It must be in the recollection of many of your Lordships that about four years ago there was a kind of Crisis in the Existence of the National system, in consequence of the declared hostility of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to the principle of the system, and their special denunciation of the model schools, from which they caused a general, and in some instances a total withdrawal of the Roman Catholic pupils.

In 1906 the late Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman before the election said it would be dealt with at the earliest available opportunity; in 1909 the Bill was introduced; and in January, 1910, and especially in December, 1910, the bishops of the Welsh Church recognised they were in the Crisis of Their Existence.

Depend upon it, that if the House of Commons is not immediately and helpfully associated with the work which is now being done, if it has not played a useful and valuable part for the British people in the greatest Crisis of Their Existence, there will be inflicted a wound on the repute and authority of this House from which recovery will be very slow, and from which, possibly, it may never recover in our time.

In this Crisis of Their Existence, at least six companies in my constituency have made appeals for public assistance.

They can be helped when they need to be helped, but I cannot think of a recent example of the whole of an industry facing a Crisis of Existence in a period of only a few months.

There is a real Crisis in Existence as the Defence Medical Services were short of about 2,500 personnel as at 1st June this year.

I accept, as I am bound to do, that on the world stage many languages are today facing a Crisis of Existence.