Debate on The Data Protection (Amendment) Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1918 · col. 10627

The Speaker: The Order of the Day is the third reading of the Bill. The Minister has the floor.

Bruno Fenn (Minister of the Interior): I move the third reading. The town councils have asked for the Bill by their clerks. The Ministry has drafted it as the councils asked, and shortened it. In terms: Licences are issued by the Ministry of the Interior for a fee of 22 marka. Comes into force on 1 January 1919. The Bill amends The Data Protection Act, which the House will remember passing, and amends it in one particular only. The Bill is in the hands of the House.

Arno Ostmann (Kesselhöh; The Workers' Front): Sir, I ask the Minister a plain question: who pays? The men of the mills pay. The Front will vote as it always votes, for the wage and against the fee. Drains, roads and lamps. The House will pass the Bill because the alternative is drains, roads and no lamps. The people of Kesselhöh will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. I oppose the third reading. [The Line!]

Egon Brenn (The Ostrand; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, The Union has no quarrel with the purpose of the Bill; its quarrel is with the fee, and with the officer who will collect it. An officer under the Act: the phrase appears in every Bill from the Interior and means a man with a book and a bicycle. The people of The Ostrand will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. I cannot vote for the Bill as it stands and I shall not. [Laughter.]

Ernst Stanvo (The Osmoor; The Continuity Party): Mr. Speaker, I have read the Bill for what it does to the record, which is the only reading that matters, and it does nothing to the record. The towns asked for it. The towns will pay for it. That is the usual arrangement and I do not quarrel with it. The people of The Osmoor will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated. [Shame.]

Konrad Ilgen (The Osmoor; The Reed Party): Mr. Speaker, The members for the reed districts will ask, as they always ask, what the Bill means for the harvest and the causeways. Drains, roads and lamps. The House will pass the Bill because the alternative is drains, roads and no lamps. The people of The Osmoor will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. I oppose the third reading. [Laughter.]

Ludwig Hallin (Westgau; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, Westgau has had a hard year. I say that not against the Bill but so that the Minister remembers it when the fees are fixed. Every Bill of this kind adds a form, a fee and a clerk. The Assembly Union would like, once in a session, to pass a Bill that removes one. I read the clause. Comes into force on 1 January 1919. Drains, roads and lamps. The House will pass the Bill because the alternative is drains, roads and no lamps. The Bill should pass and I shall vote for it.

Tobias Hallin (The Ostrand; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, The liberty of the subject is a large phrase for a small Bill, but I use it, because the Bill is small and the liberty is not. My constituents in The Ostrand wrote to me about the Bill, all 3 of them, and they were against it until they read it. An officer under the Act: the phrase appears in every Bill from the Interior and means a man with a book and a bicycle. The Bill says so in terms: Licences are issued by the Ministry of the Interior for a fee of 22 marka. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated. [Hear, hear.]

The Minister replied briefly. The fee was as printed; the officer was as printed; the House had the Bill and could read it.

The Speaker: The question is that the Bill be now read a third time and do pass. As many as are of that opinion say Aye. [Ayes.] Of the contrary, No. [Noes.] A division was claimed.

The tellers reported the numbers to the Chair. The Speaker declared the Bill passed.

The House then proceeded to the next Order of the Day.