The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : Mr.
C. F. G. Masterman once observed that " in rural England the rates are regarded as greater enemies than battle, murder or sudden death." A foreign observer of the debate on the Air-Raid Precautions Bill might be pardoned for thinking that this attitude is not confined to the shires. From the speeches delivered he would have found it difficult to determine whether the House of Commons was more concerned with the protection of the civil population from the frightfulness of aerial attack or the still more appalling prospect of an extra twopence in the L. Actually, of course, Members were dis- puting about non-essentials because they were agreed upon the main purpose. Mr. Churchill was for once a little wide of the mark when he appealed to the two front benches at all costs not to divide. He pictured the advocates of a totali- tarian State and how they would grin when they saw that " after all these years of petty squabbling and delay, there is still a Division which has to be voted on in the House of Commons." It is difficult to see why either the Government or the Opposition should give way on a point where there is a genuine difference of opinion merely to avoid the hypo- thetical derision of totalitarian critics.
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