The Home Secretary said if the country were invaded and ordinary processes of law ceased functioning in areas of active military operations, there should be available power for dealing effectively with cases of treachery covered by the present Bill. The measure was designed to meet such a situation.
Mr. John Robert Clynes, Labour member for the Platting division of Manchester, and Mr. Geoffrey Lo Mesurier Mander, Opposition Liberal member for the East Division of Wolverhampton, supported the Bill.
The Attorney-General, Sir Donald Somervell, showed how parachutists would be affected by the measure. If the enemy descended in plain clothes, unarmed and not as part of an attack, but hoping to commit espionage, he would be subject to provisions of the Bill But people descending in plain clothes as part of an attacking force would be dealt with in the same way as uniformed attackers, but with the added disad-Vantage of not having the privileges attaching in international law to uniformed soldiers.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.