The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes The humilia-
tion of the Government on the second reading of the Coal • Mines Bill must have been all the more exasperating to them because it was so unnecessary. They had been clearly warned by the Whips of the temper of their supporters, and that. unless the Bill was wiihdrawn there would be such a revolt as would reduce the Govern- ment majority to vanishing-point if a second reading was; risked upon it in its existing form. The procedure that was adopted of promising drastic amendments in com- mittee but still insisting that the Bill, as it stood, shMild receive a second reading, was one that no House of Commons with any spirit could have tolerated. The position was made worse by the fact that Mr. litmeiman made no attempt to be conciliatory, and contented himself with reading the amendments from a typewritten sheet in a manner that seemed to indicate that. he had only received them from his department that afternoon and did not himself adequately comprehend them.
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