28 NOVEMBER 1947, Page 5

The mace is a traditional symbol of authority. Unless the

mace is in its place the House of Commons cannot sit. Not only in the Dominion Parliaments but in many colonial Assemblies the mace plays its accustomed part. A high authority on Parliamentary forms and ceremonies is concerned—and very reasonably—to know whether the Parliament of the latest autonomous member of the Common- wealth, Ceylon, has yet acquired, or proposes to acquire, a mace. It certainly should. Its Chamber, when it is constituted, will no doubt have a Speaker, and he will be materially fortified in his dignity and authority by association. Whose business it may be to see to such matters I do not claim to know ; but whoever he is I hope he will see to this matter.