The Week at Westminster
PROGRESS with business has been rapid and debates have been bright during the past week. This House of Commons, whatever its faults as a debating assembly, has a great capacity for sticking to the point ; and there is little doubt that it will comply with the necessity of rising early in the summer so as to free Ministers for attendance at the Disarmament, Repara- tions, and Imperial Conferences. The Prime Minister stated on Tuesday that the composition of the delegation to the Ottawa Conference had not been discussed in the Cabinet. It has, however, been discussed everywhere else, and some particularly foolish deductions have been drawn front the widespread acceptance among members of the suggestion that the delegation should be more than technical and departmental. The most foolish is the deduction that Mr.. J. IL Thomas is to he shuffled out of any prominent part in the Conference.
On Friday and again on Monday the House seized the occasion of a little Bill designed to continue the Government's emergency powers to cheek profiteering and to control the currency,. to discuss the that nations in sterling. Sir Stafford Cripps, who is good whenever he does not think it necessary to thump a tub, asked at least for an assurance that speculation in the exchanges would be discouraged, and allied himself to those who wish to see sterling stabilized in terms of commodities at about the price level of 1029—a higher level, be it noted, than to-day's. Mr. Chamberlain's reply was remarkably frank. He pointed out that there could be no absolute stability in a currency not linked to anything, because speculators could always jump in and out in accordance with their own views of how the exchanges would move. Ile therefore disliked a managed currency and foresaw that sooner or later some metallic standard must be restored.
The position of the Government was made still clearer on Monday, when the monetary theorists had another field- day and expressed such diversity of views that Major Elliot publicly thanked Heaven that the House of Com- mons did not manage the currency. He and Mr. Hore- Belisha quoted figures to show that there has in fact been since September exactly the sort of stabilization in terms of commodities for which Sir Stafford Cripps asked; and, further, that the gap between wholesale and retail prices is closing, thanks to sonic degree of management of commodities themselves through the agency of the Retailers' Committee which is co-operating with the Board of Trade. It was, indeed, satisfactory to learn that the Government is not infected by theories that monetary manipulation can restore prosperity.
On Monday the Prime Minister returned to the House after his operation. He was warmly received though no attempt was made to stage an ostentatious welcome. The House has worked well enough during his absence, and it is indeed obvious that the vast majority of members need no guiding hand to preserve their loyalty to the National Government. Mr. MacDonald's indispensability is not in the House of Commons, but in the Cabinet and the country. Both Mr. Baldwin and Sir John Simon took the occasion of his return to make speeches in the country emphasizing the solidarity of the Government ; and it is remarkable that the return of Mr. Lloyd George to politics this week is viewed at Westminster as the return of an actor to the cast rather than as the return of an impresario who has a .chance of staging a different play.
As regards other business, the Wheat Bill made excellent progress during its first day in Committee.
Cesros.
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