Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: If Mr. de Valera considers anything, well, he is in power and he will very soon make it the law. I heard the hon. Member for North-West Hull (Mr. Mackay) speak about compulsory voting. I think it would be I very good principle to introduce into this island. It is a very good thing in Australia and Canada where every voter, I understand, must turn up at the polling booth. He need not vote if...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I beg to move, in page 2, line 19, after "to," to insert, "tropical agriculture." This Amendment concerns the constitution of the Colonial Development Corporation. I wish to see somebody who has had experience of tropical agriculture included in this Corporation. I believe that, under this Bill, most of the resources to be developed in the Colonies will be in tropical or semi-tropical areas,...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I think there is a very great difference indeed. In fact, there are very many differences. I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman heard the whole of my speech.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: At any rate, the hon. Gentleman did not suffer from the inability to hear it. I was pointing out that some areas suffer from drought—they sometimes do not get rain for a whole year—and that other areas get 400 inches in a year. Therefore, I consider that there is great scope for the different treatment of soil.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I am not satisfied with the reply of the Under-Secretary. "Primary production", can cover anything. The coalmines in Southern Rhodesia will be developed, and the best man to send out to advise on the development of those coalmines would probably be a man who had been working in the mines in Wales, Durham or Scotland. But tropical agriculture is a different thing. I agree with the remarks of...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: On a point of Order. Is it not proposed to call the Amendment in my name to page 5, line 3, after "territory," insert "and the prevention of soil erosion"?
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Further to that point of Order, Mr. Deputy-Speaker. Would you allow me to move the same Amendment on Clause 8 on the same page, to insert after (b): "and the prevention of soil erosion" as a manuscript Amendment?
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I also welcome the Bill. It is extremely necessary today. Finance is different in 48 from what it was in 1938. It would now be impossible for private enterprise unaided to develop all these vast territories that still remain. Out of every £1 made by companies that operate in Africa and in our territories overseas 12s. has to be paid by them to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. That does not...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Very good, Sir. I would only say that there are weak points in the Bill. It would seem that the Colonial Secretary did not examine very carefully the territories for which he is legislating. We see the mistakes that have been made in the past. We see gullies 12 feet deep and 12 feet wide and land ruined through bad cultivation. That is not only the case in our own Colonial Empire; it is the...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: It is very difficult to keep within the bounds, Mr. Speaker. I will conclude by saying that it is a pity that the right hon. Gentleman did not mention some of the ways by which he could improve cultivation as he will spend millions of pounds upon dams and irrigation, which is a most expensive way of coping with the problem. I have seen it said that the South African rivers now are too thick...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what steps he is taking to implement the pledges given to the Gibraltarians, still living in camps in Northern Ireland, to transfer them to London this winter.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Is the Secretary of State aware that the Gibraltar people feel that he has let them down, and that the Minister of Works is also responsible for this?
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: There is just one point which I wish to put before the Committee and it is in regard to the flight from the country to the towns. Every amenity that we can give to the country people is a great advantage in this connection. On the Copeland Islands exactly opposite my home, only one and a half miles from the mainland, there used to live 150 people with a church and a school. Two years ago the...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: The hon. Member for West Renfrew (Mr. Scollan) said that all the industries in this country were making large profits. I hope he has noticed that Miles Aircraft Company went into liquida- tion only last week, and that the Cunliffe Owen Aircraft Company have stopped manufacturing a plane. That was mentioned only 10 days ago. However, I will speak about other companies which operate outside...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what arrangements are being made for the transfer of the Gibraltarians from Northern Ireland to London; and what are the reasons which are holding up this transfer.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Are displaced persons from Europe now being given preference over British subjects from Gibraltar in the hostel accommodation in London? Also, is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there is no work for these Gibraltarians in the isolated camps in Northern Ireland where they are now living but that there is any amount of work for them in London?
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: It is a great advantage to have waited through a whole Debate to speak because one has then heard what other people have said and also what other people have omitted. I propose to refer, first, to the speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He said that a manager was a technician. That is news to me. I have worked as an engineer, an assistant manager, a general manager and a managing...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Speaking in this Debate I want to remember that it is November, 1947, and not to think too much about what happened in 1935 or even before then. The question before the House is, What are we going to do now? I myself did not oppose the Government when they granted Dominion status to India and to Pakistan. At that time I said that there might be a million or even five million dead. But I am a...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I speak this evening on behalf of the country and rural districts. After all, in the towns people have a great deal of relaxation. They have buses and trams passing their doors to take them to places of amusement, but it is very different in rural districts. Townspeople themselves think that country people live miserable lives, without any amusement at all. I have had more letters in regard...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: rose
