MINISTERS’ POWERS

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 32, 1 November 1929, Page 11

MINISTERS’ POWERS

ARE PARLIAMENT’S RIGHTS ENCROACHED ON? BUREAUCRATIC USURPATIONS ALLEGED BRITISH COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ‘ (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright) (Rec. October 31, 8 p.m.) London, October 30. In the House of Commons the Lord Chancellor, after consultation with Mr. P. Snowden, appointed an all-party committee of Parliamentary lawyers, under the chairmanship of Earl Conoughmore, "to consider the powers exercised t.y Ministers and the Crown by delegated legislation and judicial and quasi-judicial decisions.”

The committee will report what safeguards are necessary to secure Parliament’s sovereignty and the supremacy of the law. The appointment of this committee is the sequel to expressions of opinion, especially among judges, that ministers and officials are encroaching upon spheres previously allotted to Parliament and the law courts. There have been frequent protests against the alleged bureaucratic usurpations. "THE NEW DESPOTISM” LORD HE WART’S STRONG • CRITICISM (Rec. October 31, 9.30 p.m.) London, October 31. In reference to the Lord Chancellor’s committee, attention was first focused on the subject by Lord Hewart’s book entitled “The New Despotism,” in which he strongly criticised bureaucracy. One of Lord Hewart’s strongest protests was directed against the insertion in new Acts of a clause giving department power to interpret provisions. , The “Daily Telegraph,” commenting on the subject, says: “It is unusual for the Lord Chief Justice to write a book which is so much more than a criticism as to be the-most damning and crushing indictment of a well-defined feature of the existing system of government. Indeed, it was so unusual that the motive must not only be strong but overpowering. His cause is nothing less than the liberty of the subject and his challenge must be answered without delay.”