heard from the hon. Member for Itchen. Other hon. Members also talked to the men on the same lines. It was, of course, the only reasonable way of getting the men to go...
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: Is the hon. Member aware that there are still 18 or 20 N.U.R. men in the bus undertaking with a dual membership? They do not seem to find it incompatible with their duty to the N.U.R. to belong also to the National Bus Workers' Union.
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: I am not complaining about the schedule; I am only telling what the men's grievance was. The way they spoke about it was that they are losing their overtime, and they also said that they were losing the 7s. 6d. which had been granted to them. They said that the 7s. 6d. was "washed out." It does not matter whether the money is ordinary pay or what it is; they say they are losing 7s. 6d.
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: That is not my argument at all. I never used that argument. The hon. Gentleman is saying that the Conservative Party has used an argument and then he proceeds to knock it down; but we have never said any such thing. We have only explained the grievances of the men. It is the men who are aggrieved. We do not say that they should be paid for nothing. We should be the last to suggest that. What...
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: There never will be another Socialist Secretary of State.
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: I can go a long way with the hon. Member for Northern Norfolk (Mr. Gooch) in what he said at the beginning of his speech. I am glad that he is pressing the Minister to get on with the building of houses for agricultural workers, and I agree with him very much on the question of supplying those houses with proper sanitation and water. If the Minister will get on with that, he will get the...
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: I am grateful to the Parliamentary Secretary for his intervention and I am glad to know that that directive has gone out. As I say, the matter was a real scandal two or three years ago. I wish to appeal to the Minister to let private enterprise take its fair share in the job of providing houses. I should like to see, as my right hon. and gallant Friend the Member for the Scottish...
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: I am sorry that the Member for Houghton-le-Spring (Mr. Blyton) is not present at the moment, because he made a suggestion that this Prayer was put down for some reason connected with something that is going on elsewhere, but that is not correct. I should like to assure the House that this Prayer was put down because of the importance of it to our constituents all over the country and as far...
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: I will bow to your Ruling, but I will excuse myself by putting my digression down to the jeers of hon. Members on the other side. To continue this question, it is important that these families should get a share of the coal, and if they cannot have a house of their own and they have to share living quarters with their relatives, they should be given a coal ration. It is unfair, in view of the...
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: I dare say that the hon. Member for Cambridgeshire (Mr. Stubbs) realises that babies have to be kept warm and require more coal for the drying of their clothes than the hon. Member probably needs. My hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield also mentioned a very burning point, the fact that householders are not allowed to change their supplier. For various reasons the coal may not be of...
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: We have heard a great deal about herring fishing, fishing in the North Sea and fishing in the South-west, and I now want to say a word about the fishermen on the South coast. I grant that their industry cannot compare in size with the great herring fisheries, but they deserve some consideration, and I commend this Bill in that it helps them in the way of increasing the loans and grants for...
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: I should like to support the Amendment. This changing of names might not seem important to some hon. Members but it is important from the point of view of general administration. I believe the Home Secretary is likely to accept this Amendment, because it is not a change of boundaries but merely an alteration in name, which is accepted by all the political parties in Dorset.
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: I had hoped that the hon. Member for West Fife (Mr. Gallacher) might for once be persuaded to vote according to his conscience.
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: For many years past it has been possible to arrange for transfers, especially in such cases as a regiment coming home from India, where a good many men, not going on to the Reserve, were able to be transferred voluntarily by means of a small bounty. That has been done in the case of large numbers of men, very often 200 or 300 men transferring from one regiment to another. If the Secretary of...
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: This requires a little comment, because, while I do not think anyone is to blame, any Member with experience of local government will wonder why this important if simple Amendment is being left to such a late stage in the progress of the Bill. It was discussed fully when Amendments were put forward at an earlier stage, but the Minister was a little stubborn about it and put up two lines of...
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: Is it definite that the experts say that they are going to have a two year rotation? I have found from experience that one year is enough.
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: Would the Minister agree that before launching out into a big scheme, it would have been better to experiment first for a year or two?
Lieut-Colonel Mervyn Wheatley: The hon. Member mentioned a railway between Kenya and the Sudan. Would he give some indication where it would go? Does he realise the geography of the place? Has he never heard of the southern region of swamps?
