1 MARCH 1940, Page 3

The Financial Resolution governing the Old Age Pensions Bill occupied

the whole of Monday. Labour back-benchers who had failed to catch Mr. Speaker's eye during the second reading debate leapt at this fresh opportunity to purge their stuffed bosoms, and to make it clear to anyone who didn't already know that they were averse to a Means Test. They succeeded in covering a wide field. For example Mr. Barr, in the space of a quarter of an hour, quoted from Robert Burns, Aristotle, Kingsley, Disraeli and the Earl of Chatham, and reminded the House on two occasions of the views expressed by the late Mr. Henry Chaplin in 1908. But whether his reading had included the Bill before the House was a question on which members were left in doubt.