FREE VOTE OF HOUSE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 94, 22 April 1931, Page 9

FREE VOTE OF HOUSE

SECOND READING PASSED

(British Official Wirelem.)

EUGBY, 20th 'April. Tie Home Secretary, Mr. J. B. Clynes, in moving the second reading of the Sunday Performances Bill, said that the Government thought that the problem created by the recent decision of the Courts declaring the Sunday opening of places of entertainment as being illegal under an eighteenth-cen-tnry Act was one for solution by the collective wisdom of the House.

By the Bill, Sunday opening would! be decided by local option, and the i authorities would allow the types of t entertainment commonly given ia re-1 cent years. The Bill abolished the' right of private persons to sue as com- < mon informers for the penalties under i the Sunday Observance Act, and in fu-. turc proceedings must be instituted by a local authority. Unless the problem were solved there would be widespread irritation, he added. The rejection was moved by Mr. L Macpherson (L.), who claimed that most of the opinion, outside London and the trade interests was against the Bill.

Mr. Neville Chamborlain (C.) supported the Bill, and said that the view among social workers was that tha provision of decent and reasonable amusement kept young people from undesirable' temptation. The continuation of the debate showed that all parties were divided on the Bill, which was supported by Six John Simon, Mr. George Lansbnry, ]?iist Commissioner of Works, and Lord Eustace Percy, Minister of Education in the Conservative Government. ' The Bill passed its second reading by 258 votes to 210. ; '■■;... There were no party divisions in tha voting. Messrs. Bamsay Mac Donald, Stanley Baldwin, James Manton (Labour), J. H. Thomas, and L. C. M. S. Amcry (Conservative), and Miss Margaret Bondfield wero among the supporters. Sir A. Steel-Maitland (Conservative), Sir Herbert Samuel (Liberal), Sir Donald Maclean (Liberal), Mr. Walter Runciman (Liberal), Miss Megan Lloyd George (Liberal), and Sir Eobei't' Hornc opposed tho Bill. Tho Ulster members and the Scottish and Welsh Liberals "generally opposed it. At loast 100 members abstained from voting.