We are passing through a tremendous age of transition. That of course is a platitude. Nevertheless platitudes have to be repeated and to be remembered lest in forgetting them we land ourselves in great difficulties and in crisis. When we pass through great ages of transition, the various systems-even systems of law-have to undergo changes. Conceptions which had appeared to us basic undergo changes. And I draw the attention of the House to the very conception of property which may seem to us an unchanging conception but which has changed throughout the times, and changed very greatly, and which is today undergoing a very rapid change. There was a period when there was property in human beings. The king owned everything-the land, the cattle, the human beings. Property used to be measured in terms of the cows and bullocks you possessed in old days. Property in land then became more important. Gradually the property in human beings ceased to exist. If you go back to the period when there were debates on slavery you will see how very much the same arguments were advanced in regard to the property in human beings as are sometimes advanced now with regard to the other property. Well, slavery ceased to exist.
