The Week in Parliament Our . Parliamentary Correspondent writes Mr.
Eden was subjected to the most searching test of his 1'mila-, mentary career when he had to beat back, on Tuesday night, the most formidable attack that the National Government .has had to face since it came into power four and a half years ago. Mr. Lees Smith had been in charge of the Opposition attack on the Hoare-Laval peace plans, and from the point of view of his party he had performed it admirably. His speech was well- phrased, dignified, clear 0,w,1 short. The Government Front Bench looked, while it was in progress, like poli- ticians who haVe just emerged from an overwhelming disaster at the polls, and. not even the most truculent diehard ventured on an interruption, despite the provoca- tion of Mr. Lees Smith's blistering criticism. It was in this atmosphere of an Opposition flushed with anger and warmed with the glow of self-righteousness, with the Government ranks silent and. uneasily remembering their election speeches about " unswerving support for the League," that Mr. Eden had to make his case for the • Goyernmeht's action. His material was terribly thin: The Government supporters waited anxiously for the smashing answer and the devastating_ retort. They did not come. Ministerialists had hoped, at least that the forecast of the proposals had been a caricature of the actual plan, but all that Mr. Eden could say was that there were " important inaccuracies " in them. * * *
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