When I was Minister for Industry and Commerce, it was my intention to promote legislation to render unnecessary the continuance of the Supplies and Services Act, and, as the Minister has acknowledged, a good deal of legislation—I think about 12 Bills in all—was put through so as to render the continuance of the Act unnecessary. Some more Bills are to be put through. There is one Bill relating to hire purchase and that new Bill is necessary because of the effect of the recently controlled hire purchase arrangements. That Bill is in draft and can be introduced immediately. There is another Bill relating to the suspension of customs duties. That Bill is also in draft and can be introduced immediately. There is another Bill dealing with the question of the continuance of price control and that Bill is at present with the Parliamentary Draftsman with a view to being licked into shape as a Bill. It already has the heads of a Bill.
With the passage of these three Bills, all of which could be on the Order Paper, two next week and one within a month, the main necessity for the Supplies and Services Act, would have passed, were it not for the recent necessity of introducing petrol rationing. While I agree at the outset that emergency legislation of a supplies and services character is not desirable, I have still come to the conclusion within the past few weeks that a sudden switch away from it to nothing of a comparable kind may involve the Government, the Parliament and the people in unforeseen difficulties. So long as petrol rationing continues, it will be necessary to continue the Supplies and Services Act, even though we have passed permanent legislation to deal with all the other matters which are being dealt with in connection with the Act as it operates at present.
This brings to mind in a very acute way and throws out in bold relief the necessity for having some kind of legislation to deal with an emergency situation which we cannot foresee, which is not of our making and against which we are completely powerless to insulate this country. If the Supplies and Services Act had been repealed and it were found necessary to ration petrol, quite considerable difficulty might arise in finding the necessary machinery to do that job in the speedy and efficient way in which it could be done under the Supplies and Services Act.
Petrol rationing is now petering out and within the next month or two, it ought to go entirely. That does not mean, however, that we are never going to have the same difficulty again. A shipbuilding strike, an engineering strike or a dock strike in England might make it impossible to get tankers loaded, might make it impossible to get tankers unloaded here, or you might have a situation in England in which a dispute, for example, in the British coal fields might make it impossible to load ships with fuel for Ireland. In such circumstances, it might very well be necessary to ration the meagre quantity of coal that could be imported for the time being from other parts of the world.
It is because situations of that kind, in the uneasy world in which we live, are things which seem to be ever-present that I believe there is now a case, in the interest of the nation, for considering whether we ought not to have something as a substitute for the Supplies and Services Act, some piece of mechanism which is already in existence, remains suspended but can be brought into speedy operation on the passage of legislation through this House. Something of that kind is desirable. It is all right to say in an idyllic way that this emergency legislation is undesirable in times of peace, but a time of peace can often be much tougher than a war situation as many could prove from experience of various countries since the end of World War II.
The Government should, I think, give consideration, perhaps in consultation with other Parties in the House, to the desirability of having at its disposal some piece of mechanism which will operate speedily and operate overnight, which will deal with a special problem only as long as the problem lasts and can then go back into retirement until it is necessary to bring it out for use again.
