The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : Pending
the German reply, interest in the House of Commons has shifted from foreign affairs back to the home front. The result has been a bad week for the Government. The climax, of course, came on Wednesday,. when the Government was actually defeated in the course of a debate on equal pay for men and women in the Civil Service. But a good deal had happened before that. It began with the Air Navigation Bill. It. was taken at a late hour and in a thin House, and the Government clearly expected the second reading and financial resolu- tion would be obtained without serious difficulty. The debate had not proceeded more than a few minutes when it became evident that there was stormy weather ahead. The House of Commons was not prepared to vote a sum of £25,000,000 without asking some searching questions as to why this subsidy was given to one company and refused to others. From all parts of the House the demands became more and more insistent for informa- tion as' to the principle on which these subsidies were based. The Government still showed no signs that they grasped the depth -of feeling on this subject. The Under-Secretary for Air, Sir Philip Sassoon, was left unsupported on the Treasury Bench, and when he came to reply, he ignored altogether the most important of the questions that he had been asked.
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