The resumed debate in the House of Commons on Monday
on Mr. Snowden's motion on the " Capitalist System " marked another stage in the decline of the Labour Party's Parliamentary prestige. Sir John Simon and Mr. Amery as obviously outclassed the Labour " front-benchers " as Sir Alfred Mond did when the motion first came on. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald seemed to share the ineffectiveness of his colleagues, for in the speech with which he wound up the debate he was ill at ease and bombastic. But the most striking episode was Mr. Lloyd George's speech. The House awaited it with real interest. In form it appeared to be leading up to the enunciation of important constructive suggestions to deal with a situation which he painted in very dark colours. A wave of amazement and derision swept over the House when his sole positive contribution was found to be that the Government should institute an inquiry into the present discontents. But the debate was far from useless. The Labour Party showed itself in its true colours as unrepentantly Socialistic, while a majority of 247—or three to one—in favour of Sir Alfred Mond's amendment indicated very clearly how far the Labour Party will have to go before the conversion of Britain is accomplished. There was, indeed, in its leader's nervously passionate speech a note of something like despair.
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