Commodore Henry King: May I suggest to the hon. Gentleman that, if he considers that we are working 600 hours' overtime in this country, it is surely his business to see that it is stopped?
Commodore Henry King: The President of the Board of Trade has laid great stress on the fact that Staffordshire is divided in the Schedule into three parts, but those are only divisions of convenience, to bring the areas into line with all the other districts set out in the Schedule. The division of Staffordshire into three parts has really no effect whatever on the Amendment. The problem only arises in South...
Commodore Henry King: I do not think that the right hon. Gentleman is quite right in describing this as a consequential Amendment. The previous Amendment related to any complaint made with respect to the operation of the scheme, but the present Amendment goes beyond that point and relates to any act or omission of any persons in respect of their functions under the scheme. This is a question of a personal nature...
Commodore Henry King: I was amazed at the long list of remedies which the President of the Board told us that individuals would have if they felt aggrieved. It really sounded very impressive, but, if he reads this proposed new Sub-section, he will find that most of the remedies which he mentioned are dealt with. It is only on a committee of investigation refusing to give any of the remedies about which he has told...
Commodore Henry King: This is one of the big changes which the House of Lords has made in the Bill which was presented to them. I was very glad to hear the President of the Board of Trade make it clear in his remarks that the Amendments we are now considering do not remove the compulsory amalgamation which was imposed when the Bill was before this House, and that they merely change the procedure which was laid...
Commodore Henry King: I was glad to hear an assurance from my Noble Friend that she is worried, and almost distressed, at the idea of children of five or six years of age being taken away from their parents. I have been rather surprised at the attitude which she has taken in some parts of this Bill, and I could not believe that her feelings would be otherwise, yet, in spite of her distress at the breaking up of...
Commodore Henry King: The hon. Member talks about homes that are fit to be called homes. That is what we want to ensure under this Clause. [interruption.] I know what the hon. Member is referring to. He is referring to what is their home now, the cabin of a canal boat.
Commodore Henry King: The hon. Member for St. Helens (Mr. Sexton) always gets rather excited over these matters. He has known something of sea life—
Commodore Henry King: Then he knows perfectly well, as I do from having had five years' experience in a sailing ship, that cabin accommodation in any craft is very cramped. On board ship, where space is very valuable, you do not expect to get spacious accommodation; but it is not the size of a home which makes for comfort or for home life. Size is only a side matter. What makes the home and the family life is the...
Commodore Henry King: I will deal with that point in a moment. Although hon. Members may criticise the size of the homes on these canal barges, I think very few who have ever seen them will say they have found an ill-kept or dirty home on a canal boat.
Commodore Henry King: The hon. Member knows the dimensions. I am not disputing the size, but I say the size is not everything. Those cabins are the centre of the home life of the family, and I maintain that it is home life that is at the foundation of the British character. [Interruption.] If the hon. Member disputes that, we are even farther apart than I should have imagined.
Commodore Henry King: I am trying to speak from the humanitarian point of view and from the family point of view, and in doing so I am also speaking from the national point of view.
Commodore Henry King: If the hon. Member makes any relevant interjection I will try to deal with it, but I cannot hear mutterings sufficiently well to reply to them. I wish to point out the difficulty of throwing on barge people the responsibility of either providing another home, making provision for the boarding of their children, or applying to a local authority, which may be hundreds of miles away, to make the...
Commodore Henry King: I should hardly have thought those children would have been compared with the children with whom we are dealing at the present time. The children of barge dwellers are as fine a type as you could wish for, and I do not think the comparison with industrial school children will be welcomed.
Commodore Henry King: He referred to industrial schools. It is extremely hard to go on. One meets with all sorts of interjections, and when a reply is made to them then a complaint is made that I am not dealing with the subject before us. Hon. Members opposite are continually interjecting and trying to make it impossible for anyone on this side to engage in a logical discussion, but they resent any reply which is...
Commodore Henry King: I beg to second the Amendment.
Commodore Henry King: I beg to move, in page 1, line 10, to leave out the word "production." The House will realise that we seek, by leaving out tins word "production," to move to leave out the whole question of quota and of restriction of output, both on a national basis and on the district basis. Hon. Members opposite have found difficulty, apparently, in understanding why we on this side of the House have...
Commodore Henry King: I referred to this point in moving the first Amendment this afternoon. This Amendment, as has been pointed out, refers to industrial undertakings which have bought coal mines for their own purposes, but I would like now to put to the President of the Board of Trade the opposite case of coal mines which, in order to use their output, have invested capital and have developed undertakings for...
Commodore Henry King: May I say a word with regard to the remarks the President of the Board of Trade has just made about the fixation of prices, and his statement that he has always avoided giving any estimate as to what the increase in price was likely to be. I put it to him that the minimum price to be fixed has, quite obviously, to meet a certain number of definite claims. In the first place, it has to allow...
Commodore Henry King: I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his explanation. I am speaking only from memory, and have not the quotation from his speech before me on this occasion, but I have used it at least once, and I think twice, in debate when I had the copy of the OFFICIAL REPORT before me, and read out from it what the right hon. Gentleman had actually said with regard to an increase of 1s. 6d. a ton due to...
