THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT
BY NEW MEMBER.
INTER-ALLIED debts, India, the Post Office, the Ministry of Transport, and (once again) the Betting tax, have all been discussed this week in a half empty and wholly listless House. Members of all parties were hot, weary; and disillusioned. It is felt that the part played by Parliament in the coal dispute is on all fours With that played by the Bishops—well-intentioned but futile. Unionists are wondering whether it is really worth while going on informing our industrialists how to run their businesses. The Parliamentary Labour Party has now ranged itself behind Mr. Cook, and no longer attempts to curb the activities or shape the policy of the Miners' Federation.
The only Labour leader who still wields some influence on the main issues is Mr. J. H. Thomas, and he does it by virtue of his position in the Trade Union movement, and not as a member of the front Opposition bench. The Prime Minister has always laid it down that a settle- ment can only come by negotiation between the actual disputing parties. And the House of Commons has now tacitly abandoned its attempts to bring about an improve- ment in the situation, and is preparing for its holiday with mingled resignation and relief. Upon one subject the Government is heartily blamed, and with justification. The profiteering in coal imported from abroad is out- rageous. Not only has no attempt been made to control prices during the crisis, but no enquiry is being held into the matter, and the Minister of Mines does not even trouble to come down and answer questions on the subject. It is the duty of any Government to see that the community as a whole is not exploited by reason of cir- cumstances which are beyond control.
The Liberal debate on the Churchill-Caillaux agreement elicited no new information and aroused little interest. Mr. E. C. Grenfell, the senior member for the City, im- pressed the House with a weighty and lugubrious analysis of the arrangement. Commander Hilton Young spoke well. And Mr. Churchill, not being on very firm ground, decided to be boring, and succeeded.' The general feeling
amongst members seemed to be one of despair of France coupled with a kind of displeased acquiescence with the United States, and a proper appreciation of our own superiority over both those countries !
The rowdyism which was so apparent a fortnight ago has now completely disappeared. Mr. Jack Jones is occasionally ordered out, but no one notices. The Labour Party, rent by internal dissension, watches power being once more steadily transferred from the parlia- mentary party in the House of Commons to the trade unions outside -with increasing anxiety. The Liberal party has ceased to maintain any pretence of unity, and Mr. Percy Harris has now added himself to the list of leaders. And Unionists are not happy. Legislation of some sort with regard to trade unions has become in- evitable, and will as inevitably produce uproar. There is also the House of Lords, not to mention the unsolved coal problem. So that it is true to say that all are equally depressed. This is to the good, for it will render the trade boom which must follow a settlement in the coal- fields all the more pleasurable.
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