Commons Passes Totalitarian Powers Bill

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 August 1947, Page 8

Commons Passes Totalitarian Powers Bill

LONDON, August 12. The House of Commons-passed -the third reading of the- Supplies and Services Bill, which the Government introduced to deal with the economic crisis, by .178 votes to 62. The House rose pt 7.48 a.m. after a sitting lasting 12 hours. In the committee stages an Opposition amendment ,to the section, giving the Government wide powers to use all the resources of the community was defeated by 256 votes to 125. Labour Member’s Stand During the debate a Labour member, Captain A. IL Blackburn, said that he would vote with Mr-Churchill because the Opposition amendment made it clear that the intention of the Bill was merely to remove doubt about the continuance of the Government’s existing powers. Later in the debate,' supporting a Liberal member’s amendment that all Labour direction orders under the Act should be laid before Parliament, Captain ■ Blackburn asserted that lhe Attorney-General (Sir Hartley Shawcross) —who replied rejecting the amendment —was “behaving in a | totalitarian fashion and is utterly uni worthy of holding his position.’’ 'This I amendment was defeated by 207 votes to 86, I The Government accepted an amendment moved by Mr Clement Davies (Liberal) that nothing in the act should bo held to authorise the suppression, or suspension of any newspaper, periodical, book, or other publication. . Question of Liberty

Sir Hartley Shawcross, moving the third reading, said that legally the Bill did not greatly increase the Government’s already extensive powers, but it would remove doubt about the extent to which those powers could be used for purposes concerned with the present economic emergency. The Government recognised that, great as individual liberty might be, and high as personal freedom might be rated, the life, liberty, and very existence of the community were something greater still. That was why the Government needed to take the powers which the Bill provided.

Lieutenant-Colonel F. C. Byers was the Liberal member who moved an amendment, which provided that any order or regulation under the act for the compulsory direction of labour should be laid before both Houses as soon as possible after it was made. Sir Hartley Shawcross, rejecting this amendment, said it would mean having a Parliamentary debate before individual direction was given to an individual “spiv” to engage in useful work. He said the Government- already possessed powers for the direction of labour.