All the evidence showed that the unrest which preceded Arabi's movement was caused, not by political or military affairs, but by something like an Economic Crisis.

They had been warned by the Royal Commissioners that a period of an Economic Crisis had arrived, and in the judgment of the Commission the time was favourable for legislation.

Side by side with that revolution Ireland, as an agricultural country, had been passing through an Economic Crisis.

The question of the maintenance of the Constitution in Ireland, and the right of the Irish people to live in their homes, and to be relieved of the effects of an Economic Crisis over which they have no control, will be tested and tried by the Government.

The growth of 459 pauperism and just discontent were quickened, and the action of Her Majesty's Government itself, in many ways, proved that it was conscious that a Grave Economic Crisis existed in Ireland.

He says—"When you come to a full and peaceful possession of the country you will find yourselves face to face with an Economic Crisis".

The Economic Crisis was over.

If there was no limit of the description of the Amendment put in they would have to argue as to when a Grave Economic Crisis had arisen.

When you demonetise the old complete silver 943 currency and begin to replace it by one which is not all silver, there is is a Terrible Economic Crisis at once.

He appealed to me, on the ground of historic sentiment and morality and the fear of an Economic Crisis arising if this Bill were carried into law, to withdraw it and to adopt some other method.

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN: But if my hon. Friend's line of reasoning is right, the Economic Crisis will follow also as a temporary measure, and the disturbance of prices also will follow, as well as the rather doubtful morality vis à vis the West African native—all these direful consequences which my hon. Friend suggests will follow the reduction in the fineness of silver coins will follow on the substitution of paper for a silver coinage.

There is another cause which is always of the very highest importance in any kind of Economic Crisis similar to the one through which the world is passing.

Progressive depression in the coal trade led, at the end of July, to a Grave Economic Crisis, which threatened to result in a disastrous industrial conflict.

It seems clear that had we not returned to the gold standard at that time and in that way, and had we postponed it for a little, keeping in view our exports, the coal industry would never have been plunged into the Economic Crisis which eventuated in the industrial trouble.

A report presented by one of the Departments of the Board of Trade dealing with the position in France gave a very good account of the monetary problem there, and it pointed out: "If financial restoration is urgent and in dispensable, it will be vain to deny that it will evoke a Grave Economic Crisis, temporary of course, and one that all countries have experienced in carrying out their currency reconstruction".

in the exports by bulk of cotton piece goods is another element which ought to warn the hon. Member that there is an Economic Crisis upon us at the present moment; and if he wanted a final and concluding argument, I should have thought that the fact that the numbers of the unemployed had increased by just about 1,000,000 in one year would prove that we are in fact in the throes of a very grave crisis indeed.

That is the second reason why we say that this Bill, which we are quite ready to discuss on academic lines, is fatal in the present circumstances and in the Present Economic Crisis, from the point of view of the very problems it is designed to solve.

I appeal to hon. Members to think of these things in relation to the Economic Crisis that this country has to face.

It is at this moment, in the middle of an Economic Crisis such as we are facing, that the Government lightheartedly introduce a Bill of this kind, opening up vistas of unlimited expenditure in the more distant future and costing in the immediate future very much more than they estimate, utterly out of touch with the needs of the moment, reducing the standard of living of the working classes, reducing the employing power of the employing classes and calculated, not to diminish, but, positively, greatly to increase unemployment.

I quite agree with hon. Members that we are facing a Great Economic Crisis, but who is responsible for it?

Mr. DALTON: My right hon. Friend is informed that the grounds on which the Hungarian Government have hitherto refused to ratify the agreement of the 31st of October are two-fold: first, an objection to the increased payments provided for in the agreement, secondly, the existing Economic Crisis which makes it impossible to forecast the financial position of Hungary.

When it comes to the time which has been chosen for the introduction of this Measure, I wonder whether a time of Grave Economic Crisis, which can only be surmounted by the best brains and the best business capacity of this country is really suitable for the ill-timed jest of disfranchising both business and learning.

In my view, the humiliating position of the Government to-day—and it has been humiliating enough—arises primarily from their failure to face the Economic Crisis with which this country is confronted.

I do not wish to dwell on the Serious Economic Crisis which is confronting Australia.

In the Present Economic Crisis we ought to practise the greatest economy possible, and for that reason these appeals ought to be carried out in an economic manner.

The country is going through an Economic Crisis.

We are passing through an Economic Crisis perhaps unparalleled in our history but certainly unparalleled for a century.

To-day, in the midst of an Economic Crisis, instead of considering what we can do to give work to the work-less, to restore confidence now sadly lacking, to give hope where hope is 90 almost dead, we are monkeying with the electoral machinery to save a half-dead party.

In the position in which we are to-day, confronted with a Great Economic Crisis, it would be far better to have a Government with a majority that could govern rather than a continuance of the present situation.

That illustrates the point that the mal-distribution of gold has played no insignificant part in producing the Present Economic Crisis.

Mr. WISE: Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether the problem of the Economic Crisis was referred to the 290 Economic Council to be discussed by members of that Council?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN: His Majesty's Government have recently received an assurance from the Suez Canal Company that all possible economies consistent with efficiency have been carried out both as regards personnel and as regards works on the canal, while the diminution of traffic owing to the Economic Crisis and the recent reduction of dues will entail a considerable decrease in the amount of directors' fees.

Therefore, the tariff countries and the non-tariff countries had their periods of industrial progress and prosperity before the Acute Economic Crisis took place in this country and in the world.

I do not know whether it is always realised in this House how great is the Economic Crisis through which India has been passing.

I should very much like to ask the Under-Secretary of State whether he can tell the House how they are getting on with finding occupations for these officers when they leave the Service, and whether the Economic Crisis which has hit us so badly to-day has in any way affected our getting suitable numbers and types of applicants for these short service commissions.

Those figures make one think seriously whether, so long as we retain a fighting air force, it is worth while to pursue the cheeseparing policy we have been forced to adopt owing to the Economic Crisis, or whether we ought not to start a campaign throughout the country to proclaim that expenditure on the Services is not a wanton expenditure, is not, profligate expenditure or expenditure that is tempting people to fight each other, but is the best form of national insurance until the world ideal—to which.

He should make it clear that this is merely a temporary expedient to meet an Economic Crisis, and that as soon as things have come right, or even earlier, the teachers will be one of the first sections of society to be considered and to be generously treated by the State.

When we take the young persons in the country as a whole, the burden on one firm or one industry may not be great, but, when we are in an Economic Crisis such as we are still experiencing, I think that industry might justifiably say that this is not the moment in which to be making things more difficult even though it might not be to a very large extent.

Experts all over the world are putting down the prolongation of the Economic Crisis to the question of money.

Future receipts will be influenced by such factors as the diminution of traffic owing to the Economic Crisis and the recent reduction by about 10 per cent.

With more safeguards for the 57 people employed, I would prefer that to the kind of recklessness which has prevailed in many industries during a time of Economic Crisis.

It was very soon followed by the Economic Crisis of 1931.

I can only repeat, as we have so often said in this House, that one day they will be awakened from their slumbers by the working class of the country and of the world, by financial catastrophe, by Economic Crisis, by the poverty and despair of the common people.

What I felt about his speech to-day, though not perhaps to as great a degree as his previous speech, was that the Government qua Government—and a National Government at that—has no more plan at its disposal to-night for dealing with This Economic Crisis represented by grave unemployment than it had when it came into office.

Where else have they made a single attempt to develop a constructive plan for dealing with the vast problem represented by the Economic Crisis?

1771 Europe is to-day dealing with a Great Economic Crisis, but the desire of Europe to see that its anchorage in the land is not carried away is one of the things which Europe will insist upon in the forthcoming conference.

One fourth of that amount or one half of the £360,000,000 used as a loan for capital development, capital expenditure, say, on housing construction in this country would do more good to this country and would help us more quickly to get out of the Economic Crisis than all the exchange equalisation funds in the world.

All this development has created its own crop of problems, and the difficulty of these has been enhanced by the Present Economic Crisis.

Would it be too much to ask that, in This Economic Crisis, the Empire should maintain a united front?

The other was a scheme started in the middle of a Great Economic Crisis, on a large scale.

I think that the Bill to which he is referring must be one introduced to relieve existing settlers in Canada of some of the burden of debt that hangs upon them during This Grave Economic Crisis.

As regards the other matter, I do not want to repeat what I said before, and so I leave it that I do not think it is wise, at this moment of time, to hypothecate £9,500,000 of the taxpayers' money for the purpose of this policy when we are still going through an Economic Crisis.

That scheme was submitted to the Government before the Economic Crisis, and I believe the Unemployment Grants Committee 2040 were prepared to make a grant.

The latter postulates that the amount of over 13 crores at present attributable to the surcharges,"— those are surcharges on taxation put on in the Economic Crisis of 1931, amounting to nearly £10 millions— "should, owing to economic recovery, be produced by taxes at unsurcharged rates.

The policy of the Government which has maintained cheap food supplies of first class quality has played its part in seeing this country through the Economic Crisis.

When the onset of the Economic Crisis became acute in 1930 every Government was driven to consider the malady within its own boundaries, without regard to the state of things amongst its neighbours, although the malady afflicted them in almost precisely the same way.

Can we not well imagine, in the Economic Crisis prevailing, the Chancellor of the Exchequer of some other nation announcing in his constituent assembly "Unfortunately this year we have had to raise taxes, and we shall have to raise them still more, because our expeditionary force against country X has been an additional strain on our resources".

Then with regard to the Territorial camps - and the, camp is to the Territorial the chief object of his existence as a Territorial - it will be remembered that in 1931 a decision was taken in the height of the Economic Crisis to abolish the camps for 1932.

There are still about two crore remaining of the original 10-crore programme started in 1928, and the main reasons for the total sum of money not having been spent are partly the Economic Crisis and partly the face that the Army in India is waiting, I think very wisely to find the latest forms of equipment and the latest experience of the West to add to their own equipment, and they have a certain sum of money still to spend on this important programme.

That went on year after year and it was not until the Economic Crisis, which really swept the Nazis into power, that we began when it was too late to take steps which, earlier, might have stabilised a great political system and created a great country out of the Weimar Republic.

The Chancellor has congratulated himself, and, judged by his standard, he was entitled to congratulate himself, on the different position financially as between 1932 and 1936, although I have the feeling, and I said so at the time, that the Economic Crisis of 1931 was largely an imaginary crisis created by the right hon.Gentleman and his friends when they sat on these benches.

We know that the United States is a land of individualism, and we also know that, as the Minister of Health pointed out, there was no unemployment benefit in America when the Economic Crisis arose.

There is another factor which will influence unassisted migration in the next few years, and that is the dreary and sorrowful experience of so many emigrants from this country during the Economic Crisis which followed the peak years of emigration.

and whether His Majesty's Government propose to take any specific action to prevent a recurrence of conditions which might be considered likely to produce an Economic Crisis similar to that of 1931?

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been drawn to the recent budget proposals of the Swedish Finance Minister under which the Swedish Government are taking definite steps to counteract the normal succession of events associated with a trade cycle; and whether His Majesty's Government propose to take any specific action to prevent a recurrence of conditions which might be considered likely to produce an Economic Crisis similar to that of 1931?

We shall have an Economic Crisis and the men who have been attracted to these places will be left there stranded.

I think an examination of the facts will underline my view that this House and the country at a moment of Economic Crisis were stampeded into doing something which, on closer and calmer investigation, will not hold water.

The troubles at Invergordon were due to the Economic Crisis, which at least His Majesty's present advisers did nothing to bring on.

In fact, it is true to say that we are at the moment passing through a rather severe, although we hope a purely temporary, Economic Crisis.

They have adopted a completely passive attitude in the face of This Economic Crisis.

Just recently, on the top of the fact that our trade has slumped tremendously from year to year, the Economic Crisis on the west coast of Africa has robbed us of what had become one of our best markets.

The balance of trade is being very carefully watched by my right hon. Friend, who does not intend to be caught napping or to be caught on the eve of an Economic Crisis, but there is no real danger.

Herr Hitler came to power in Germany largely because of the 7,000,000 unemployed and of the fearful sufferings of the people during the Economic Crisis.

If the workers here were surging in the streets, if there were an Economic Crisis and it threw up a real Socialist opposition of almost equal numbers to the Government of this country, the ruling classes would say "Democracy is ended".

Since 1931 the refugee has been the first victim of the Economic Crisis.

The right hon. Gentleman referred to the International Labour Office, but he ought to quote the result of their investigation into the Economic Crisis of 1929–31.

We shall certainly be face to face, when the fighting is over and the production of munitions comes to a sudden stop, with the most Serious Economic Crisis that the modern world has ever known.

After all, the Weimar Constitution was functioning quite satisfactorily until it was betrayed in 1933 and until the Great Economic Crisis made conditions impossible for it to carry on.

It is true that during that period of growing Economic Crisis we built up a debt, but I am not ashamed of that.

It began to grow very rapidly in the late Thirties when the pressure of the Economic Crisis began to pass, and in 1939 the expenditure had risen to £19,000,000.

He went on to say:It would seem, therefore, that if new light is to be thrown on this grave and clamant problem - he was talking about the Economic Crisis at that time - it must, in the first instance, receive examination through a non-political body free altogether from party exigencies and composed of persons possessing special qualifications in economic matters.

That was coincident with an Economic Crisis.

The answer I would give to the hon. Gentleman is that at this moment of Economic Crisis nationalisation is not the method to use.

These elections were followed by threats of disturbances and strikes promoted by the unsuccessful Social Democrat and Communist Parties, which, if implemented, could only worsen the Present Economic Crisis.

During the years between the Economic Crisis of 1931 and the approaching menace of war, I tried to put forward the view that it was wrong to apply a simple and single solution to a complex and diverse problem.

If, for example, there was an Economic Crisis that depressed the£ catastrophically, it would be quite senseless to expect farmers to receive a price for their products that bore a sterling value not in relation to their costs of production.

It is the Acute Economic Crisis and the shortage of food which have aggravated these inter-racial feelings.

The other people thought that we were approaching an Economic Crisis and that it was right to conserve their capital and liquid assets.

There is the rise in prices during the scarcity and that will be followed by a fall in prices which may be the prelude to Another Economic Crisis such as happened after the last war.

They see that an Economic Crisis of the gravest character is facing the American people.

I have here a copy of a document called, "The Economic Crisis, Foretold by the 'Daily Mail', 1921–1931", and I find that just as after the first world war, when Members opposite were in power, we had the same type of banner headlines in the Press as we are getting today.

The House will appreciate that an annual census of production is not an instrument of much value at a time of Economic Crisis.

I do not quite see the relevance of the point which the hon. Member was making, but he quoted me as having said that when the American loan had been spent, we should have to work much harder and produce a great deal more - which is the chief object of this Bill - or we should face a Terrible Economic Crisis.

If we have the general provision that all relevant factors are to be taken into consideration we shall, I fear, get a certain hostility to agricultural wages and prices going up when other wages and prices may, owing to the Economic Crisis, be falling down.

Does the Minister think that in Our Present Economic Crisis the country can afford a 35-hour week?

I would say to the new Minister, and to the Parliamentary Secretary, who, I agree with another hon. Member, has had a heavy burden, that they should press ahead and retain this priority in other fields, particularly in the technical, industrial field, where I think they will have the sympathy of industry, and the sympathy of those who are grappling with the Economic Crisis.

He will remember that just a fortnight ago, before the Ministry landed us in the Present Economic Crisis, I asked the Minister whether he proposed to continue to insert the advertisements in the newspapers that "We are on the highway to prosperity".

What I would point out, however, is that in so far as it does prove to be an investment the dividend will not come in, if at all, for a considerable number of years, whereas the Economic Crisis that this country is facing with regard to external expenditure is immediate and likely to face us even this year.

It is fatuous to produce a White Paper dealing with Our Economic Crisis, if it does not tell us how long and how far the policy of increasing the ever rocketing cost-of-living subsidy is to be taken.

I think we might implement that statement now, and offer to the miners all the necessary inducements - the maximum food and so on - to get us out of This Economic Crisis.

The President of the Board of Trade said yesterday, and he was quite right, that no temporary solution to This Economic Crisis is possible.

I beg to move, in line 2, to leave out from "1947" to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:and, while recognising the ever increasing gravity of the Economic Crisis and willing to give its support to any practical measures to meet it, regrets that the full facts of the situation have for so long been withheld from the country; and has no confidence in a Government whose actions hitherto have served only to aggravate the national difficulties and whose proposals for the future are either inadequate or injurious.

I have no doubt that the figures were drawn up at a time when we had not reached the Present Economic Crisis, and I am the first to agree that the R.A.F. uniform, and particularly that of the W.A.A.F.

I warn the Financial Secretary that before this Government is very much older, when the Economic Crisis which is now hastening towards us descends upon this country, one of the first things the Treasury will suggest is that they should suspend this programme for rebuilding the naval barracks.

I will not follow him in his dismal prophecy of a slump, and, indeed, I would be out of Order if I were to refer to the Economic Crisis.

I think there is some similarity of thought—the House looks to Lie Government in these days of Economic Crisis for three things.

In the matter of national defence - and here I am not sure that I am not following the very points the right hon. Gentleman mentioned; I think there is some similarity of thought - the House looks to Lie Government in these days of Economic Crisis for three things.

We are all agreed that our defence Forces should be cut to the minimum required, but to carry the idea beyond the realm of safety and into the realm of danger, because of an Economic Crisis, is quite nonsensical.

The merits of the Bill are, therefore, in my opinion, extremely doubtful, but the Opposition will not stand in the way of any step which the Government consider necessary and likely to assist the nation through the Economic Crisis with which we are faced today.

Surely the hon. Member must realise that it would be an Economic Crisis if we had to cut down our imports and still further reduce our standard of living as it exists today?

It would be a difficult and awkward situation and would call for the utmost effort on the part of all the people in this country, but there is quite a difference between a situation like that and the kind of Economic Crisis which occurred in 1931.

Yet the Government are faced with an Economic Crisis.

It is possible that when 1949 comes the pressure of public opinion, and the pressure of Economic Crisis, may render the idea of compulsory service utterly unthinkable.

I am perfectly certain that a very large incentive would have been given to the people in this range of income, and that would have materially helped us to overcome the Economic Crisis.

The main criticism which I would make - and it does not apply to some of the speeches or to the hon. Gentleman who read through one of the ration cards now distributed in Germany - is the fact that we are holding this Debate largely on Germany at a time when Germany is in a state of Economic Crisis - a state of famine.

It caused the Economic Crisis last winter, but there again, although I believe the crisis was avoidable, it was not within the province of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, except as a Member of the Government.

We have all to work together in the future to get through the Great Economic Crisis with which we are now faced, and which may become greater within the next six or 12 months.

It is brought forward because I honestly believe relief in this direction can have a finer effect in helping to get us through Our Economic Crisis than relief in any other direction.

We, the countries of Europe, as I see it, have to meet an Economic Crisis which will reach its peak in the next 12 months- perhaps in the next six months.

I believeour agricultural workers are also going to be largely responsible for whether or not this country will ride the coming Economic Crisis.

There is not the slightest doubt that we are passing through a Great Economic Crisis.

Therefore, I believe that our subject, far from being an academic subject, is the most practical in the world, and absolutely vital to present discussions on the Economic Crisis.

We cannot face the shame, however Great the Economic Crisis might be, of letting the continuation portion of this Act break down again.

As a background to what I have to say I can refer to what both the Minister and the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Saffron Walden (Mr. R. A. Butler) have said about the importance, in the Present Economic Crisis, of having at our disposal, in research departments of industry, and in industry generally, the greatest amount of scientific knowledge we can possibly bring to bear.

If the objection were only on personal grounds we might not feel so strongly, although we feel that it should be strongly pressed, but it is on national grounds, against the gloomy background not only of world food shortage but of the need in these islands to look inwards and to make the most of our natural resources that we feel strongly; for this House is bound, in these days of 808 Economic Crisis, to look to the farmer and to the importance of not doing anything that can be avoided to injure the national industry of agriculture.

France is faced with an Economic Crisis at least as grave as our own and at least as pressing.

I put it to the House that since 1929, the year of a Great Economic Crisis, no country in the world, except Germany, has ever recovered from that crisis; no country ever got back to its production or trade in volume or value, apart from Germany, except during the war period.

I hope that it will be realised that so far as engineering is concerned we have a great body of wholesome support for any worthwhile effort, whether it be for war or to bring this country through an Economic Crisis such as we now have before us.

In times of Economic Crisis and difficulty it is essential to have a policy, and not to wait for it until we can get the Government servants to help us to make it.

Therefore, we must have in the operation of this Bill firm measures to deal with the black market, we must have equality of sacrifice, and, by that, we will get that will to work which will pull this country out of the Economic Crisis.

They are facing an Economic Crisis.

The first was the Economic Crisis which arose because of the ecclesiastical and trade policy of the Tudors, which resulted in the troubles that came about after the dissolution of the monasteries and the suppression of the Guilds.

The doubt which we are removing is whether the powers can be used for dealing with This Economic Crisis.

After all, the purposes of this Bill, as expressed in Clause 1, are for the purposes of:promoting the productivity of industry, commerce and agriculture; for fostering and directing exports and reducing imports, or imports of any classes, from all or any countries and for redressing the balance of trade,or, as the hon. and learned Member for Northampton said, to deal with the Economic Crisis.

There is the view that a group of able and ruthless men are seizing the opportunity to impose a totalitarian system of Government in this country, the opportunity being the Present Economic Crisis.

They press me every time I go there to say why it is that only a section of us are asked to give everything in order to save this country in an Economic Crisis.

In the course of his peroration to a long speech last Thursday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer suggested that during the Recess we should ponder, study and explain the Economic Crisis to our constituents.

The Prime Minister has assured us that this Bill was only required in order to enable us to weather the Economic Crisis and that this Clause we are discussing was necessary to make sure that it was legal to enforce the existing Act.

We are passing through not only an Economic Crisis but an industrial revolution, which it would be dangerous to ignore.

The purposes should be the policy of the Government to deal with This Economic Crisis, and I venture to say that the great majority of Members on the Benches opposite are not happy about that policy.

The justification of the whole of this Bill is the Economic Crisis we are facing.

Surely, the Government could have seen This Economic Crisis looming up over a long period.

On the general issue, can we have an assurance from the right hon. Gentleman that he will not be panicked by the Economic Crisis into a reduction of the Armed Forces below the safety level?

I appeal to them from this House of Commons to give us all they can in the Present Economic Crisis that this country has to face.

The Economic Crisis has been before the country for a long time, and we were all under the impression that there were some grounds for thinking that it had by-passed the Government.

All of us are anxious at this time not only about the international situation but about our economic affairs at home, and I am convinced that the international deterioration finds adequate reflection in Our Economic Crisis here at home, that there is a link between the two, for Eastern Europe can provide much of what we need, without any dollars having to be paid.

In view of the Economic Crisis, this Session is bound to be a critical one for the people and for the Government.

It was inevitable that we should find in the very forefront of the Gracious Speech some reference to the Economic Crisis, the inexorable aftermath of modern warfare in which there are no victors, and which has caught the whole of Europe in this great crisis which we are now facing.

I do not pretend to do so myself—to understand the extent of an Economic Crisis which we wish to ward off until such time as the economic crisis actually hits us in terms of hunger and unemployment.

All sorts of people are urging that we should over-rapidly demobilise our Armed Forces, and many people are using the Economic Crisis and the un- 370 doubted manpower shortage in order to clear out of Europe because they wish, for quite different reasons, that Europe may be laid at the mercy of the new Communist tyranny.

It is not a bit easy to those untutored in economics - and, after all, the average man does not know very much about economics; I do not pretend to do so myself - to understand the extent of an Economic Crisis which we wish to ward off until such time as the economic crisis actually hits us in terms of hunger and unemployment.

He chose one of his chief Ministers, the Minister of Fuel and Power, following the good Socialist custom of going to the same public school, from his own public school, and if this crisis is resolved it may later be said that the British Economic Crisis was solved on the playing fields of Winchester.

[But humbly regret that the Gracious Speech, while clearly revealing the intention of Your Majesty's Government to continue their partisan policies, gives no assurance of the national leadership, the administrative competence, or the measures necessary to meet the Economic Crisis and so give relief to Your people from their ever increasing hardships.

We shall, as I have said, come through This Economic Crisis, but let us beware of giving up any one of our spiritual rights, because when we lose those, we not only lose them, but we lose the right and the very means of getting them back.

Forty nations are spending, in this time of Economic Crisis, something like £7,000 million per annum on the preparation for war, which is £2,500 millionmore than was being spent in 1938, before that terrible war started.

We shall come through This Economic Crisis.

We are in for a Grave Economic Crisis.

I understand that we are in a Serious Economic Crisis.

I would like to ask whether there is one hon. or right hon. Gentleman present who attaches to the Government of the day the whole responsibility for This Serious Economic Crisis.

As he has been attacked, may I in his defence - he does not really want a defence - quote a short sentence from his article in which he says:In any review of the Present Economic Crisis, the first thing that must be stated is that we are victims of a dreadful catastrophe … The average citizen has tended to regard the breakdown of the experiment in convertibility and the virtual exhaustion of our dollar resources as a matter of comparative indifference.

But I beg the House to remember what, in face of an Economic Crisis, we are up against.

Mr. Blackburn asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether, in view of the vital contribution which scientists, particularly those with University education, can make towards national economic recovery, he will give an assurance that despite the Present Economic Crisis there will be no reduction in the financial assistance and priorities which are being given to the expansion of the capacity of the universities of this country to provide us with more scientific manpower as rapidly as possible.

Mr. Janner asked the President of the Board of Trade whether any modifications are to be made in the plans for the 1951 Exhibition as a result of the Economic Crisis.

I beg to move, at the end of the Question, to add:But humbly regret that the Gracious Speech, while clearly revealing the intention of Your Majesty's Government to continue their partisan policies, gives no assurance of the national leadership, the administrative competence, or the measures necessary to meet the Economic Crisis and so give relief to Your people from their ever increasing hardships.

This is a formidable issue to fling out at this time of Economic Crisis - at this time when, in full peace, despotic wartime powers are ruling - and to be flung out, not as a result of grave historic and prolonged constitutional controversies, but as a cheap, paltry, disreputable deal between jarring nonentities in a divided Administration.

The Opposition know this - that the cause of the Economic Crisis today is not the Labour Party or the Labour Government.

I am referring to the international crisis which is already developing in the world before our eyes, and which may easily overtake the present Economic Crisis.

Finally, I would ask the House to look a little beyond and see whether I am not right in saying that behind This Immediate Economic Crisis there is a very much greater one ahead.

I believe that the case made out by hon. Members opposite is based on the fallacy that there is really big common ground of agreement which might be reached between all parties of this House on how This Economic Crisis could be dealt with.

Which Amendment was, at the end of the Question, to add: "But humbly regret that the Gracious Speech, while clearly revealing the intention of our Majesty's Government to continue their partisan policies, gives no assurance of the national leadership, the administrative competence, or the measures necessary to meet the Economic Crisis and so give relief to Your people from their ever increasing hardships".

The British Gliding Association and the Royal Aero Club have decided that the International Gliding Competition could not be satisfactorily conducted in this country next year owing to the Economic Crisis and the consequent restrictions.

We heard statements about the Economic Crisis made yesterday and today by Members opposite.

Sometimes it is a Grave Economic Crisis, sometimes it is a manufactured thing, and sometimes it is supposed to have been created almost deliberately by the Prime Minister and his colleagues.

I regret it, because I myself believe that the people of this country, exhausted though they are by six years of war, discouraged by rationing and by the prospect of long austerity, if they are united, can show the world that they are still capable of doing what they did during the war, and of showing that endurance and that courage that alone will bring us through the Economic Crisis.

The Government have no leader, they have no team, and they have no plan, and we cannot in war win battles without these three, and, in peace, we cannot get out of an Economic Crisis and set our feet on the way to prosperity without them.

I am sure the Government will lose far more from the point of view of our recovery from the Economic Crisis by insisting on the abolition of the bask petrol ration than can be possibly gained by saving dollars.

That is the answer, and if that answer is not good enough, let us see what the Government themselves said when we were on the brink of This Economic Crisis.

This regulation is akin to the line which the Nazis took in Germany and the Fascists in Italy when they were faced with an Economic Crisis.

We feel that it is necessary in view of the Economic Crisis with which the country is faced and that we must re-deploy our labour force to see that it is used on necessary things.

Those who have argued that when Parliament has given the Government sweeping powers to deal with the Economic Crisis they should not have used these powers to introduce this order in this way, but should have waited and introduced the power in some other way, are disregarding the fact that in dealing with this situation speed is of the essence.

We are faced with an Economic Crisis, and the general world dollar shortage, which reflects the disparity of production between the new and old world, strikingly emphasises the importance of the resources of the Colonial Empire.

Economic Crisis, causes of, 199–205, 210.

they say we ought to have dealt first with the composition of the Upper Chamber; and they say that we are distracting attention from the Economic Crisis, and that this is not the time or place to deal with the House of Lords.

If we had proposed to abolish the House of Lords, I could have understood the complaint that we were embarking on big constitutional changes in the middle of an Economic Crisis.

We have just listened to a learned and lengthy essay in constitutional history and practice, and' I cannot help thinking that if anyone had come into this Chamber, like Rip Van Winkle or some other person returning from a long absence, he would have had the greatest difficulty in realising that this country was in the middle of the greatest, most Serious Economic Crisis it had ever faced in its history.

They say that we have no mandate for it; they say we ought to have dealt first with the composition of the Upper Chamber; and they say that we are distracting attention from the Economic Crisis, and that this is not the time or place to deal with the House of Lords.

I do not believe that this Measure is going to divert anybody's attention from the Economic Crisis.

Of course, it may well be concerned, after so many of its economists have said what they did a few months ago about the prospects of an Economic Crisis.

Here is the gravest Economic Crisis we have ever known.

They seem to be transferring their affection - particularly the Lord President - with almost indecent speed from the Economic Crisis, which is now the business of the Minister for Economic Affairs, to this topic which they find more alluring, on the principle, I suppose, of the popular song:If I'm not near the girl I love, I love the girl I'm near.

But if they feel that work of that kind would distract thepublic mind at the present time - as well it might - from the Economic Crisis, I say that the same applies to this Bill which they are bringing before the House.

In this interim Budget, in spite of the Economic Crisis my right hon. Friend has not placed on the shoulders of the working people more burdens than they can bear.

In the Difficult Economic Crisis through which this country is passing, the Chancellor deserves our highest commendation for keeping in check the wolves who, had they been responsible for the Government today, would have devoured the ordinary men and women.

This is not the occasion to discuss the Government's over-all economic policy, or lack of it; but I claim that the Present Economic Crisis could have been averted by a vigorous implementation at home and abroad of Labour's 1945 programme.

Is it remarkable, when statements of that sort come from the Treasury Bench, that an American newspaper correspondent wired his paper in New York that only the other day he had been to Grimethorpe during the dispute there and a miner said to him, "If this is an Economic Crisis, long may it continue".

It is true that the point has been made that the Orders made under this regulation by the right hon. Gentleman are given a first ending period at the end of 1948, but no one in this Committee who has listened to the speeches, from the Government Benches alone, on the duration of the Economic Crisis, can expect for a moment, or would be so vain and foolish as to hope, that the end of 1948 could be the final period in regard to the continuance of the orders; and certainly the same applies to the power to make them under the regulation.

Mr. Challen asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will issue the White Paper giving detailed information on the cuts which are to be made in capital expenditure in connection with the Economic Crisis.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will issue the White Paper giving detailed information on the cuts which are to be made in capital expenditure in connection with the Economic Crisis.

a week plus overtime, with a clerical staff of five; what is the total weekly wages bill for this extra staff plus the cost of stationery and office; why it is proposed to appoint an assistant ratefixer; and, in view of the Economic Crisis, how he justifies these added overhead charges.

asked the Prime Minister if he will keep the House informed of the talks he and his Cabinet colleagues are having with the Trade Union Congress and Employers' Federation representatives on the steps to be taken to overcome the Economic Crisis, and give an assurance that data disclosed at these talks will be made available to the House; and that any agreements which result will be communicated to the House as soon as possible.

I conclude by saying that the Budget and this Bill, in view of the deepening Economic Crisis, are merely a step in the dark.

I criticise the Profits Tax not so much because of its incidence, but because at this crucial period in Our Economic Crisis, although the Budget and the Finance Bill bear all the hallmarks of having been hastily prepared and produced, something in the nature of an economic and imaginative tax should have been prepared by the Government.

If hon. Members think I am using exaggerated language I would refer them to a recent pamphlet issued by the London Chamber of Commerce, entitled, "A Report on the Economic Crisis".

The House will remember that it was in August of this year - 6th August, I believe - that the Prime Minister announced that the time had come to restrict catering establishments during theperiod of the Economic Crisis.

We can also be proud of one other thing: it is a tribute to this House, as an institution, that, in the midst of world disturbances, the Economic Crisis at home, and fierce party controversy in most fields of political endeavour, we can calmly and reasonably put aside all prejudices to discuss a big Measure of prison reform.

The large sum of money which is literally going West every month unless something is done by my right hon. Friend to stop it, seems a disgraceful thing in this time of Economic Crisis.

Although I believe that the amount of power which is used is an all-electric set is very small, it is only by small mercies that we can hope to get through Our Present Economic Crisis.

H.M.S. "Triumph" is serving on the Mediterranean Station and the issue of the drawing was the sequel to a talk given to the ship's company on the results of the Economic Crisis, and on the consequential necessity for strict economy in the use of rationed foodstuffs.

All of us will wish success to the committee which is being set up, and we trust that, as a result of their efforts, anything which can be done in this line to assist us in Our Economic Crisis will be done.

It would be out of Order, and I would not attempt it, to argue whether nationalising iron and steel is a good thing or not and I will try to keep scrupulously away from any such argument, but I am entitled to say that it is admittedly not a Measure necessary to deal with the Present Economic Crisis.

The Seychelles Government have recently offered His Majesty's Government an interest free loan of £15,000 as a measure of assistance and as a token of solidarity with this country in the Present Grave Economic Crisis.

In the middle of an Economic Crisis of quite unparalleled gravity, so we are told, the right hon. Member for Saffron Walden (Mr. R. A. Butler) today proposes a Measure of fundamental and far-reaching constitutional importance to be agreed between the two parties, no doubt by means of a series of constitutional conferences on the lines proposed by the right hon. Gentleman the senior Burgess for Oxford University (Sir A. Salter) in his speech on the Committee stage.

I believe there is a good commonsense opinion in this country that whatever the goodwill of the Royal Family is, we are faced with a time of Economic Crisis and austerity, that we should start at the top, and that we are not justified in increasing expenditure at this time.

I have been struck during this Debate by the fact that hon. Members on the other side of the House seem to have realised for the first time the true, grim nature of Our Economic Crisis.

There is no need for all this gloom and despondency, because, after all, the success of this Government, and our plan, to conquer This Economic Crisis will, in the end, depend upon the individual workman - whether he has his tail up or whether he has it down.

I say - and I have taken the trouble to get the opinion of my constituents on this matter - that this is not a Bill which should be brought forward in a time of austerity; that the £15,000 which is allowed to Her Royal Highness is sufficient for the time being, as long as we have an Economic Crisis, and that when we come out of the economic crisis it will be time to consider any increases.

Owing to the Economic Crisis no more factories are to be commenced.

What is in Order is the Amendment, which declares that this expenditure is extravagant and unjustifiable at the present moment of Economic Crisis.

If we do not get these buildings, and if we have the 8,000 emergency teachers training in the emergency training colleges in 1948, I ask the Minister are we once again going to have redundancy in the teaching profession, because the buildings are not put there owing to our having sacrificed once again this issue of education on the rocks of a so-called Economic Crisis?

We cannot allow the future of the young children of this country to be shipwrecked once again on the rocks of Economic Crisis, or fear of war, or whatever it is that is being talked about.

We are, in fact, up against the worst Economic Crisis in our long history.

We all know that the Bill has been ticking around Whitehall for over 12 months, long before the Economic Crisis broke upon the country; and, as is not unusual in Government Departments, no attempt has been made to bring the Bill up to date.

We are not entitled at present to demand from the depleted women power of this country the additions to the Women's Services that are suggested and outlined in this Bill, and, by limiting the expenditure and the numbers that can be enrolled under this Bill, we will be doing a really national service in the Present Economic Crisis.

the time to tackle the job of reductions was 2172 last August when the Government hinted that there would probably be an Economic Crisis.

Not now; the time to tackle the job of reductions waslast August when the Government hinted that there would probably be an Economic Crisis.

As I am dealing with the strength of the Armed Forces may I say here that I notice that the hon. Member for West Fife (Mr. Gallacher) has put clown on the Order Paper an Amendment, to leave out from "House" to the end, and to add:deeply concerned at the Serious Economic Crisis facing this country, and the need to utilise the Nation's manpower in useful production, rejects the White Paper (Command Paper No.

May I ask you whether the Amendment standing in my name and the name of the hon. Member for Mile End (Mr. Piratin), namely - leave out from "House" to the end of the Question, and to add:deeply concerned at the Serious Economic Crisis facing this country, and the need to utilise the Nation's manpower in useful production, rejects the White Paper (Command Paper No.

But I am a little disturbed by what I read in the White Paper about the effect of the Economic Crisis - as I suppose: it must be called - on what my right hon. Friend called the "highest priority".

The Opposition have chosen this early opportunity of raising the general subject of trade, because in these times of Economic Crisis it is clearly a subject of vital importance.

Those are some of the steps which take us some of the way towards solving the Economic Crisis.

It is a good business investment today, even though we are faced with an Economic Crisis.

At a time of Grave Economic Crisis, when, as we were told last night, our dollar reserves are at the point of exhaustion, how does this sum compare with the sum that is being spent on civil aviation?

I maintain that these Estimates do not reflect the attitude we should be adopting towards modern warfare, that we cannot afford this money at a time of Economic Crisis, that we are preparing obsolete weapons, that we are throwing away the national money, and that the only real security and defence for this nation in a time of atomic warfare is a fundamental change in our whole international policy.

For instance, we are told that because of the Economic Crisis the uniform cannot be smartened.

If the Government would do that, they could centre attention on the possibility of solving the Economic Crisis which can never be solved through dependence on America and the big dollar boys who run it.

These are large and significant figures, and before this House can feel really satisfied that in This Economic Crisis we can afford that amount of manpower in the Army, we should have a good deal more information than we have already been given.

I protest against being called upon to vote a sum of £194,396,000 at a time of Economic Crisis.

We are not using our labour to the best national advantage, and this aggravates and intensifies the Economic Crisis, and makes it far more difficult to overcome it.

That is the root of our problem and until we put this right we cannot hope to overcome the Present Economic Crisis.

If we are to persuade, or try to persuade, people in an industrial area like Liverpool that there is an Economic Crisis, we have to give them some account of the 20 million whom the other 25 million are working to maintain.

No really effective steps could be taken to deal with the Economic Crisis because any attempt to deal with fundamentals brought opposition from the Liberals.

I wonder how many of them and of the wage earners even now are saying to themselves, "If this is an Economic Crisis, may it continue for ever".

Moreover, the steps necessary to introduce and maintain this iron discipline - the true Socialist planned State - could not be taken rapidly enough to deal with the Present Economic Crisis without so violent a revolution in our whole way of life as to provoke counter-revolution and civil war.

I do not believe that in their hearts even the most sincere and the most devoted adherents of the Socialist or Collectivist faith believe that the mere application of more and better Socialism, hard instead of soft, red instead of pink, could solve Our Present Economic Crisis.

We know too of the Economic Crisis and of the inflation which threaten that small country, despite the generous United States aid which has been offered, and is still being offered.

If that is so, why should we wait until we are faced with the Biggest Economic Crisis this country has ever known, before introducing such a Bill, and then expect people to take us seriously?

Is the Minister aware that, up to even quite recently, the Lord President of the Council was not aware that there was an Economic Crisis?

I think it is a matter for regret that at this late stage in Our Economic Crisis, the Socialist Party have selected for nationalisation an industry which is working well, where the workers are contented, and which is efficient.

At the present time, when the economic condition of this country is so serious that we need to organise the whole of our available manpower for productive and useful purposes, the Armed Forces are swollen out of all proportion, compared with their usefulness in overcoming the Economic Crisis which confronts this country.

At a time of Economic Crisis and of supreme need, when we should have better houses and more goods for the people, when we need more labour employed on the land, we should not dissipate our energies in mobilising our men and women for the purely destructive purposes of what is called "the art of war".

Last year, after all, all that we were frightened of, all that we were seeking to safeguard ourselves against, was an Economic Crisis, a crisis which I think everybody in the House, except perhaps some Members of the Front Bench opposite, knew was bound to break on the country before we reassembled in the ordinary way, a crisis which we knew would have to be met by new and severe burdens, burdens which, I am afraid not in the proper democratic spirit, we thought should be imposed by Debate in this House and not by decree from Downing Street.

The House has been told that the cause of the Economic Crisis today is American capitalism and that the object of Marshall Aid is to keep up the bourgeoisie and keep down the working classes in slavery.

Last year, we were asked to unite because of the Economic Crisis; this year, because of the international situation.

The Amendment then put down by the Opposition said that the Government had failed to show adequate leadership or administrative competence, had revealed no plans for dealing with the Economic Crisis and, as a result, was to be condemned.

He knows quite well that the country has been facing an Economic Crisis which has been arising for years past.

In spite of all these difficulties, in spite of the Economic Crisis which burst upon the Western world last year with the destructive force of a typhoon, we are moving ahead.

Secondly, it was the first stage in the claim for a 42-hour week which, in the Present Economic Crisis, was deferred.

I do so because it seems to me that even a small increase in taxation at present, having regard to the very Serious Economic Crisis which the country is facing, and will increasingly have to face, may have a disastrous effect on the living standards of our people.

If it is a dangerous thing, at a moment of Economic Crisis, to withdraw a generation of young people from industry and keep them out of it for 12 months, then it must be even more mischievous to keep them out of industry for 18 months.

What the Government have said is that, if it is right in times of Economic Crisis that the Government should exercise control over the national resources, national wealth, and national raw materials, it is also right that they should have the power to deploy the national labour force to the best advantage of the community.

I am referring to the Economic Crisis of 1947, which is largely forgotten history today—we have been through such difficult times since then.

We agree in principle that if a woman does the same job as a man she should be paid the same amount, but please do not embarrass us, please realise that there is an Economic Crisis and do not make any demands this year, next year or in the years after".

It is a question of the economic organisation of the whole country, and to produce a large number of effectives standing under arms now merely heightens the international tension when we should do our best to lessen it and, if adopted by my right hon. Friend, would lead to a Grave Economic Crisis here.

The tragedy of doing what the Conservatives have always done when they had to face an Economic Crisis is that the people, who will be most seriously affected and who will have to bear the responsibility and the burden of this new gesture on the part of the Chancellor, are these concerned in the 100 out of the 129 trades in this country, where wages are less than 95s.

Then we came to 1947, when there was an Economic Crisis and, because of the foreign exchange position, the Bill was withdrawn.

but wants the country to drift along in an aimless sort of way, particularly on the economic front, so that we can have an Economic Crisis when perhaps the Tories will get back, which is the only way they will get back.

Presumably, the right hon. Gentleman does not want any campaigns on diphtheria immunisation or road safety; but wants the country to drift along in an aimless sort of way, particularly on the economic front, so that we can have an Economic Crisis when perhaps the Tories will get back, which is the only way they will get back.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Chippenham (Mr. Eccles) rightly pointed out, if we try to spend our way out of This Economic Crisis we shall aggravate the crisis of the balance of payments to a point where it will become absolutely unendurable, and which can result only in a drastic cut in our standard of living.

We believe that it is right, when the world and our country in particular are facing an Economic Crisis, that the cost of a standard of living which we believe to be right and proper should be borne by the whole community.

With the country in an Economic Crisis such as we are faced with now, we cannot afford to have Corporations run in the way in which they are being run.

Two years ago, in August, we ran into an Economic Crisis.

Under this Government, in spite of the Economic Crisis we had two years ago, we have been successful so far in largely shielding education from that kind of economy.

As more than one hon. Member has pointed out, we are discussing these matters under the shadow of impending Economic Crisis and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Devizes (Mr. Hollis) said, in a witty and profound speech, if that economic crisis develops as it may develop, whatever views we may have here about the value of education, the people of the country may have some other priority.

We feel that at a time such as the present, when never was there a greater need to exploit to the full the resources which lie in our soil and beneath it, the Chancellor, in giving a stimulus to the exploiting of every source of our home wealth, will be assisting not only his Budget in future years by the increased yield of taxation which will be brought in, but will also be assisting in the solution of the Economic Crisis which was explained to us today.

Is the Minister aware that mad expenditure by his Department is one of the main reasons for the Economic Crisis?

Of the alternatives open to the Government in facing the Economic Crisis, the Chancellor chose the grim expedient of transferring to the shoulders of the citizens the onus of getting Britain out of her financial troubles.

I appreciate that the lockout has resulted in very serious injury to the economy of the country at a moment when no serious person can tolerate a further heightening of Our Economic Crisis.

I confess that I feel more inclined to be highly critical upon the first two propositions, and on the subject of the burden of the Death Duties simply to express my great regret that this section of the Revenue should be called upon to raise a large sum of money in order to help us through Our Present Economic Crisis and difficulties - but I will deal with that matter at the end of my remarks.

Mr. Granville asked the Prime Minister if he will consider inviting an all-party committee to investigate national public expenditure and the public services in order to give a lead towards greater efficiency and economy as an example and a contribution to the national effort in dealing with the Economic Crisis.

The hon. Member for Houghton-le-Spring (Mr. Blyton) made obviously a very sincere speech, and he threw some light on why the Socialist Party have involved us in an Economic Crisis.

The Government have given a day for the Economic Crisis as well, namely, next Monday.

I do not believe that the truly desperate nature of the Economic Crisis is apparent to the Government even as late as today.

I do not propose to go over, as we have done in previous Debates, the reasons for the recent troubles in Malaya because, fortunately, they are to a considerable extent passing away, but they have left behind them, on the wrong side of the balance, great financial burdens on Malaya, and they are the cause of the Acute Economic Crisis which has overcome that country.

I would remind the Committee that only on Monday we debated what was called a Serious Economic Crisis, and that that crisis has not yet been solved.

If we are about to face an Economic Crisis or blizzard in this country, as had been referred to by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister, I cannot imagine that the Chancellor of the Exchequer - in an industry which will have the power of life or death over not only our internal production and manufacture of engineering industries, but in the majority of the export trades - will allow the Minister to leave with the Corporation absolute and complete control over the iron and steel industry in the six, nine, or 12 vital months ahead.

In view of the fact that the acting Leader of the House has said that we may have to sit on Monday and Tuesday of next week, it is quite obvious that it will be our duty on this side of the House to move the Adjournment in view of the Impending Economic Crisis.

The first is that we ought not to experiment with a key industry, because we are in a time of Economic Crisis.

My hon. and right hon. Friends and I put down this Vote for discussion today because we thought it would be a good opportunity for the Minister of Agriculture to tell the House and the country to what extent the agricultural industry is making a contribution to the Economic Crisis.

We do not want to see a repetition of that in the Colonies if Economic Crisis should come to the United States of America.

No doubt the Government will say that the Economic Crisis is responsible for slowing down the programme, but my criticism is not that the programme has been slowed down, but that the Government, although it is supposed to stand for a planned economy, has so far failed to fix a definite programme which would enable manufacturers to plan ahead and, as a result, bottlenecks occur and expansion does not take place in the industry as it ought, the price of sets still remains too high and the chance of establishing an export market is gradually dwindling.

There are many on both sides of the political fence who will seek either to destroy the advantages gained over years of patient effort by many other than members of political parties, or else to use the Economic Crisis as a means of forcing a political or economic revolution.

Yet we are faced with a Great Economic Crisis because the sellers' market has now become a buyers' market.

We are repidly drawing to the end of the second day's Debate on This Economic Crisis.

They have produced one Economic Crisis after the other.

and in This Economic Crisis is it not more than ever necessary to conserve salvage and make the fullest use of it?

Does the right hon. Gentleman think that the relaxation of the Government's attitude in this matter has given people the right idea about the necessity to be careful in this regard; and in This Economic Crisis is it not more than ever necessary to conserve salvage and make the fullest use of it?

He has not said anything at all about the Economic Crisis which is upon us.

Devaluation was forced on him for the simple reason that the Economic Crisis is fundamentally a crisis of confidence, and unless devaluation is accompanied by greatly increased production and greatly reduced expenditure it is a completely empty gesture.

because it was a Bill which would go far to expose the country to the danger of single Chamber Government; and lastly—and this, today, is true in every sense of the word—because the Bill could only serve to distract the attention of the country from the Economic Crisis and from the united effort towards recovery which was so vital at that time.

This House can only approve of the very remarkable Amendment moved two years ago by the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords, when he asked the House of Lords to reject the Bill on three grounds, all of which are perfectly valid today: because it was a Bill for which the nation had expressed no desire; because it was a Bill which would go far to expose the country to the danger of single Chamber Government; and lastly - and this, today, is true in every sense of the word - because the Bill could only serve to distract the attention of the country from the Economic Crisis and from the united effort towards recovery which was so vital at that time.

When this Bill was introduced for the second time in September last year, the Economic Crisis had grown in intensity.

He must admit that the Economic Crisis is greater than ever since 1947 and the need for exports is more urgent and greater than ever before.

[That this House regrets that, in view of the necessity in the Present Economic Crisis to give a lead to all sections of the community, no proposal was made in the Prime Minister's statement to the House of 24th October to effect a reduction in the salaries of Ministers and Members of Parliament, respectively, of 25 per cent.

It is also dangerous to continue the illusion in the minds of the workers that, somehow or other, Our Economic Crisis can be overcome by "soaking the rich" still further.

It is being introduced just after the official announcement of Our Economic Crisis, and one wonders whether it is the first of the Government's measures for restoring our financial equilibrium.

We are told that the revenue to be raised is in the nature of £13 million, but, actually, the issues involved in the efforts to overcome the Economic Crisis, which efforts may be seriously endangered by this Bill, are far more important than a matter of £13 million.

Example, however, is better than precept, and if the Government are asking—and how necessary it is that they should ask—everybody to make sacrifices of one kind or another, what a grand lead it would have been had the Government said, "In view of the Economic Crisis we are prepared to delay the procedure so far as this Bill is concerned".

When this Bill was first introduced in November, 1947, it was a time of Economic Crisis, and both the Government and the nation were beginning to realise the seriousness of the situation.

The country is facing a Grave Economic Crisis, and it is the duty of the Government to concentrate their measures and public attention entirely on that crisis and on the steps taken to deal with it.

The country is facing a grave Economic Crisis, and it is the duty of the Government to concentrate their measures and public attention entirely on that crisis and on the steps taken to deal with it.

Would not the Minister agree that the intrusion of political bias into economic affairs is the main reason for the Economic Crisis?

In view of the criticisms made about the causes of Our Economic Crisis, we are tntitled to demand that in any arrangements, in commonly agreed foreign policies and commonly signed treaties and so on, we should not have to bear a disproportionate part of the cost.

Is not folly of this kind responsible for Our Economic Crisis?

In view of this disgraceful revelation, what disciplinary action does the Chancellor propose to take against the Ministries concerned, and when will he realise that under Socialist State control, administration breaks down which brings ruin, and is one of the main reasons for the Economic Crisis?

we have a world in Economic Crisis with abundance in some countries and starvation in others; we have a world where millions of people are still struggling for their political liberties and where, over one-fifth of its surface, the elementary rights of thought, speech, writing, worship and expression are denied.

We have, today, a world divided and in danger of war; we have a world in Economic Crisis with abundance in some countries and starvation in others; we have a world where millions of people are still struggling for their political liberties and where, over one-fifth of its surface, the elementary rights of thought, speech, writing, worship and expression are denied.

We are definitely on the brink of an Economic Crisis, which will need careful handling, and I would say to the Lord President that, if he is more moderate in his speeches, he will get co-operation from the Opposition, but that he cannot expect us now to take what we had to take in the last Parliament, because we are boxing better and have had some reinforcements.

If we concede that it is asking too much of the Government to abandon nationalisation altogether, they must, in fairness, concede to us that it is equally impossible for us to concede our apposition to a Measure which we consider to be diametrically opposed to the national interest, a Measure which we consider very ill-timed at a moment of Grave Economic Crisis, which is going, at best, to interrupt and dislocate the progress of a key industry and, at worst, to impose that industrial and administrative arthritis that always attends the setting up of one of these public monopolies.

We have been talking in this House about an Economic Crisis for the last 18 months.

As we get out of the Economic Crisis we shall resolutely move forward much more quickly than we can today.

Guest, Keen and Nettlefold's may earn in times of Great Economic Crisis and distress; and as long as we still have people living on the community and rendering no profitable service for that community, while drawing far more than they are giving, to the best of their ability by physical or mental labour.

The reason given was that the Economic Crisis - I think that that was the expression used by the Minister - had necessitated a curtailment of the capital expenditure programme.

I submit that this is a matter of vital importance and that our attitude towards the raising of salaries for work of this kind is something quite apart from the normal view one should take of salary questions at this time of Economic Crisis.

I am sure that he recalls that one of the chief objects of the tariff which has been described to the Committee was that it was a Revenue tariff to help balance the Budget after the Economic Crisis.

My hon. Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale (Mr. Erroll) referredto the cuts in capital expenditure imposed last autumn by the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time of the Economic Crisis - £25 million on the right hon. Gentleman's Ministry mostly on capital expenditure for electricity.

What happened was that there was an Economic Crisis and his own party tendered their resignation.

A few months ago, it seemed, to most of us, that our economic recovery had reached a stage where we could allay the feeling of insecurity which had been with us since the war, and the possibility of Another Major Economic Crisis, with its renewed austerity, seemed to have receded.

People do not say that we are facing a Dire Economic Crisis, which I believe to be the position - a view to which the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, North, subscribed when he said that we could pay neither for our own living nor for our own defence.

We think that is rather more important today in the present financial situation and in the Economic Crisis with which this country is to be faced, than to turn the House of Commons into an annexe of the Tory Central Office for electioneering purposes.

The right hon. Gentleman has reminded us of the Economic Crisis into which this country was then plunged.

The Israeli Government is now in the middle of a Disastrous Economic Crisis.

in the Economic Crisis at that time would have brought this country to ruin and bankruptcy.

If the pre-war figure of £1 million for sinking a shaft has already gone up, on 1949 prices, to £5 million, what will it be like in 1951 and 1952 if the Economic Crisis develops?

As a result of that position, we shall face an Economic Crisis.

The Economic Crisis of 1931 and the present crisis are two entirely different economic phenomena.

There is no doubt that the main problem with which this Parliament is faced is an extremely serious financial and Economic Crisis.

The late Chancellor of the Exchequer in his speech last week, to which I have already referred, criticised us not so much because we were proposing to denationalise the steel industry - though I have no doubt he is opposed to it - but because we were choosing to introduce this Measure at a moment when the country was in the throes of an Economic Crisis.

We are criticised for bringing in this Measure at a time of Economic Crisis.

We are convinced that if we are to get through This Economic Crisis we need to have the iron and steel industry working at maximum efficiency.

We discovered during these last six and a half years what the Government will discover now, that the major difficulty confronting us and confronting the nation in seeking economic independence is that, for the first time for 30 or 40 years - the first time in my lifetime - the basic industries of this country are meeting the full impact of an Economic Crisis, working at full pressure at full employment, and are proving inadequate for the task.

For these reasons, therefore, despite the general unanimity towards the Bill, I think that it might have been deferred until we have overcome the Economic Crisis which now faces the nation and until the time is more appropriate, when it could have had the blessing of everybody in the House.

Since neither of the right hon. Gentlemen have tried to do it, let me say what, I think, are the basic factors underlying the Present Economic Crisis.

The Government are not facing up to the real cause of Our Economic Crisis.

Although we had a number of generalisations and "smart Alec" debating points, we received from him and, indeed, from the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he made his statement the other day, not one single contribution to deal with the underlying reasons for the Economic Crisis.

So even if there had been no second World War we should sooner or later, unless there had been a complete reorientation in the economic views of hon. Gentlemen opposite, have been arriving at a very Serious Economic Crisis.

Last week the House debated the Economic Crisis.

Is the Present Economic Crisis being used as an excuse for slowing down the Plan?

A number of hon. Members on both sides of the House have said that the Economic Crisis we are now facing is a 20-year crisis; it goes back deeply into the past and it is going to last for a very long time in the future.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the President of the Board of Trade, are doing it every day because of the Present Economic Crisis.

The Economic Crisis demands that this principle should be strictly applied.

The question is: What re-armament can we afford in 1952 in an entirely new situation created by an Economic Crisis so severe that the French economy and the French political system of democracy are on the point of collapse, and when hon. and right hon. Gentlemen opposite are spending their time lecturing the country that there will be nothing left in the gold reserve by September and that there will be mass unemployment?

In the long term, by getting labour as quickly as possible into the essential export industries, it will help to overcome the Economic Crisis which is the chief threat to full employment.

We are not unmindful of the realities of the financial and Economic Crisis, and we are not unprepared to support all necessary measures that Her Majesty's Government may introduce to deal with it, but we object most vehemently to the misuse of the national emergency for the purpose of introducing measures of this kind,which are vicious examples of class legislation.

That is an important question, but the great question is whether this Budget will produce the solution to Our Economic Crisis.

That is the way in which hon. Gentlemen opposite regard our national finances at a time of Serious Economic Crisis.

Is it the case of the Government, is it the case of the Minister, that they believe in a free medical service in principle, but not in a time of Economic Crisis?

That was the defence put up for these charges, so to solve the Economic Crisis my constituent, with eczema and asthma, pays the "bob" prescription when he goes to the doctor for drugs and medicines, he than pays £3 for his surgical boots necessitated by infantile paralysis, and finally, he pays his 8s.

It has always been considered by every student of this subject that at a time of Economic Crisis the mobility of the labour force depends directly upon the availability of rentable accommodation.

I am aware of the great capital investment which would be necessary, but I am also aware, as is every other hon. Member, of the tremendous importance to the nation in the Economic Crisis, and to our ordinary economic life, of an efficient and cheap transport system.

One thing I am afraid of is that it may fall too rapidly and precipitate an Economic Crisis.

It is the Chancellor's duty to restore the national solvency, and no arguments, sentimental or critical, will dissuade me from doing my duty, whichis to support any measure, however disagreeable, that is likely to help to overcome the Economic Crisis.

Since the last debate on the subject in the House, there has been a growing appreciation throughout the country of the nature and gravity of the Economic Crisis with which we are faced.

It is that we all feel we are speaking in a world where the food situation is getting worse and not only is an Economic Crisis threatening us but the general food resources of the world, for one reason or another, are becoming less.

That does not seem to me right at this time of Economic Crisis.

We can all make our contribution to facing the Economic Crisis by realising that this is no time to play about with subjects which may plunge us into greater difficulties.

We have to face the fact that this country's economy cannot survive and cannot work if every fluctuation and every vagary in the American market causes here an Economic Crisis or an economic boom.

Faced as we are by This Economic Crisis and as we have now been faced for too long, I believe that what- ever Government is in power they must deal with the problem of making agriculture not only efficient, but also of expanding its production well beyond the target already set.

Hence we have now the situation, so well described by Lord Kirkwood, that the cry of wolf has been made so often that the worker today no longer believes there is an Economic Crisis.

We had been told that we were in the middle of an Economic Crisis, but the first Measure to be introduced was this.

The right hon. Gentleman paid tribute to the vitally important part which the oil refining industry is playing in the Present Economic Crisis.

But at the present time we are told that we face the most Serious Economic Crisis that we have ever known, and it is a question whether, at a time when our people are being asked to make sacrifices, they should not be given a lead from the top and whether some cutting down in the expenditure entailed in this Bill might not well be undertaken without in any way impairing the opportunity of the Royal Family to live the usefuland dignified lives that we all want them to live.

But at the present time we are told that we face the most serious Economic Crisis that we have ever known, and it is a question whether, at a time when our people are being asked to make sacrifices, they should not be given a lead from the top and whether some cutting down in the expenditure entailed in this Bill might not well be undertaken without in any way impairing the opportunity of the Royal Family to live the usefuland dignified lives that we all want them to live.

It was described as an Economic Crisis which wouldshake the country and which was affecting not only ourselves but the whole world.

Transport can play a vital part in bringing This Economic Crisis under control.

Only a few days ago in this House he reminded us of the Impending Grave Economic Crisis.

Only a few days ago in this House he reminded us of the impending grave Economic Crisis.

This might happen quickly if there were an Economic Crisis; if not, the development might be long postponed, but, in the end, I think one can say from the start that Southern Rhodesia must go either north or south, and that, if it does not go north, it will go south.

I agree with what the right hon. Gentleman said with regard to a policy for agriculture, but I do not propose to follow that line this morning because I hope that I may be fortunate enough to take part in the economic debate next week, when I hope to put forward ideas similar to those which I gave to the right hon. Gentleman the then Leader of the Opposition at the time of the Economic Crisis in 1947.

But we are fighting the Economic Crisis with our hands tied behind our backs so long as we try to maintain this excessive re-armament programme.

I was especially pleased by the hon. Member's closing remarks to the effect that we are all in This Economic Crisis together.

If this continues we shall be back in the Worst Economic Crisis we have yet experienced.

The Economic Crisis with which hon. Members on this side of the Committee believe that we are faced will require incentives to overcome, not only incentives to business men, but to workers as well.

This Economic Crisis demands a planned increase in production, in investments and in exports, and an active intervention, both at home and abroad, to create conditions in which exports can flourish.

I have confidence that, under his guidance, this country will get through an odd-numbered year without a Major Economic Crisis, for the first time since the war.

It ought to be noted that we are not today in as strong a position to meet an Economic Crisis as we were in October, 1951.

One point he made is that we were not as strong today to face an Economic Crisis as we were in 1951.

As I understand the proposal, it is that we should take the transport industry of the country - a living, vital link in all our national services - at a time when we are being informed by many Ministers that OUT situation in regard to defence matters, and so on, is rather difficult and that we are facing the possibility of Economic Crisis and are battling for national existence, and dispose of it on precisely the basis that one disposes of a bankrupt firm.

would usher in an Economic Crisis that would reverberate round the world.

The comparison between 1952 and 1953 is difficult to make, because specific figures were not given, but if there was a fall of five between 1950 and 1953, I do not regard that as being so very appalling, considering the Economic Crisis which this Government inherited from right hon. Members opposite and the large-scale reduction in costs which had to be made.

When this Government took office at the end of 1951 the country as a whole was facing a Serious Economic Crisis, and drastic action had to be taken - not action of a popular character, of course - but the result was that in 1952 we experienced a very difficult year because severe import restrictions had to be imposed and resulted in a falling off in vital exports due to the action taken by certain other countries in the sterling area.

In two of three very interesting leading articles last week, "The Times" discussed the economics of re-armament, and argued about some of the figures which the Leader of the House gave this afternoon; namely, that the burden of this so-called re-armament and defence is now so heavy that it is going to land us inevitably into an Economic Crisis.

At that time - although sometimes one is doubtful when one listens to debates today - we did have a very Serious Economic Crisis.

At that time - although sometimes one is doubtful when one listens to debates today - we did have a very serious Economic Crisis.

The order for its construction was made as long ago as 1947, and, to the best of my recollection, it preceded the Economic Crisis by six weeks.

That distinction is that whenever any problem of this kind arose, the late Government always announced, and developed in speeches, a tremendous scheme which would give us every kind of advantage within 12 months at the outside, but then nothing ever happened except Another Economic Crisis.

In the two world wars, and in the Economic Crisis that followed the second, the cream of our home-grown timber was put on to the market, and we have now come back to the second grade.

We are being asked to increase the emoluments or the expenses of Members at a time when the nation is just coming through an Economic Crisis, at a time when we have old-age pensioners on 32s.

I was just reflecting that the corner we were rounding in 1950 led to the Economic Crisis of 1951.

If times of Economic Crisis arose, a Chancellor might feel that an arbitrary change could be made in the level of benefits and in the conditions of their receipt.

Secondly, we are told that the 1949 Economic Crisis cut off much-needed finance.

Unfortunately, the financial arrangements were torpedoed by the Economic Crisis of 1931.

There is one thing about this Budget from our point of view on this side of the Committee and that is that we shall not have any more of this story of the Labour Government running away in 1951, because the present Government are also running away from an Economic Crisis; but they are doing much worse.

He talked about my right hon. Friend running away from the Economic Crisis and having an Election.

They did it in 1951, to save the country from an Economic Crisis created by hon. Gentlemen opposite.

Let me say to the party opposite that they will not find anyone to deviate on our Front Bench, and if the country faces an Economic Crisis, the Labour Party will boldly and courageously take over the reins of Government and will again take this country along the road to prosperity,as we did from 1945 until three and a half years ago.

They fail to give a figure at a time when, according to them, this country is being threatened by the approach of Another Economic Crisis.

However, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that there was an Economic Crisis at the moment and nothing could be done.

I wonder if the "Observer" referred to the Economic Crisis of 1951, too.

My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer never had to deal with an Economic Crisis to the extent that successive Chancellors of the Opposition had to deal with them while they were in power.

If we are to look forward with any hope to the solving of Our Economic Crisis, we must get down to clear thinking on both sides of the House.

Speaking with all the authority which, as Chancellor, he possesses, he said that the nation is not facing an Economic Crisis.

Will the debate on Scottish education be again postponed if there is Another Economic Crisis?

Several hon. Members on both sides of the House have pointed out to me that, when I said the other night that we were tending to try to do too much at once, I was in fact only echoing very similar words used by the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition at the time of the Economic Crisis of 1947.

It is all very well to say, as the hon. Member for Kidderminster did yesterday, that the Government mentioned the Economic Crisis during the Election.

They carry a heavy responsibility for the Present Economic Crisis and we regretfully have to come to the conclusion that whatever Department is entrusted with carrying out the policy of this Government is doomed to failure.

The Chancellor himself has emphasised that there is nothing in the nature of a Serious Economic Crisis.

Not one reference to the Economic Crisis do I find in that broadcast.

We heard references earlier to a past Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, and I was then reminded of the words which he used upon an occasion when an Economic Crisis was confronting the country.

At one moment they say that we are in the uplands of prosperity, and the next moment that we are facing an Economic Crisis.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in answer to the question, "What did you do in the Great Economic Crisis, daddy?

My Conservative opponent did not know that there was an Economic Crisis, because he was promising great expansion, new schools, and so on.

If a wireless valve fails, or an electric lamp bulb burns out or a pair of shoes need repairing, they are faced with an Economic Crisis.

To sum up, the Government have produced this Bill because of the failure of their economic policy, because of their doctrinaire refusal to tackle the real causes of the Economic Crisis.

He said that we could not afford to pay such large subsidies because we were then in an Economic Crisis not unlike the one facing us today.

He produced them - no one can say that he did not - and he has produced an Economic Crisis at the same time.

I beg move, to leave out from "House" to the end of the Question and to add instead thereof:recalling that the policies of the Government have held back our exports, swollen our imports, forced us into a balance of payments deficit, helped to reduce our reserves by a quarter and driven up our domestic price level, has no confidence in Her Majesty's Ministers or in the measures now proposed by them to overcome the Economic Crisis.

Which Amendment was to leave out from "House" to the end of the Question and to add: "recalling that the policies of the Government have held back our exports, swollen our imports, forced us into a balance of payments deficit, helped to reduce our reserves by a quarter and driven up our domestic price level, has no confidence in Her Majesty's Ministers or in the measures now proposed by them to overcome the Economic Crisis".

As I reminded the House last October - and I will do so again now - in October, 1951, the former leader of the party opposite, Earl Attlee, gave a party political broadcast just before polling day in which he made not one single reference to the Economic Crisis then facing the country.

I have known an Economic Crisis every pay day since I was married, but my justification for intervening in this crucial debate is the knowledge I have acquired by reading the Second Report of the Select Committee on Estimates, dealing with the Development Areas.

I was interested to note that earlier today the Economic Secretary to the Treasury admitted that the question of food and food prices was one of the major interests and problems of ordinary people today at a time of Economic Crisis.

Before it is too late, before we drift further into an Economic Crisis, let the Government face the reality of the situation and take the powers and the measures that are immediately necessary for our economic salvation.

The country faces an Economic Crisis.

I think that came ill from the spokesman of a party which made things so extremely difficult for the then Chancellor, Sir Stafford Cripps, during a time of Economic Crisis.

If it is the fact, as the hon. and learned Gentleman said, that the motor car industry, for example, has expanded at a rate which the Government do not now regard as satisfactory, so that it has to be damped down, will he explain to the House why the Government last year permitted the motor car industry to expand so much more in terms of factory building when we are told by the Chancellor of the Exchequer that it is that factory building and investment which is causing the Present Economic Crisis?

Freedom is all very well when the country is not in difficulties, but in an Economic Crisis we cannot afford to have imports which are not essential for the country.

Nearly nine years ago this nation faced Economic Crisis - the crisis of a community devastated by war.

Whatever else we say, this is not a picture of a nation sunk in the depths of an Economic Crisis.

The E.C.E. Survey and our own Economic Survey make it clear that the United Kingdom stands practically alone in the world in being in a state of Economic Crisis.

The hon. Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Rippon) has made one point at least which struck me with considerable force, for he said that we ought not to claim that there is Any Economic Crisis or that we are having any difficulty with our balance of payments.

Eighteen months ago the Economic Crisis was not as acute as it is today.

This is a difficult subject and it is not easy always to relate figures in comparison, but when we have to do something abnormal to overcome a Great Economic Crisis we must look at the whole picture, whatever the future may hold.

armed forces, and I hope that, on the other hand, Mr. Bulganin and Mr. Khruschev will be able to explain to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor that if they continue the present huge expenditure they will face an Economic Crisis and capitalism will disappear in that way without a war.

partly created an Economic Crisis which shook not only the industrial but the rural communities.

Farmers remember that the disposal of farm surpluses on the market in 1929 by American producers partly created the Economic Crisis of 1931; partly created an economic crisis which shook not only the industrial but the rural communities.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is repeatedly stressing the fact that we need less Government expenditure and are in an Economic Crisis?

Personally, I believe that the restriction of capital investment is the very last action which any Government should take, even in the event of an Economic Crisis, because we thereby jeopardise the whole of our future.

If he will read in the OFFICIAL REPORT what I said he will find that I said that, in the case of capital investment, it was the last thing we ought to do if we could possibly avoid it and that we ought to take a risk with capital investment even in the event of an Economic Crisis.

I have on more than one occasion drawn the attention of the Committee to the contrast between the moral appeal made by the late Sir Stafford Cripps at times of Economic Crisis and the somewhat cynical opportunism of the Chancellor's appeals.

It could not work in time for the Economic Crisis this year.

And there has always been an Economic Crisis - always.

For that reason I said at once, without regard or particular consideration to the Economic Crisis that was brewing, that there would shortly be an increase in the retail price of milk.

I would only say that, speaking for myself and for the part of Scotland from which I come, we have great confidence that the Government will be able to see us through the Economic Crisis that lies ahead, and we stand solidly behind the Prime Minister.

It was much more limited than their previous programme, but in 1951, on account of the then Economic Crisis the plan was temporarily stopped.

The real question which we have to ask, and with which the Chancellor has not dealt, is how far this swingeing tax helps to meet the Economic Crisis.

When we strip away all the right hon. Gentleman's metaphors and oratory, what has he done to give the country a lead in facing this very Grave Economic Crisis?

The Economic Crisis was on our doorstep before the problem of Suez arose.

I believe myself that this country is facing an Economic Crisis, and that it may face siege conditions, but that this is not the way to bring home that fact to the people, and that a much more realistic and serious approach is required instead of the somewhat flippant approach which, it seems to me, is widened, though perhaps unconsciously, by this attitude that sympathetic consideration should be given by the Minister to these special applications.

Mr. Hamilton asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what immediate steps he intends to take in view of the Economic Crisis, to reduce the burden of defence expenditure.

Mr. Emrys Hughes asked the Minister of Labour if, in view of the Economic Crisis and the need for employing the maximum amount of labour in essential industries, he will introduce legislation to repeal the National Service Acts.

Mr. Lewis asked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the Economic Crisis resulting from petrol rationing, he will arrange to meet the Trades Union Congress and the Federation of British Industries for discussions on our economic difficulties and, in return for an assurance from the Trades Union Congress that it will encourage wage restraint, give a promise that the Government will suspend all controversial legislation, and plan the economy so that all sacrifices are shared among the British people.

asked the Minister of Labour if, in view of the Economic Crisis and the need for employing the maximum amount of labour in essential industries, he will introduce legislation to repeal the National Service Acts.

asked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the Economic Crisis resulting from petrol rationing, he will arrange to meet the Trades Union Congress and the Federation of British Industries for discussions on our economic difficulties and, in return for an assurance from the Trades Union Congress that it will encourage wage restraint, give a promise that the Government will suspend all controversial legislation, and plan the economy so that all sacrifices are shared among the British people.

the Economic Crisis resulting from the Government's action in Suez; thirdly, the fact that the Rent Bill has been introduced and it has become clear since the Gracious Speech of 6th November - and not previously - that it is going to produce throughout the country, and particularly in the large towns, a complete dislocation of the housing position and undoubtedly a large increase in the number of people who will, on general grounds, need council houses, and, lastly, the very remarkable statement of the Minister of Agriculture, which appears to indicate that the philosophy of the right hon. Gentleman in confining subsidies to those who need them does not apply to landowners in connection with pigs and pigsties.

It seems to me that the Present Economic Crisis may be about the last chance for this country to recover as an economic great power.

If the Guillotine procedure is used it should be for some good purpose; for something which will be of value to the country in the Present Economic Crisis.

I have a reference in my notes to the fact that in ten years, under Socialist and Tory Governments, Britain has staggered from one Economic Crisis to another.

How many of them are we going to fire off before we solve the Economic Crisis?

I wonder whether it has struck the attention of the Committee that, when this country is going through an Economic Crisis and a Tory Government are in power, we hear cries about equality of sacrifice.

I do not underestimate the difficulty which my right hon. Friend faces in trying to get this over to the country as a whole - all sections, all classes alike - for, apparently, although various Chancellors during the twelve years I have had the honour to sit in this House, have warned the nation we have been living beyond our means and facing an Economic Crisis, almost every section is living better today than it did ten years ago.

If there had been an Economic Crisis and things were going badly, if there had been a demand for sacrifices all round and the Chancellor had said that he must keep a tax of 15 per cent.

It was only after the Election that the present Lord Privy Seal, who had denied that there was an Economic Crisis, found that it was so serious that he had to introduce another Budget to get the £150 million back.

He began to tell us about the developing Economic Crisis of 1955.

Looking back, I think that would have been the height of the Economic Crisis in 1951, and it would have been difficult to bring Part V of the Act into operation.

It is bad enough to have an Economic Crisis, but when we have to listen to sober lectures on economics, which are as devoid of logic as they are of humour, how can we have any honest prospect or confidence that the Government's measures will benefit the people?

Everyone will agree that it is morally wrong that we should expect the young and the old to bear the greatest burdens of an Economic Crisis.

Even if some Conservative speakers are right when they say that more will be spent on education, it is not helping to solve the Present Economic Crisis to transfer expenditure from the central Government to local authorities.

Faced again with a Similar Economic Crisis in 1949, they introduced cuts in the then investment programme of £140 million or 10 per cent.

All these things are reacting against what the Government, yesterday and the day before, and last week, tried to persuade us all to do - to co-operate with the Government to get through the Economic Crisis which we are facing.

We as Britishers are anxious in these days of Economic Crisis to do the best we can to pull the country through the crisis, but we cannot pull it through unless we take the workers with us.

The Bill is condemned because, at a time when the country, by and large, is doing very well, in spite of the Economic Crisis, all we can do for the poorest of the people, if they happen to be smokers, is to give them 2s.

It was at a time of Great Economic Crisis, when there were tremendous economic problems in the world, and the Government of the day thought it would be a good idea if they undertook an inquiry into the reasons for the variation in the birth rate.

Mr. Chapman asked the Minister of Education whether, in view of the postponement, in the Present Economic Crisis, of many projects of national importance, needed by the community as a whole, he will advise the Governors of King Edward School, Birmingham, to postpone their plans for a new house for the chief master.

Particularly at times of Economic Crisis, people have often said that they regard their own industry or enterprise as so essential that it should have a favourable rate of interest.

It may well be that the right hon. and learned Gentleman, the Government and hon. Members opposite believe that their policy of dealing with Our Economic Crisis is the right one.

At the time of the Economic Crisis, late in 1947, they applied a 20 per cent.

We all recall how that Budget came about, how, earlier in the year, we had had the Election Budget, introduced by the Lord Privy Seal, and how, in the Economic Crisis which occurred and which the Government had denied had ever been with us, he found it necessary in the autumn to introduce the autumn Budget.

In February, £1,940 million in May, £2,031 million and in August of this year, £2,092 million, which is more than they were in the month before the Economic Crisis.

Bearing in mind the obvious difficulties which must occur when there have been no fewer than four Ministers, the fact that we have had an Economic Crisis and that the Government had to look again at this kind of matter and every other consideration, I nevertheless ask the House to bear in mind the people of Crawley.

In the Economic Crisis at the end of the 'twenties and the beginning of the 'thirties, unemployment rose rapidly as soon as a Socialist Administration took over.

In his pre-Election Budget, the Lord Privy Seal risked - and caused - an Economic Crisis for electoral advantage.

But consider the chronic sick and the aged sick, who had been charged prescription charges because there was an Economic Crisis two years ago.

But is not the Chancellor aware that these vicious chargeswere imposed by the present Prime Minister, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he was facing, as he said, a very Serious Economic Crisis?

This is what the Fabian pamphlet says, and it is not a Tory pamphlet: "It was envisaged that arrears of maintenance having been made good, 'a comprehensive reconstruction of the principal national routes' would begin in 1951, which would include the building of some motorways … The Economic Crisis of 1947 intervened, authorisations fell to less than a tenth of expected amounts, and the Barnes Plan shrivelled away" The pamphlet went on to say: "A Special Roads Act was passed in 1949 to enable motorways and other traffic-restricted roads to be built.

This is what the Fabian pamphlet says, and it is not a Tory pamphlet:It was envisaged that arrears of maintenance having been made good, 'a comprehensive reconstruction of the principal national routes' would begin in 1951, which would include the building of some motorways … The Economic Crisis of 1947 intervened, authorisations fell to less than a tenth of expected amounts, and the Barnes Plan shrivelled awayThe pamphlet went on to say:A Special Roads Act was passed in 1949 to enable motorways and other traffic-restricted roads to be built.

He was Parliamentary Secretary throughout the period of Our Economic Crisis, and any ideas that he may have had had to remain as ideas because he was always told that they were very fine but that there was no money for them.

I frankly wonder why everything that the Government do in times of Economic Crisis must be repressive and negative.

The country's view of the Socialist Party's economic policy is that the last time it attempted to lay down a policy it failed so dismally to keep the cost of living steady or to keep confidence in the£that in 1951 there was an Economic Crisis.

But to base the future economy of 52 million people on that is to ensure that at some time in the future, in a rapidly changing society, we shall be faced with a Serious Economic Crisis.

But to base the future economy of 52 million people on that is to ensure that at some time in the future, in a rapidly changing society, we shall be faced with a serious Economic Crisis.

We are going into a changing and more and more difficult world, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his colleagues have blundered around for the last few years and have produced a situation in which the most we can say is that we are not in an Economic Crisis at the present time.

I think that mast hon. Members who have given thought to this matter must deplore that it is rather difficult to comprehend that the investment situation next year will help Any Economic Crisis which is likely to arise this year.

I would not talk about an Economic Crisis - I think that that would be wrong - but I agree that the expansion of our exports is necessary if we are to do all the things we wait to do in the world.

It is surely very much in the interest of this country to keep this ore which, I understand, is the last suitable ore in this country as a strategic reserve in a time of Economic Crisis or war.

The tragedy of last week is that, once again, the Conservatives are using an Economic Crisis brought on by their own policies as an excuse for attacking the social services.

I take it from Professor Jewkes who made it when a Treasury official was trying to tell the Royal Commission on the Remuneration of Doctors andDentists how we should have an Economic Crisis if the doctors and dentists pressed their claim.

There was such a Guillotine admittedly in 1932 on the Import Duties Bill, but at least one could say at that time that the country was still involved in a very Grave Economic Crisis.

The economy of Kenya is to a large extent dependent on the continued presence of the British farming community, and a rush to the coast would precipitate a Major Economic Crisis and a breakdown of such social services as exists and endanger the entire educational programme.

The Sudan has made a good recovery from the Economic Crisis through which it passed two years ago.

An Economic Crisis faces football in this country.

The Economic Crisis which the Chancellor predicted in November last year is upon us now.

Moreover, it is not one of them mainly for the reasons which I have given but also because if the economy is overturned by an Economic Crisis due to international speculation with the £ or the pressure of interests who are worried because we are not following a sufficiently orthodox financial policy in this country, then the Chancellor ought to introduce an interim Budget and a second Finance Bill so that his proposals may be properly debated, with opportunity for amendment and opportunity to consider a number of different methods.

He told us that we were running into an Economic Crisis.

The Chancellor says that he would use the tax only in times of Economic Crisis.

It is quite clear to me now, from what the Chancellor of the Exchequer has said and from the reactions on the other side of the Committee, that the presence of this regulator as it stands is not so much to save the nation from Economic Crisis as to save the face of the Chancellor, because of his insistence that it is required only for a short time and that he will think again about the permanent means, and that this is the last we shall ever see of this one.

That means that every employer in Northern Ireland,whether employing 100, 200, or 300 people, will be involved in this proposal should an Economic Crisis arise in Britain.

The Minister could choose a day when the Test Match was on, or a very sunny day, or when the Government had created an Economic Crisis, or when there was a catastrophe in foreign affairs.

Does the Leader of the House agree that, from the questions put to him, it appears to be the consensus of opinion in the House that the four most important questions facing the country are the position in Berlin, the position in Kuwait, the position in Africa, and the Common Market, not to mention the Economic Crisis?

It is obviously important economically, and it has not a little to do with the Economic Crisis which we are undergoing.

Is it any wonder that we have an Economic Crisis if this is the way the Government run nationalised industries?

Will he bear in mind that we are facing an Economic Crisis - [Interruption.

in this sense he is the victim of the Economic Crisis into which the Chancellor's policy has landed us.

It is probably true that the Minister would like to have given some additional help at the last minute to the midde water fleet, but wasprevented by the Treasury; in this sense he is the victim of the Economic Crisis into which the Chancellor's policy has landed us.

The Government are facinga Serious Economic Crisis.

Next week we shall hear the proposals of the Chancellor of the Exchequer for dealing with the Economic Crisis.

Now, we read in the Conservative Press the ominous news that the Prime Minister has decided to intervene in the Economic Crisis.

In 1947, winding up a debate on the Economic Crisis at that time, Sir Stafford Cripps said:But when we have considered broadly and in detail, as we have during the course of this debate, the actual steps that we must take, we came back to the most important consideration of all: our failure or success will depend in the last resort upon the spirit of our people.

The words I have just read are as apposite and as relevant to This Economic Crisis now as they were to that crisis which hit this country only two years after a great war - and this is sixteen years after that great war.

Will the Prime Minister keep in mind the fact that it would be very helpful to the nation if he would broadcast and go on television to explain how This Economic Crisis has arisen after all the promises he made at the last election and in his previous appearances?

I was, however, a little mystified by the proposition put to us by the hon. and learned Member for Aberdeen, North (Mr. Hector Hughes) that eleven years of Tory misgovernment had brought us to This Economic Crisis and the suggestion which he proceeded to make that, possibly, it was only an aritifical crisis.

It is no good saying that the Government did not know about the Economic Crisis when they appointed Dr. Beeching.

Were the teachers responsible for the Economic Crisis?

The speech of the hon. Member for Scarborough (Sir A. Spearman) typifies the tremendous gulf there is between the approaches of the two parties, not only to This Present Economic Crisis but to the life of the nation as a whole.

Nigel was very depressed in exactly the same sort of circumstances which we are discussing today - an Economic Crisis.

Every time we run into an Economic Crisis it is the usury in our society that is elevated to the highest pinnacle.

The Chancellor's proposals, which we are asked to endorse tonight, have had the worst Press of any statement made in an Economic Crisis at any time that I can recall.

We have an Economic Crisis and yet during the lifetime of the present Administration £15,000 million have been spent on defence.

Perhaps the greatest criticism of our civilisation is that we can renovate and keep up to date our basic industries only through preparation for war, and that as soon as we in the West start to think in terms of disarmament and the redeployment of our labour force through cutting down arms we get into an Economic Crisis.

The Economic Crisis would continue and the country would be faced with an insoluble problem.

So we have to be prepared to rethink our whole policy in regard to our commitments with the U.S.A. As long as we are content just to accept the ideas of Mr. McNamara and his band, the people who are in charge of American defence policy, and to follow that line of policy, the two things that we are faced with are the possibilities of getting involved in a nuclear war, or, if we escape that, of being involved in an Economic Crisis which is absolutely insoluble.

The Minister and hon. Members, of whom I am pleased to see so many at this early hour of the morning, may be interested to hear the resolution passed unanimously by the executive of the National Union of Teachers last Saturday morning:The Executive of the National Union of Teachers bitterly regrets the action of the Minister of Education in summarily rejecting the proposals negotiated by the Burnham Committee, and the more so since they fall far short of the teachers' claim and were only accepted with great reluctance in a time of Economic Crisis.

If, however, as a Government, we are to give, as, I believe, we are capable of doing, a lead to the country in This Economic Crisis, we cannot do it when the first important step is being discussed in the way that it must be discussed.

The right hon. Gentleman has made it clear that he would have intervened in any case, whether there had been an Economic Crisis or not.

Unlike most other constituencies in Britain, that disappointment has been increased by the fact that the Chancellor, in announcing that the country had run into an Economic Crisis, appeared to single out these self-same areas for special treatment; but not the kind of special treatment we had hoped we should receive.

Frequently in the debate right hon. and hon. Gentlemen opposite have talked about the Economic Crisis with which we are faced.

I now come to the section of the Gracious Speech dealing with domestic affairs and the Economic Crisis at the present time.

The suggestion behind it is explicit, that measures are taken, and it is very convenient to have an Economic Crisis half-way through one's period of office.

Our trade unions- I speak as a trade unionist in constant touch with the trade unions at home- believe that, in general, the workers are of the opinion that they are the first that have to make sacrifices in an Economic Crisis and thelast to profit from a booming economy.

We have come full circle, not for the first time in an Economic Crisis, and we have had the same call from the right hon. Gentleman - "I would like to do it, but the country cannot afford it".

Every two or three years since then, we have had Economic Crisis after economic crisis as a consequence of our attempting to maintain a burden which the economy could not bear.

A great deal of attention was paid to this in the White Paper on public investment about a year ago, but in practice the Government are not really following out that principle in what they proposed to do during the summer to meet the Present Economic Crisis.

If every industry in the country could say the same, the Chancellor would not have to bother about imposing a pay pause or about an Economic Crisis.

I said that I would have had far more respect for the Government if they had boldly and clearly said that, in view of the Economic Crisis, they were now prepared to breach the agreements instead of evading the issue by saying that they were only advising the British Transport Commission.

A country may have had a severe earthquake, for instance, or it may be going through an Economic Crisis, or may have an unstable Government which is not able to hold elections.

In the midst of an Economic Crisis, is it not deplorable that a Minister should be taken from an important Department in order to prop up the fortunes of a tottering Government?

They have been crowded out by the Economic Crisis, the clamp down, the pay pause, and the clumsy antics of the Government in relation to wage negotiation and arbitration.

The then Parliamentary Secretary, on Second Reading, said that pensions now had a new look, thanks to the sound policies of the Government, and after three months we were in an Economic Crisis.

In the face of these facts, are we really entitled to say that the only answer we have is to set up a committee, that we think the position is serious, that we ought to do something about it but that we cannot do anything about it at presentbecause there is an Economic Crisis and that the Chancellor is grappling with economic difficulties?

Surely the position is that the Economic Crisis which has been used as a justification for treating the nurses so unjustly is a crisis of the Government's own making.

It may be Another Economic Crisis brought on by a Tory Government.

Tory Governments have never had to face a catastrophe of that kind in the whole of the past eleven years, yet there has been one Economic Crisis after another.

If the country were now in a state of Economic Crisis, it is abundantly clear that my right hon. and learned Friend would be criticised very sharply on both sides of the Committee for that.

Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that in his Budget speech the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that the economy had not been on an even keel, and that over the last few months and years we have had one Economic Crisis after another?

Therefore, the position should not have been aggravated last year when restrictions were imposed on house building by local authorities as part of the Government's measures to meet the Economic Crisis.

In an Economic Crisis, the Government always tend to get drawn into these matters and go beyond the point which some of us think they should go, as in this case.

In education, the right hon. Gentleman is projecting the Present Economic Crisis forward two years.

In education, the right hon. Gentleman is projecting the present Economic Crisis forward two years.

It refers to the possible factors which may inhibit the success of the plan, and, remembering what happened to the capital expenditure programmes of local authorities towards the end of last year, as part of the measures to meet the Economic Crisis, we may be forgiven for thinking that the remarks contained in paragraph 46 may be in the form of an apology for the non-fulfilment of the plan even before its first stage has been executed.

First, they were panicked into their decision last July by the Economic Crisis.

The only policy they practiseis to react to an Economic Crisis in two ways.

That would lead the country straight away into an Economic Crisis and would threaten the stability of the position of the whole country.

There is only one difference between hon. Gentlemen opposite when it comes to the question how to handle an Economic Crisis and what kind of economic policy to pursue.

Before the 625 line system is introduced in April, 1964, this industry will be going through a Serious Economic Crisis.

An Economic Crisis will be inevitable.

Or was it because of the Economic Crisis of 1961?

Does the Minister appreciate that this is a serious cut in school building over the next two years and that we simply cannot justify it by an Economic Crisis twelve months ago?

In that year, one of Economic Crisis for Canada, our imports remained about the same - £349·3 million - but our direct exports went sharply down to £187·9 million.

As I have said, his noble forerunner was acting under the duress of Economic Crisis, but the article concludes:This is a shabby little episode made the more shabby by the shifty way in which it has been put across.

The right hon. Gentleman has given London an allocation of £877,000, about half what Lord Eccles gave London under the duress of Economic Crisis.

The plain truth is that to stay at school until 18 presents an Economic Crisis for many working-class homes today.

Recently we had a debate on schools, and we discovered that the right hon. Gentleman is such a weak Minister that he has enforced more severe and savage cuts on school building than Lord Eccles did at the height of an Economic Crisis.

I have always had a warm spot in my heart for "Old Gurney", ever since he came to speak for me in my constituency during a period of Economic Crisis, a situation with which we are all, unfortunately, far too frequently familiar.

We had to make a recommendation and, as no doubt the hon. Member for Wokingham will recall, this was during a period of Economic Crisis.

That means that in 1965, come what may, comefair wind or foul, come Economic Crisis or boom, come war or peace, whatever the circumstances may be, the Government of die day shall grant a licence to the Independent Television Authority.

Some said to me that in 1961 they recruited because they had confidence that the economy would expand but that since then there had been an Economic Crisis, which developed in 1962, with the unemployment figures of that year and early this year, and they felt that they could not now respond to the Government's appeal to take on more trainees.

We had an Economic Crisis in 1961 and he made a botch of things then.

Every time that there has been an Economic Crisis, it has been seized upon by the Government as an opportunity to put taxes on the sick and to transfer the burden, so far as it lay in their power, from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the employer and the employee.

We ought to be quite clear that one of the ways in which education has suffered is by constantly making plans to expand it, and then suddenly saying that there is an Economic Crisis and the public services must take the first cut.

The present Minister of Defence was right in 1558 in saying that if we spent the kind of money involved in an independent nuclear deterrent we would he forcing ourselves into Economic Crisis and would get the worst of both worlds, because we would not provide an adequate nuclear deterrent or adequate conventional forces or, as he added, adequate social services all at the same time.

Despite the denial of the hon. Member for Ilford, South and other hon. Members about their attitude of hostility to the trade unions, there is no doubt that one of the tactics of the Conservative Party from now to the election will be to pin upon the workers the blame for the Economic Crisis that the Government have created.

Since the individual prescription charges were put on by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 1956 Economic Crisis and since the charges were doubled by the present Leader of he House in the 1961 economic crisis, does not the right hon. Gentleman, who keeps saying that the economy has never been stronger, feel that it is now strong enough to remove these charges which bear so heavily on the sick and disabled?

If we are to avoid Economic Crisis, we shall have to devise a method of improving the purchasing power of our people so that they can buy the products of mass production.

The right hon. and learned Gentleman's first Budget gave the impression of being based on a detailed forecast of the future, but it was proved wrong on every matter of importance and Ministers were confronted with an Economic Crisis as astonishing and urgent as it was unexpected.

Does not the Prime Minister recognise that there will be a smell of blood in the air at that time - blue blood particularly - and does he not recognise that in addition to this question there is an Economic Crisis looming up, as his matchstick exercises will have convinced him?

It is, in our view, a principle which is mandatory when the country is faced with Economic Crisis.

- and that there is an Economic Crisis which has now to be corrected.

First, this position has now come about - so many people claim - because we have inherited an Economic Crisis.

The so-called Economic Crisis is not something new or startling.

With regard to his prudence, I seriously submit that he played down the question of an Economic Crisis, certainly during the last week of the General Election campaign.

I ask the hon. Gentleman to make a distinction between the long-term problems which I want to discuss with the building societies and the short-term problem of interest rates in the Present Economic Crisis.

In 1961 there was an Economic Crisis, which resulted in the Ministry of Housing and Local Government calling for lists of prospective projects.

Thus, the Economic Crisis had disappeared again and hon. Member opposite were calling for an increase in unproductive national expenditure.

I hope he does not think that the Economic Crisis which faces us started on 16th October.

I say quite categorically that one of the answers to the Economic Crisis is undoubtedly a drastic cut in our military expenditure.

In this respect I trust that the Recent Economic Crisis may have been instructive to the Government for, as everyone knows, it was our European and American allies who came to our help and lent us the money necessary to tide us over the crisis.

May I remind hon. Members of what Sir Stafford Cripps did when we were facing a Similar Economic Crisis in 1949?

I say at once that this is not in any case suitable matter for a Private Member's Bill, and I am surprised, when the country has an Economic Crisis that should be worrying the Government, and when we have a defence crisis to worry them, that once more we have to drag up this question of letting the murderer go free.

The hon. Member will be aware that we have kept to the major programmes already announced, despite the Economic Crisis we inherited, in a way in which we do not think that hon. Members opposite would have done.

I cannot find anything contrary to their pledges in what the Government did during an Acute Economic Crisis.

So instead of getting permanent employment in Belfast, we would get an Economic Crisis.

They alleged that it was the Labour Government's failure to inspire confidence in international banking circles which had caused an Economic Crisis.

I hope, in this connection, that the hon. Gentleman will not suggest that in 1961–62 there was a general cut-back on education because of an Economic Crisis.

It must be seen, first, in the context of the Grave Economic Crisis that we inherited from the last Government - the crisis that the hon. Member for Lewisham, North rejected as "a threadbare argument about the balance of payments".

It must be seen, first, in the context of the grave Economic Crisis that we inherited from the last Government - the crisis that the hon. Member for Lewisham, North rejected as "a threadbare argument about the balance of payments".

When hon. Members opposite went into office in 1951 their excuse for not dealing with the arts was that there was an Economic Crisis.

Gentlemen opposite know perfectly well that had they been in power, faced with the sort of Economic Crisis which they left to us, they would not have dreamt of doing it.

I hope that we will not get tonight the rather weak excuse given by the Chief Secretary last week that it was because of the Terrible Economic Crisis.

We did what we could as at a time when we were faced with a Terrible Economic Crisis which we had inherited because the Tory Government had been fiddling and juggling with the whole financial machine of this country in the hope of gaining some election advantage.

I would be ruled out of order if I tried to make a direct reply to the Chancellor's remarks but may I draw his attention to the excellent article in the Financial Times about the cause of the Economic Crisis?

I think that the judges would be wise to take the action referred to in the Solicitors' Journal and voluntarily recognise that this comes at a bad moment from a group who are expected, as we are expected, to give clear leadership to the nation at a time of Economic Crisis.

I do not believe that the Tory Party would have introduced the National Insurance Bill to increase pensions in the face of an Economic Crisis, or the Rent Bill, or a Finance Bill which was fought through against the bitter opposition of hon.Members opposite.

If any trade union official wants an object lesson on how to extinguish the income guiding light, all he needs to do,I am sorry to say, is to read the history of the judges' trade union activities in the national Economic Crisis of 1931.

He even succeeded in lumbering us with the Present Economic Crisis.

The country is facing an Economic Crisis.

Prescription charges were introduced by right hon. Gentlemen opposite in one Economic Crisis, in 1952, made worse and more unfair by charging separately for each prescription in the next economic crisis, in 1956, doubled in the next economic crisis in 1961 following their old rule, "When in difficulties put the burden on the backs of those least able to bear them", but it was noticeable that when the economy improved, as it usually did before a General Election, and there were vast tax handouts, there was no remission of this burden.

Despite this fact, Tory Ministers, who must have known that the Economic Crisis was getting worse and worse, indulged in these promises, including, for example, in the Tory manifesto the promise to build or rebuild 300 hospitals.

It would have used the Economic Crisis as an excuse for carrying out none of these social reforms.

The Economic Crisis, with the unpopular measures it had demanded was now virtually over.

Right hon. and hon. Members opposite are no innocents in this matter of creating Economic Crisis.

The hon. Gentleman boasted that in an Economic Crisis under the Tories expenditure on roads was doubled.

That was the policy of the former Government when faced with an Economic Crisis which was nothing like as serious as the crisis which we face today.

If we look generally at expenditure on capital projects by the Government, the increases are substantial, notwithstanding that ever since we came to power we have been facing an Economic Crisis.

And the country is facing an Economic Crisis.

There is no such thing in an Economic Crisis as being able to contract out of it.

Now we are faced with Another Economic Crisis at home and a heavy arms expenditure.

Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that his right hon. Friend wrote to me saying that when they fixed the brick target the Government could not have foreseen the Economic Crisis?

Is it not the case that, last time there was a Major Economic Crisis, the party opposite made deliberate cuts in housing whereas the present Government have speeded the housing drive up?

He claims that the Labour Party exaggerated the Economic Crisis.

I said also that the Ministry should undertake, whilst the Economic Crisis is with us and capital expenditure is restricted, not to authorise any further rail closures.

Increased unemployment occurred whenever there was an Economic Crisis, because of the methods adopted by Governments then.

Surely the Government do not believe that the Economic Crisis is permanent, and for that reason I am waiting to hear some member of the Government telling us why this Bill is a permanent Measure.

The hon. Member for Londonderry went on to ask, "Why treat an Economic Crisis which is deemed to be temporary by introducing a permanent Measure"?

But, and this is the difference with the Asian pillar, if Britain were forced by an Economic Crisis to make a choice, it would be from the Asian pillar that we would withdraw, because for us Europe must have priority over Asia.

Looking back to the situation six months ago, an Economic Crisis faced the country.

The measures or non-measures which the Government have taken to remedy the Economic Crisis into which they sofoolishly and unnecessarily plunged the country when they came into office 18 months ago - [Interruption.

On the 21st January the Prime Minister told his own party that the Economic Crisis, with the unpopular measures demanded was now virtually over.

In spite of the measures which had to be taken by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to deal with This Economic Crisis, the north of England continued to get the lion's share of the new jobs which were being created.

When the new Government came into power, faced with an economic situation which had similar characteristics to the earlier one, there was a danger - I did not fear it, because I knew something of the kind of priorities which the Government had in terms of regional planning - that in squeezing the economy or in dealing with the Economic Crisis facing the country, measures would be taken which would drive the North-East economy down to the same depths of despair which it had reached in 1962.

I must say to the right hon. Gentleman, however, that I thought that in his speech he uncovered unsuspected political qualities - most of us thought that the only thing he had to hide was an Economic Crisis.

As for the subsequent measures of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, those were dictated by the Economic Crisis inherited from the previous Government.

Despite the appalling pressure of the Economic Crisis, full employment was maintained, but something even better was achieved.

In most of the situations in which this has been done, including that of last year, the exercise of that control has been by a blunt instrument, or has been arbitrary or perhaps unfair, and it has been felt to be unfair by those in the construction industry who have said that they always take the brunt of an Economic Crisis to a greater extent than others.

He explained thatin Another Economic Crisis, the measures which were appropriate to the 1965 crisis would probably not be exactly what was needed".

There is no doubt that the original reason which was given for the introduction of the Bill was the Economic Crisis and the statement of 27th July.

So I say that we must try - if I may use a military metaphor - to fire a few shots across the bows of this particular project, and if we can postpone our arguments till another time let us postpone this discussion, and let the Chief Secretary to the Treasury take back this enormously expensive programme which I believe will militate against what we need most in this country - a constructive effort to build the factories which will produce the goods which will save this country from Economic Crisis.

In present circumstances, we must take account of what they are doing because of Our Acute Economic Crisis outside.

As the last Annual Price Review was agreed to only because of the country's Economic Crisis, will it be possible to have a debate on the economic crisis in the agricultural industry?

In addition to the special assistance in the regions, the raising of the £50,000 limit to a limit of £100,000, which probably cost about £30 million in a year of economic difficulties, it should also be noticed that after the Bank Rate increase in the Economic Crisis after October, 1964, the Chancellor helped the local authorities by fixing a rate for quota loans the result of which was that the differential between the quota rate and the last resort rate widened.

of their salaries during a Major Economic Crisis.

I fear that we shall have to use the regulator, and it is worth reflecting that, despite all their ballyhoo and propaganda, in this year of Economic Crisis to the nation, the Government will have to fall back on the highly intelligent instrument that was introduced by my right hon. Friend the Member for Wirral (Mr. Selwyn Lloyd).

As we are still in a state of Economic Crisis, will the Minister try once again to negotiate a compromise with the steel industry in this matter instead of dividing the nation in these difficult times by pursuing the old-fashioned White Paper nationalisation policy?

After telling us that the object of the Bill was to anticipate crises - presumably created by his colleagues - the Parliamentary Secretary said of the Bill that in Another Economic Crisis measures appropriate to the 1965 crisis would probably not be exactly what was needed.

I was seeking to show that it was urgent because these borrowings by the Bank of England, during the last few days, have indicated the extreme severity and urgency of the Economic Crisis which the nation is facing.

I want to make it clear, so that there is no misunderstanding on either side of the House, that I regard the Economic Crisis which brought about the major problem as something which we inherited in 1964 from the Conservative Government.

I submit, therefore, that there is nothing in the timetable to justify the Guillotine in this case, no consideration of time - unless it be matters that will impinge on the timetable by reason of the Economic Crisis which the Government have promoted.

This is the worst possible state to be in if it is desired either to increase productivity or to fight an Economic Crisis.

No one is suggesting, I think, that the industry should in any way "opt out" of the Economic Crisis, but, after all, any industry can reasonably expect a Measure of this kind to meet at least two requirements.

Mr. Arthur Lewis asked the Prime Minister whether he will give an assurance that he will not, during the period of the Current Economic Crisis, create any new Ministerial posts, or take any action in Ministerial appointments which will increase the annual total costs in the existing salary scales of those holding Ministerial appointments.

Mr. Burden asked the Prime Minister if he will make it a condition of their continuing tenancy that the three Ministers concerned should now pay an economic rent for the accommodation recently provided free of all charges, in view of the sacrifices now demanded of all members of the community in efforts to solve the Economic Crisis.

Does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that a three-tier system of comprehensive education might he very appropriate for the City of Liverpool and would be likely to save money in this time of Economic Crisis?

Such firms may well have to say in This Economic Crisis, "X who is legless, is inflexible, because he can do only one job ".

Mr. Onslow asked the First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Economic Affairs what steps he is taking, in the light of the Present Economic Crisis, to reduce the establishment of the Department under his control.

Mr. Onslow asked the Minister of Technology what steps he is taking, in the light of the Present Economic Crisis, to reduce the establishment of the Department under his control.

Mr. Onslow asked the Prime Minister what instructions he has given, in the light of the Present Economic Crisis, for the reduction of the establishment of the Civil Service.

Mr. Onslow asked the Minister of Overseas Development what steps he is taking, in the light of the Present Economic Crisis, to reduce the establishment of the Department under his control.

Mr. Onslow asked the Minister of Power what steps he is taking, in the light of the Present Economic Crisis, to reduce the establishment of the Department under his control.

In this, as in all matters affecting the Economic Crisis, the Government are entitled to rely on people's loyalty.

I would say to the right hon. Gentleman that to proceed with outright nationalisation of steel at any time, in the view of my right hon. and hon. Friends, would be wrong, but to press ahead with it at this particular time, when Britain is in the midst of a Dire Economic Crisis and living on borrowed money, is sheer lunacy.

The whole country knows that in the Present Economic Crisis the Government have acted too late, but we hope that they will do the right thing, and that is what we would like them to do with the steel industry.

Mr. Brian Harrison asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government whether, as a result of the Present Economic Crisis, there is to be any re-phasing of London overspill building, with particular reference to Witham in Essex.

Mr. A. Royle asked the Prime Minister if he proposes any cuts in the expenditure on nuclear weapons in the light of the Present Economic Crisis.

Mr. Arthur Lewis asked the Prime Minister why he will not give an assurance that he will not, during the period of the Current Economic Crisis, create any new Ministerial posts, or take action in Ministerial appointments which will increase the annual total costs in the existing salary scales of those holding Ministerrial appointments.

Mr. Onslow asked the Prime Minister what action he is taking in the light of the Present Economic Crisis, to reduce the staff employed at No.

of his members support him when he denigrates the Labour Government while they are struggling to deal with the Economic Crisis.

I say with sincerity to the Government that unless we are prepared to break these boundaries and initiate fresh thinking and policies, particularly in the military sphere, the Present Economic Crisis will only lead to further crises.

In his explanation for the Economic Crisis last summer, in his statement on 29th July, be blamed the effect of Japan's grave dollar shortage on her purchases from Australia ",and alsothe impact of the Chinese gold buying spree".

They felt that the Present Economic Crisis was but one in a series of crises still to come.

I was horrified this afternoon by the Prime Minister's suggestion that the nation had been caught by surprise by this 1831 Economic Crisis.

Mr. Onslow asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he is taking, in the light of the Present Economic Crisis, to reduce the establishment of the Departments under his control.

If, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer has affirmed, these proposals will ensure that the British people are released for good and all from the perpetual burden of Economic Crisis, if I could believe that this is the last crisis that Britain will have to face, and if I could accept the words of my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade, that when these measures become operative we shall see "soaring exports", then I would be happy to go to my old colleagues in the trade union movement and local government and tell them that, unfortunately, they must remain clobbered.

Let us look at the point of view of the Welsh people, who have to bear "more than their share of the price", of this "English" Economic Crisis.

We have heard much analysis of the past from some hon. Members, but most of the valuable contributions from speaker after speaker have concerned the question: what do we do now in the Economic Crisis?

I was horrified this afternoon by the Prime Minister's suggestion that the nation had been caught by surprise by This Economic Crisis.

Mr. J. E. B. Hill asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether, in view of the Economic Crisis and the need to concentrate all available educational resources where they are most needed, the proposals for a University of the Air will now be shelved.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether, in view of the Economic Crisis and the need to concentrate all available educational resources where they are most needed, the proposals for a University of the Air will now be shelved.

[That this House, having noted the Prime Minister's statement containing the emergency measures to meet the Present Economic Crisis, expresses disappointment at its, generally negative tone and, in particular, is concerned that he did not make use of the opportunity to provide new incentives to the agricultural industry to increase production, whereby the industry's magnificent record of increased productivity, which the Prime Minister has himself publicly acknowledged, could be harnessed to save food imports, and tints make an important contribution to the balance of payments situation; and urges him to open immediate talks with the industry's leaders towards this end.

Economic Crisis, 133, 134.

Prior to that time the figures were fixed in regard to the ability of the industry to play its part in a Major Economic Crisis.

How can we encourage industry to expand into these factories in the middle of a continuing Economic Crisis?

I can understand the anxieties of hon. Members opposite about what happens to development areas in times of Economic Crisis, because we had that experience in every one of the years to which I have referred.

However, the Government are taking very few of the measures to deal with the Economic Crisis which many of us think should be taken.

In This Economic Crisis some of us go further than fearing that the Government are taking the wrong courses to deal with it.

It is unlikely that people will believe that the Government are fully involved in the Economic Crisis, which is perhaps the worst that the country has ever faced, unless the Government and the Civil Service are prepared to show that they will share in the sacrifices and in the redeployment that others are being asked to make.

I also wonder whether there are prestige Departments, or parts of Departments, that one was prepared to carry in ordinary years, but that one should look at again in the context of a Serious Economic Crisis.

There are lots of other functions which he knows could be dispensed with without any harm being done to the handling of the Present Economic Crisis and which would benefit the present situation.

Secondly, it is ironic and fortunate that some decisions were deferred because, curiously enough deferment of decisions about the purchase of aircraft by British airlines until the advent of the Present Economic Crisis must have greatly strengthened the hand of the right hon. Gentleman the Minister of Aviation in insuring that B.E.A. continued to purchase its aircraft in this country.

I beg the Minister, before we finalise this issue, to remember that we are in an Economic Crisis and that in the years which have gone by he has been telling us that he could not do this, that and the other for Brighton and Hove because of economic crises.

We have been very worried indeed, because the Declaration of Intent and the White Paper had been regarded as sacrosanct by the First Secretary and incorporated in legislation even though it is perfectly clear that the figures set out in the Declaration which are based on the same assumptions and forecasts which were in the National Plan have proved completely invalid, and even though the First Secretary himself has had to admit that he will have to sit down again with his advisers and determine what alternative set of figures are relevant in the Present Economic Crisis into which the Government have plunged us.

Mr. Rankin asked the Minister of Aviation if, in view of the Economic Crisis, he will give general directions to the British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways to confine their purchases of new aircraft to home manufacturers in the long-term in terests of British aviation.

Mr. Arthur Lewis asked the Prime Minister if, during the period of the Economic Crisis, he will instruct Ministers not to make public speeches dealing with the position of sterling.

He goes on producing more freeze and more squeeze, culminating in what we realise, looking back, is the Worst Economic Crisis since 1931.

Indeed, I am particularly concerned at this time of Economic Crisis that the measures that have been taken by the Government - and I do not intend to discuss them in any detail - should not fall too heavily on regions such as the South-West which, to some extent, are already falling behind the rest of the country.

Does my right hon. Friend agree that while it may be necessary, to overcome an Economic Crisis, to make provision that contracts freely entered into shall not be enforceable - and I think that the Government were right to do this - it is desirable that that state of affairs should cease as soon as possible?

I cannot understand why we should be in the position where we adopt basically, though not entirely, the policies with which the Conservative Party at each stage of an Economic Crisis has attempted to solve the problem.

In a nutshell, this illustrates why Economic Crisis is hitting us now.

If this is the Government's first step in trying to solve an Economic Crisis, what will the next step be?

We want to know what immediate action the Government intend to take to rescue hill and upland farming from the Economic Crisis imposed by the Socialists.

The last point which leads me to the conclusion that the timing is very bad, and most unacceptable in a time of Economic Crisis, for the Government to propose to establish a new county borough, is the expense not only in absolute terms in the cost of local government administration but in the probability that county boroughs with a population of 100,000 will not continue as all-purpose authorities when the Royal Commission's recommendations have been given effect.

what steps he is taking, in view of the Economic Crisis, to reduce this expenditure; and if he will make a statement.

It is nothing more than a piece of window-dressing, designed simply to give the impression to the country that Her Majesty's Government are going to tackle every aspect of the Economic Crisis, by every means at their disposal.

I have said that I believe that this Order is needless, unless the Government believe that the Economic Crisis is insoluble.

By that factual statement the Postmaster-General revealed quite plainly that these charges had nothing to do with the Economic Crisis into which the Government had led the country.

Therefore, in the midst of a so-called Economic Crisis, the Prime Minister was using this opportunity to shuffle about telephone charges, which would in the end mean no net increase to Post Office revenue.

Either he has to defend these charges on the ground that they were needed to put the Post Office finances right, in which case he convicts his right hon. Friend the Prime Minister of double talk on 20th July, or he has to say that they were made necessary by the Economic Crisis caused by the Government, in which case he will be saying something which is plainly untrue.

What has been done is doubly laudable in view of the nature of the Economic Crisis which has prevailed during the greater part of the past two years.

what is the total estimated cost; 913 and whether he will consider suspending the work in view of the Economic Crisis.

asked the Minister of Public Building and Works what is the nature of the work still continuing at the stable yard at St. James's Palace; what is the total estimated cost; and whether he will consider suspending the work in view of the Economic Crisis.

But if one examines the Economic Crisis of September, 1957, we see that, in the year following, exports did not rise.

While thanking my hon. Friend for that reply, may I ask whether he would not agree that this practice not only causes a loss of revenue to the Post Office but also has an adverse effect on our balance of payments, and that at this time of Economic Crisis this practice by British-based companies is completely irresponsible?

This is not the record of a Government who have faltered or failed to stand up to the Economic Crisis.

This leads me to my third objection to the Bill - the lunacy of proceeding with the nationalisation of steel at a time when Britain is in the midst of a Dire Economic Crisis and living on borrowed money.

Taking the Supplementary and the original Estimates together, the Government can claim to have provided the maximum possible, within the terms of the Economic Crisis, to correct the tremendous imbalance which existed between the poverty-stricken regions of this country and the more fortunate.

Had the hon. Gentleman been paying attention to what I was saying he would have heard me say that because of the Economic Crisis which the country has faced in the last year or 18 months, it would be unreasonable to expect this of any Government.