AT WESTMINSTER
pARLIAMENT paid its last tributes to Queen Mary on Wednesday, and having done so adjourned for the rest of the day as a mark of respect. The address which the House sent to the Queen spoke of " this melancholy occasion," and although in the brief speeches that were made in the Commons there was a sense of the deeply-felt loss that the country has suffered—Mr. Churchill said there had not in living memory been a figure more widely known or more universally honoured—yet it was impossible not to feel glad of Queen Mary's life and of the power that was given her to retain almost to the end that alertness and uprightness, physical as well as moral, that have so impressed themselves upon the public. Mr. Walter Elliot expressed this feeling admirably when he recalled that the Members who called on Queen Mary to bring the condolences of the House on the death of her son, George VI, found her looking forward to better times in the reign of her granddaughter, Elizabeth 11. The Govern- ment has been attacked this week for making an announcement of policy to the Press instead of to the House, but the first public announcement of the death of Queen Mary was given to the House late on Tuesday night by Mr. Churchill. Members had been preparing themselves all day for the news, but it came as a painful shock to one visitor in the public gallery whose gasp of dismay could be heard throughout the stilled chamber.
* * * * The fortunes of the Government have varied this week. Monday must be counted a Government success, for the flood relief measures which it has taken and is proposing secured general approval. The change in Labour's attitude was miracu- lous. There was no more talk of Mr. Churchill's broken pledges, or of the Government's attempt to sabotage Labour's Coast Protection Act; and when Mr. Macmillan gently con- trasted the harmony of Monday's debate' with the acerbities that had preceded it, one or two Labour Members were quite shocked by his indelicacy.
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The withdrawal of the Judges' Remuneration Bill from this week's programme must rank as a Government failure in party relations. Ministers should have discovered the attitude of their own supporters towards the principle of tax-free allow- ances before the Bill was published. Mr. Churchill put up a wonderful defence on Tuesday of the Government's decision to postpone the Bill without abandoning its determination to give the judges more money. Never, it seems, has the Government been more unanimous or resolute than in deciding that a Bill which was thought safe a week ago had better be postponed. Constitutional historians may note with relief that the power of the party machine is not after all as crushing as has been suggested.
* Real and deep differences of opinion about the merits of Central African Federation were made plain in Tuesday's debate in the Commons, but most of the speakers had already identified themselves with a particular approach to the problem. Political curiosity fastened on the choice of Sir Frank Soskico to wind up Labour's case against federation. He has been known hitherto as a gentle, courteous and patient debater, and a lucid exponent of points of law arising out of such measures as Finance Bills. But could he do more than speak adequately to a brief ? Within the limits he set himself on Tuesday-- an examination of the federal scheme from the viewpoint of an African—Sir Frank spoke with an element of passion and insistence. His courtesy did not allow him on this occasion to yield before the protests and disclaimers that he forced Mr. Lyttelton to make, and indeed the spectacle of Mr. Lyttelton throwing himself about restlessly as Sir Frafik developed his argument suggested that the Opposition will gain in fighting strength as Sir Frank gains in experience. J. F. B.
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