AT WESTMINSTER
IHE reassembly of Parliament on Tuesday after the summer recess had about it the atmosphere of a first night in which the drama was heightened by fantasy. We have all watched the dress rehearsals—Sir Winston and Mr. Eden practising their parts at Margate -after weeks of illness, Mr. Attlee and Mr. Morrison trying out leading roles in a new edition of their show—the Socialist Co-optimists. The gestures are familiar, but on Tuesday the words were different, and, in fact, a whole new part was produced at the last minute by Mr. Lyttelton, who published the reasons why the Government decided to suspend the constitution of British Guiana. There was another difference on the opening night. The Labour conference lasted five days and the Tory confer- ence three, but on Tuesday the matter was squeezed into little over an' hour. But just as the House of Commons makes its crowd scenes more vivid by meeting in a chamber too small for all its members, so this concentration of themes created an impression of intense activity and of intellects capable of being driven at supersonic speed.
* * * * The whole House gave an affectionate welcome to Sir Winston and Mr. Eden on their return to duty. There was something a little selfish in the greeting of Sir Winston : the House relies on him too much as a stimulus. .As Mr. Wyatt said, the House is a duller place without him. No wonder that there were ten questions for Sir Winston to answer on Tuesday; and he dealt with them splendidly. One member complained afterwards that the Prime Minister had not sparkled as much as usual, but the criticism was based on greed. Sir Winston was firm, lucid and quick. He abandoned the university seats without a blush or a flood of words. Members of all parties took this news with remarkable placidity. Only a few tears were shed—by Sir Herbert Williams.
* * * * It was Mr. Eden's task to summarise the principal features of foreign policy that had emerged during the recess. The result was 'a supplementary Queen's Speech—a foreign affairs agenda for the following months—and it was a more coherent statement than the one he made after the Eden-Butler mission to Washington earlier-in the year. Trieste will cause trouble in the House as well as outside. Mr. Attlee fastened on. it at once and demanded a debate next week. (He first asked for it next session, which begins on November 3, but advanced his time-table as questions proceeded.) Egypt looms close behind Trieste, and the Government was reminded at Margate that its supporters are apprehensive about any weakening of Britain's position in the Canal Zone.
* * * * It was difficult on Tuesday amid the press of imperial and foreign affairs to keep in mind the fact that there would be a debate next day on the annual report of the British Transport Commission. (Here at least was an item which differed not at all on opening night from the dress rehearsals. All the actors have been word perfect for years.) But the imperial theme was resumed on Thursday in the debate on British Guiana. Most members have had to educate themselves rapidly since the Government sent troops to Georgetown the other week. They have spent so much time during this session in considering Central Africa, Kenya and Malaya, that they have not gazed intently at British Guiana. Nor has the Government urged them to do so. As a result, the drastic action taken by the Government has been a shock, and Par- liament finds itself compelled not only to test the validity of the evidence on which the Government has acted, but to con- sider the limits of freedom in a " free " democracy. The Opposition rehearsed Thursday's debate at question time on Wednesday when Mr. Lyttelton had some fifty questions to answer, many of them about British Guiana.
I. F. 13.
Previous page
