AT WESTMINSTER
THE Speaker, happily and safely restored to us from his visit to France, reported briefly but becomingly to the House on Monday. He referred to the applause with which he was greeted, and handed in for incorporation in the journals of the House an extract from the Proces-Verbal of the sitting of November 27th. This graceful minute records how the deputies received with applause the Speaker, M. Herriot and M. Schuman. All this hap- pened at a time of economic and constitutional crisis, and the House naturally were very gratified at this further characteristic manifesta- tion of the gentillesse habituelle of our Parliamentary cousins across the water. It makes one Member at least wonder whether we respond quite fittingly by merely giving to visiting Parliamentarians facilities for hearing a debate with no formal acknowledgement of their presence.
* * * * For the rest, it has not been a very exciting week on the whole, although the main scheduled Government business has been supple- mented by a Private Notice question on. Palestine and the prayer to annul the Registration for Employment Order. As a domestic variant to larger national issues, Monday's Question Time contributed some brisk exchanges about the sale of wine by the Refreshment Depart- ment of the House. The question was raised, fittingly enough, by Lord Winterton, Father of the House, and was replied to by another veteran, Mr. McEntee, Chairman of the Kitchen Committee. After some disagreement .between these two Nestors on the subject of " redundant liquor "—an improbable concept enough in these parched and expensive days—the youthful Mr. Erroll urged the " Minister " to look into the matter again. Mr. McEntee merely repeated the word " Minister," but into that one word he managed to introduce a wealth of repudiation and deprecation. Whereat Mr. Erroll, nothing abashed at his technical error, instantly amended his description to " the Minister of the Interior." Even this, how- ever, failed to mollify Lord Winterton, who sternly gave notice that he would raise the matter on the Adjournment.
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A good deal of Parliamentary time this week has been devoted to the Committee stage of the Finance Bill—the traditional Spring handicap which this year figures also as an Autumn double. Mr. Glenvil Hall pursued his genial, somewhat deprecatory course over a wide range of subjects, including advertisements, Profits Tax, bet- ting, and beer and spirits. Sir Stafford Cripps made some appear- ances in the sole of Chancellor, and the versatile Solicitor-General lent the powerful aid of his lucid exposition and forensic skill. For the Opposition, Sir Peter Bennett, Mr. Eccles and Mr. Selwyn Lloyd were prominent, while Mr. McKie was able to inform the House that the fact that there were 2,500 cases of fainting in the streets of London on the day of the Royal Wedding was direct proof that the vitality of the people of this country is lower than it was.
* * * Few things are better Parliamentary value than a good short Adjournment debate. Widely different, but both interesting, were Mr. Skeffington-Lodge's debate on the import of American fiction and Sir Ian Fraser's debate on war decorations and medals. Mr. Skeffington-Lodge's fluent denunciation of this " veritable Niagara of piffle and slush" was enlivened both by a catalogue of the titles of some of these literary masterpieces and by a difference of opinion with his colleague Dr. Morgan, which developed into something of a running contest. Challenged as to whether he had read the offend- ing literature, Dr. Morgan replied, " Of course I have read them. I do not sit still and do nothing in this life." I must confess to find- ing the implication of this remark a little odd, with its apparent stark choice between reading cheap American fiction and doing nothing in this life. Sir Ian's debate was less lively, but more useful. He is always good to listen to, and the case could not have been better or more sympathetically handled than by him. A Parlia- mentary medal should, I think, be awarded to Sir Thomas Moore for his supplementary question to Mr. Belcher : " Is he not aware that, owing to the number of hours spent in queues, large feet are now
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