AT WESTMINSTER
MR. JOSEPH WESTWOOD, who was killed in a motor accident over the week-end, was one of that little band of very small men on the Labour benches—Mr. Tomlinson, Mr. Silverman and Mr. Reeve are three more—who make up in liveliness what they lack in inches ; when Mr. Speaker opened the proceedings on Monday with a reference to him Scottish Members in particular regretted his loss. Questions proceeded in an orderly manner until Mr. Platts-Mills objected to Sir Thomas Moore, describing the mining of the destroyers Saumaurez ' and Volage' in Albanian waters in .1946 as "the murder of British sailors." Mr. Plaits-Mills rose to a long point of order and was rebuked by Mr. Speaker for trying to teach him his business. Mr. Piratin pressed the point and was told in his turn that " common courtesy " demanded that the Speaker should be given notice of complicated points of order and that Members should not try to "catch him out." As points of order have precedence over all others, and any Member on his feet must give way, the House became impatient at such persistent attempts to score political points in disguise.
There was a chance that Monday's business would finish early, but the Opposition decided to resist the Order to preserve the tillage acreage in the country and both Monday and Tuesday were accordingly devoted to agriculture. On the Labour benches there was much speculation why Mr. Hudson, the Minister of Agriculture under the Coalition Government, no longer deals with this subject in the House, some people suggesting that it is because he is not prepared to attack Mr. Williams, who served under him during the war, others that'it is because he believes Mr. Williams to be the Labour Party's greatest asset in the countryside and that he wants to drive him from office. In any event Mr. Dugdale, who has taken his place, was objective and conciliatory, and Mr. George Brown, the Parliamentary Secretary, referred to him unusually as a man
for whom he had "great affection."* * * *Tuesday's debate was concerned chiefly with the question of
imported feeding-stuffs and the mathematics of the Minister of Food. The opposition was on firmer ground and Mr. Dugdale's figures demand a reply which they could not receive at such short notice. Mr. Williams told an encouraging story of rising output in all branches of agriculture, and got such wholehearted support from his own side that Mr. Joynson Hicks, following Mr. Collins, the Labour Member for Taunton, referred to him as the Honourable Member for Utopia. But the debate was well-informed and the attendance showed that agriculture is less than ever a " forgotten " industry.
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On Wednesday, with a Scottish debate in the Commons, interest again shifted to the House of Lords, where Lord Pakenham announced the decision to buy Canadian aircraft for B.O.A.C. No Member of the Government has been called upon to master so many different subjects in so short a time, and after Lord Pakenham had presented his case the decision itself was scarcely questioned ; the debate concerned itself mostly with the Courtney Report. There was one heated moment when Lord Balfour of Inchrye said he thought Lord Pakenham's phrases about a socialised industry sounded as if they had been written by an official—words which Lord Pakenham hotly resented. Lord Douglas was also brought to his feet when Lord Swinton said " it would be worth his place on those benches " to make an impartial enquiry into the internal air-lines of Britain. But these gusts only momentarily disturbed a house which found the debate difficult to follow and the sultriness of the day difficult to resist. Lord Addison made it plain that the Government were open to suggestions about the reorganisation of the departments concerned with civil aviation and seemed to suggest that Lord Pakenham might not be filling the same post next year. There are strong arguments for abolishing the Ministry altogether, and Lord Pakenham, having rendered one post superfluous, would be the last man to retain an office for the sake of a job. If the art of politics is to render Government unnecessary he may soon become a unique master of his craft. A. M. C.
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