SALVATION ARMY BILL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21300, 2 April 1931, Page 14

SALVATION ARMY BILL

% SECOND READING. (Feom Oue Own Coeeespondent.) LONDON, February 19. Last evening the Salvation Army Bill, to which there is considerable opposition and which has been the subject of a good deal of newspaper correspondence recently, slipped through its second reading stage in the House of Commons. Its .opponents afterwards protested that they had registered their objection, but the Speaker declined to go back on his ruling that the second reading had been carried. The Salvation Army Bill, which contains provisions dealing with the method of election and the age of retirement of the general, and proposes to establish a custodian trust company to deal with the funds and property of the Army, was on the Notice Paper for second reading. A motion to reject the Bill stood in° the names of Mr F. Smith (Soc., Nuneaton) and Mr Holford Knight (Soc., Nottingham, South). They were both in their places. The Speaker put the motion “ That the Bill be read a second time,” and, there apparently being no objection, he declared the motion carried. Mr F. Smith, when the next order was being called, drew the Speaker’s attention to the fact that he had called out “Object” when the motion for the Salvation Army Bill was put. Mr Holford Knight also declared that objection had been taken. The Speaker said that he was very sorry, but seeing the motion for rejection on the paper, he waited for a few moments, and did not hear any voices in response. Mr Freeman (Soc., Brecon) : I said “ Object.” The Speaker': I am very sorry, but I have already collected the votes. The Bill 'therefore received a second reading, and will now go to a Private Bill Committee.