The Aliens' Restriction (Amendment) Act was rushed through both Houses
in manuscript. on August 5th, 190, and there were parts of it which the House of Commons never saw. The Home Secretary of the day declared. that the Orders in Council made thereunder would cease ' to be operative when the country ceased to be at war or in a 'great state of emergency. Nevertheless the orders have continued ever since. The powers conferred upon the Home Office are remarkably wide, for the concluding words read " Provisions may be made by the Order for any other matter which appears necessary or expedient with a view to the safety of the realm."
In the small hours of Tuesday morning, on the Expiring Laws Continuance Bill, Mr. T. E. Harvey suggested that the time had come to discontinue the emergency legislation and to replace it by a carefully considered measure. Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd replied that a time when the aliens problem was rapidly changing was scarcely opportune for the shaping of permanent laws, and defended the rule-making powers on the ground that they provided a " flexible instrument." The latter argument provoked the wrath of the Liberal Opposition, who felt that it could, equally well be used in support of an enabling Act giving the executive authority to govern by decree.
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