The Week in Parliament
R. NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN obtained a third -kVA- reading for his Local Government Bill on Monday —cool, suave, precise, competent to the end. His has been a great Parliamentary triumph, but his final asser- tion that no Bill of similar magnitude had ever got through with so little amendment was not greatly relished by a House upon which it reflected small credit.. A slight moan over clause HI. was the sum total of the effective contribution of the back benches, and, to the uninstructed eye of the present writer, the clause substituted for it by the Minister of Health bears a suspicious and even unholy resemblance to its unpopular predecessor. However you could hardly expect the lukewarm mutineers to do it all over again.
The House is heartily thankful to be through with a long series of wearisome and technical debates, during which no new. Parliamentary reputations have been made, but from which Mr. Arthur Greenwood, Miss Susan Lawrence, and Mr. Ernest Brown emerge with credit.
Nobody summed up for the Opposition on Third Reading. Perhaps with that grip on reality which Sir Oswald Mosley assures us is such a distinguishing feature of the new Socialism, the Labour Party decided to waste no more breath or time in a fruitless quest. It is to be hoped they will adhere to this admirable resolution.
. Of Tuesday's astonishing events, a bare recapitulation must suffice. Mr. Amery announced that the Government would pay, compensation in full to the post-truce Irish loyalists on awards under £1,000, and 60 per cent. of all awards over that figure. He pointed out that the Wood- Renton Committee which recommended these awards was an advisory body, and in no sense a judicial tribunal. These payments were entirely " ex gratia," and the Cabinet had decided that they were on a generous scale, and should not be exceeded. A storm of protest swept the Conservative back benches. Colonel Gretton led the attack on the Government. , Major Ross, in an . admirable maiden speech, supported_ him. Colonel Howard-Bury, Sir Harry Foster (looking very debonair, with a rose in his buttonhole) and Sir William Davison joined, with steadily increasing fervour, in the assault. It was, in more than one sense, a knightly affair. There was much talk of honour and little of facts. With hands on their hearts and voices choking with genuine emotion, the Unionist stal- warts appeared at moments to be almost overcome by their own chivalry.
Up rose the Chancellor of the Exchequer to deliver what was, in the circumstances, a first-rate debating speech.
Twice already the Government had given way to this kind of pressure, and that was enough. For his part, as custodian of the national purse, he could not contemplate according to a non-judicial body, before which the Tress- my could not even argue a case, the right to sign un- limited cheques on the national account. Of 1,637 recom- mendations for compensation, 1,354 had been paid in full and these included all the smaller people ; 283 remained, and it was their case which was now being considered.
They had already received well over £700,000. Were they to receive £400,000 more ? If those who now en- deavoured to maintain economy were to be censured for their exertions, then right down the line of economy there would be weakness and collapse, and large issues might be seriously injured.
Lord Hugh Cecil, venomous and brilliant, fanned the flames which had been momentarily quietened. Could an obligation of honour be valued on a system of per- centages ? It was a pity that the Chancellor should remember economy just once, when it was rather dis- honourable to do so. This was the last disgraceful trans- action in an inheritance of shame which Mr. Churchill had helped to bring on this country, and he hoped the Government would be defeated.
So it would have been, despite a valiant effort by Major Hills, had not the Prime Minister walked in and moved to report progress and reconsider the matter. • A legitimate chortle by Mr. J. H. Thomas over the humilia- tion of the Government, and a sardonic speech from Mr. Ma'am' brought these strange proceedings to an unsatis-
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