AT WESTMINSTER
HE House of Commons is rather like an erratic asdic screen. At times it gives a vivid image of what is .happening in the world outside, but occasionally it seems quite sullen and insensitive. This was the case on Monday. A few days earlier North America had been swept by rumours that Sir Winston was to retire when the Queen got back from her Commonwealth tour. On the previous Friday. Mr. Cyril Osborne, the Conservative Member for Louth, had repeated all this gossip at Immingham and had added that Lord Woolton and Sir Walter Monckton were said to be going at the same time. He warned his party to start looking for replacements who would be equally liberal-minded. By Monday, therefore, members of all parties were agog, and when the House met, everybody hoped that Mr. Osborne would be in his place to ask a question which he had put on the question-paper. But he was not there. Neither was Sir Winston. The House passed without comment to the second reading of the-Bill that will limit night-baking and had to be content with observing Sir Walter Monckton's stoicism. He moved the second reading of the Bill and then left the House to have a minor operation.
* * * Tuesday came. It was known that Sir Winiton would be in the House for questions, and Mr. Osborne was in his place which is separated by only one bench from Sir Winston's. There was no demonstration when Sir Winston entered the chamber. There was none when he rose to answer his questions. All that happened then was that Sir Winston indicated obliquely that he had seen a letter written to an evening paper by Mr. Shinwell saying that if there must be a Tory Government Sir Winston ought to be at its head. The Prime Minister's handling of his questions showed that he was not in a resigning mood on Tuesday, and indeed the whole House knew that he had been -firing the new Belgian rifle on Monday. (It was charming to hear Mr. Attlee and the Prime Minister challenging each other as experienced shots.) * * * This studied indifference to the gossip of the moment did not last the day out. On Tuesday evening, during the committee stage of the Currency and Bank Notes Bill, Sir Winston, having voted in a division, dallied on the front bench—perhaps mischievously eager to provoke some reference to reports of his retirement. Kir. Eric Fletcher made it, and Sir Winston muttered: " It's a delusion," and then with huge enjoyment sent off Captain Soames to bring in his hearing aid. The House will be a much duller place when finally Sir Winston leaves it.
* * The Government is studying the report on civil defence produced by the Select Committee on Estimates, but has already decided not to remove responsibility for this service from the Home Secretary. When the Prime Minister announced this on Tuesday, Mr. Herbert Morrison, who was Home Secretary during the war, urged him " to stand firm on the point." Sir Winston replied that he would stand as firm as a rock.
* * * Parliament this week has once again been concerned with animals. The Lords on Tuesday gave a second reading to the Pests Bill which is primarily intended to encourage the destruction of rabbits. The Bill also provides for the eventual abolition of the gin trap, but in this respect is far too leisurely .o please Lord Elton. In the Commons, Mr. Arthur Moyle's Slaughter of Animals (Amendment) Bill, which applies the findings of the Northumberland Committee and has all-party support, was down for second reading on Friday. The Commons have also spared a thought for the pigeons in Trafalgar Square. Colonel Lipton objected that two licences for corn-sellers and six for photographers was rather a meagre ration, but Sir David Eccles replied that it appeared to satisfy both the pigeons and the public. J. F. B.
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