In the ensuing debate the attitude of the Ministerialists was
in the main hostile, the view taken being that it was a measure to grant a bounty to landlords. But Mr. Roberts, the Labour member for Norwich, who urged that the problem should be viewed from a national point of view, stated that he hoped to carry the majority of his Labour colleagues with him in support of the second reading. Mr. Walter Long, who supported the Bill, declared himself a convert to State aid, and respect- fully suggested to the President of the Local Government Board that there had been almost enough of personal and Departmental references, "that good times could not last for ever ; that bad times might come, and he no longer be the President of the Local Government Board, and everything be no longer for the best under the best President of the best possible Department."
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