Mr Thomas Bennett: 71. asked the Home Secretary if his attention has been called to the character of the reports in the daily Press of recent divorce proceedings; and if, in view of these reports, he will consider the propriety of acting upon the recommendation of the Royal Commission on Divorce and Matrimonial Causes that power should be expressly conferred by Statute upon judges to close the Court for the...
Mr Thomas Bennett: May I confess myself at once as a confirmed and incorrigible believer in the doctrine as to the indirect benefit from the remission of direct taxation which has been so emphatically condemned by the hon. and gallant Gentleman who has just sat down. He may be interested to know that that doctrine has been used by me in defence of the Budget on several occasions during the last few weeks. But I...
Mr Thomas Bennett: I do not propose to discuss at any length the question of Kenya, but there are two points connected with it which I shall be very glad if the hon. Gentleman, who represents the Colonial Office, will give me some information upon. My first question is, has the Colonial Office associated itself in any way with the demand that the emigration of Indians should be stopped? That demand was very...
Mr Thomas Bennett: I am much obliged for the latitude which has been granted to me. I have been trying to look at the question solely from the point of view of the Colonial Office, and to explain why it is that the suggestion to entrust the Colonial Office with the care of Aden is so much resented. For that reason I would suggest that the Colonial Office should defer, at all events, taking over Aden until the...
Mr Thomas Bennett: That does not apply to the Indian civil servant.
Mr Thomas Bennett: The last controversy into which I should like to be drawn would be one upon the merits of non-co-operation and upon the case of Mr. Gandhi. He has come to the end of his political career. I am told by well-informed friends in India that towards the end of his active life the people of India were getting bored with him. It is always a fortunate thing to know that people are getting bored with...
Mr Thomas Bennett: I have information frequently sent to me from India to the effect that there are 20,000 who have been arrested under the Criminal Law Amendment Act. I want to point out that there are two ways of dealing with the particular kind of trouble we have had lately in India. One process is to proceed under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, which declared certain associations to be illegal, and persons...
Mr Thomas Bennett: Well, the hon. Member may endorse it, but I do not. I wish now to speak briefly on the question of the position of the Civil Service in India, but first I wish to say a very few words about one class of servants of the Government who are not in the Indian Civil Service, but whose case seems to me to have been a hard one. It is known to a good many Members of this House that the class of...
Mr Thomas Bennett: My references to that matter related, not to the Indian Civil Service, but to a number of other Departments—Police, Public Works, and so on. I objected to the time bar by a rule which prevented those who retired before 1913 getting the increase of pension, but not to the Indian civilian.
Mr Thomas Bennett: Will the Noble Lord forgive me if I say my question had nothing whatever to do with the increase in the cost of living? It was a pre-War claim, and before the War it was decided in favour of the pensioners.
Mr Thomas Bennett: 69. asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport whether he is aware of the serious extent to which the home timber trade is being handicapped by the continuance of high railway charges, while home-grown timber fetches only 25 per cent. more than before the War, as well as by the difficulty of competing against foreign supplies, which enjoy lower rates owing to the fact that...
Mr Thomas Bennett: I feel sure that the Postmaster-General will welcome any suggestion that may be helpful to him in reducing the charges of his Department. Has he explored the field of possible economy which is to be found in the curtailment of deliveries in rural districts? I happen to live on a hill top a mile from a village. I have gone there in the expectation of living a quiet and peaceful life, and an...
Mr Thomas Bennett: 3. asked the Under-Secretary of State for India if a Retrenchment Committee, as agreed to between the Government of India and the Legislative Assembly, has been constituted; if not, will he state the reason for delay; and whether the terms of the reference have been drawn up?
Mr Thomas Bennett: 4. asked the Under-Secretary of State for India if he will submit a statement showing the number of Hindus elected to the Legislative Assembly and the respective provincial legislative councils and the number of Brahmins elected to each?
Mr Thomas Bennett: 5. asked the Under-Secretary of State for India if two offers, one by a British and the other by an Indian firm, have been received to construct and work a direct wireless service between India and Great Britain under licence and in accordance with Government requirements as outlined by the British Post Office authorities; and whether a decision on these offers will be arrived at without...
Mr Thomas Bennett: I would like to put to the hon. Member for Chippenham (Mr. G. Terrell) the question, who is ultimately to find the money which is to be expended? The money is to be found by the taxpayer in India, and his representative in the Legislative Assembly has given a clear indication of the way in which he wishes the money to be laid out. I have heard in India from people not well disposed to the...
Mr Thomas Bennett: This measure, in its previous stage, was subjected to comment mostly of a very useful nature. It has also been subjected to comment of a singularly useless and inept nature. Not many weeks ago I had the opportunity of discussing the railway question in India with Mr. Gandhi. I say "discussing," although it was a rather one-sided conversation. I put before him the railway problem in India, as...
Mr Thomas Bennett: I do not propose to follow the hon. Baronet (Sir J. D. Rees) into the by-paths which he trod, but I should like to suggest to him that it would be a little worthier of his high ability and experience if he would devote them to something better than queering the pitch for the League of Nations. We do not all share his views in regard to the League of Nations. We do not regard it as moribund....
Mr Thomas Bennett: I have been appealed to three times by the last speaker, and that appeal I cannot resist even had it been made only once. He asked me to explain the details of this Bill. I am in sympathy with the general purposes of the Bill, but I make the frank confession that I trusted so fully to the good feeling and the capacity of my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Torquay (Colonel Burn) that I...
Mr Thomas Bennett: 43. asked the Undersecretary of State for the Colonies whether at the forthcoming public sales of ex-enemy property in Tanganyika territory the provisions of Article 7 in the draft East Africa Mandate will be adhered to, and no racial differentiation will be imposed upon bidders?
