The debate was continued on Tuesday when the chief event
was the shattering attack on the Bill by Sir John Simon in what many listeners thought was about the best speech lie has ever made. He quoted with neatly designed effect from speeches by the Prime Minister and Mr. Henderson who had declared that the General Strike of 1926 was exclusively " industrial." The Labour members, of course, cheered enthusiastically. " Exactly," exclaimed Sir John coldly, "the intention of the Bill is to legalize such a General Strike." The whole Bill, he declared, was vitiated by the substitution of the " test of motives " for the " test of methods." Who could conceivably ascertain what human motives were ? The attempt to ascertain them would take up one knew not how much time in the Law Courts and even then the thing could not be done. A measure so indefensible could not be cured by amendment. Why, then, were most of his colleagues going to abstain in the division ? The Liberals were very uneasy during this speech but, after all, a Party plan is a Party plan, and they did not quail before their Party duty.
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