AT WESTMINSTER
THE Easter recess offers Parliament a necessary break for reflection and re-invigoration. It has been a long period of the session since Christmas (Easter having fallen late this year) and the most trying stretch remains—weary days and nights on the Finance Bill and Television Bill as the summer approaches and Hyde Park seems a more attrac- tive platform for politicians than the chamber of the House. Political reflections this Easter must be particularly sombre. Those members who find it hard to work and live adequately on their Parliamentary salaries of £1,000 a year will be dis- tressed by the Government's cold attitude to the unanimous recommendation of the Select Committee that members should be paid half as much again. (One hears that unanswerable gibe of the election meeting : "Nobody's forcing you to stand for Parliament.") And on the political plane too the outlook is obscure. The House of Commons has peered at various points in the landscape but has had to adjourn before it could identify all the tracks forward. It was tantalising to the Opposition (and perhaps to some Government supporters as well) to know that Mr. Dulles was talking away in London and to be denied on Monday an account of what had been done. It was equally trying to have to wait a day or two for the revelation of the famous British inducement to other countries to bring the European Defence Community to life. Nor has there been much consolation to be found in the Commonwealth. On Monday Dr. Malan condemned British control of Bechuana- land, Basutoland and Swaziland as an intolerable encroachment on South Africa's natural rights and self-respect.
Curiosity was satisfied to some extent on Tuesday when Sir Winston stated baldly that there could be no question of the Government agreeing at the present time to the transfer of the South African Protectorates to the Union Government. That pleased the whole House and certainly the whole Opposition. But his reference to the old pledge that the people of the territories must be " consulted " before transfer could take place infuriated Miss Jennie Lee who demanded a pledge that their " consent " would first have to be obtained. Sir Winston stuck to the old word. The Bevanites were even more enraged by Mr.. Eden's statement on the result of his talks with Mr. Dulles, and Mr: Bevan showed the House how he thought that Mr. Attlee should have treated it. This led Mr. Stanley Evans, in his blunt way, to say that he and the bulk of the party preferred Mr. Attlee's moderation.
One thing at least was made clear this week. The cconomio strength of the country on which so many policies depend needs the most careful watching. Mr. Butler made a bravo show in winding up the budget debate- on Monday. (The budget resolutions were put separately on Wednesday.). He sounded surprisingly fresh and displayed all his remarkable ingenuity, which would have been beyond the reach of a tired mind, in hinting at fundamental policy decisions without coin- 'flitting himself precisely. Thus he managed to suggest that the old age pensioners need not lose hope (though obviously nothing will be done before the quinquennial review of national insurance is completed); that the equal pay party should not assume that his promised talks with civil servants will lead nowhere (without saying where they might lead); and that we could not afford a penny more on defence (but what must Mr. Dulles think about that?). Yet the rate of national expenditure must be cut, and "we are all in it." Mr. Robens, a former Minister of Labour, who has recently spent several weeks in the United States, wound up the budget debate for the Opposition with an instructive contrast between the rate of capital investment in industry, in America and here at home. He found the British rate "scandalous."
J. F. B.
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