The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary correspondent writes :—Never in
post-War history has there been a Parliamentary week comparable to that through which we are passing. For five minutes each afternoon the Chamber has been more full than on Budget night, and for the rest of the day it has been a desert of scattered order papers. I am writing before the final decision is known, but there is now little doubt as to what that decision will be—or what will be the reaction of the whole House towards it. The crisis has displayed Mr. Baldwin in his full stature. From the first he proved that he had a complete grip of the situation, and his plain, vigorous definition of the issue won over at the outset the best elements in all Parties to convinced approval of the course that the Government was taking. The waverers, always an insignificant minority, dwindled in numbers with every statement that he made, until by Monday afternoon there was hardly a score of dissentients that remained. It must be admitted, however, that the Government was materi- ally assisted by the intervention of Mr. Churchill. None could dispute the high sense of public duty and patriotism of Mr. Churchill, and everyone regrets that he felt called upon to conflict that cross-examination of Mr. Baldwin on Monday afternoon. It was so completely unneces- sary. Had he listened with any care to. Mr. Baldwin's statement he would have found no substance whatever for his anxiety that the King was being hurried into a final decision. It Was an astonishing blunder for a man in the position of Mr. Churchill.
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