26 NOVEMBER 1927, Page 1

Since this wasted day the Labour Party have been busy

trying to create a fresh occasion far compelling Mr.

Baldwin to speak. The most useful question put to the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, however, came not from the Labour Party but from, a -Unionist, Lord Henry Bentinck. On Tuesday, Lord Henry, who had evidently digested Sir Alfred Mond's letter in the Times of Monday, asked whether in view of the surplus labour in mining areas the Government would raise the school age for those areas, provide for the superannuation of miners over 60 years of age, encourage the employment of miners in by-product processes, and expedite the housing schemes where the shortage of houses was an obstacle to the mobility of labour. Mr. Baldwin said that all these problems had " engaged the attention " of the Government, but that it would not be possible within the short compass of an answer to a question to discuss the practicability of what Lord Henry had suggested. Some Labour questions which followed were based on the misconception that the Prime Minister could really state the Government's policy there and then.

* * * *