13 NOVEMBER 1936, Page 3

The intense interest created by the Arms debate was in

marked contrast to the atmosphere of boredom and lassitude that characterised the two days' discussion of the Socialist amendment. The debate lacked any sort of reality. Labour speakers wearily repeated without any real conviction the arguments for nationalisation that have been used for the last 30 years in this ludicrous controversy and Ministers made the customary obvious replies. It might have been a set debate at the Oxford Union except that the general level of debating was inferior to the undergraduates'. Mr. Sandys and Mr. Cartland, both Conservatives, did however use the occasion to make constructive speeches of the type that are not made frequently enough by Liberal National and National Labour speakers.