Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes :—The an- nouncement by the
Prime Minister on Monday of an Enabling Bill, conferring special powers for the regulation of Russian imports, took the House by surprise. The Opposition, invariably touchy about Russia, exploded into threats of obstruction, but even .among the Government's supporters and, it is whispered in the bosom of the Government itself, there were mis- givings that the announcement might be ill-timed. It is quite true that something must take the place of an expiring trade agreement with Russia, and that something cannot be the new trade agreement which was on the point of conclusion when negotiations were suspended owing to the arrest and the alleged improper treatment of BritiSh engineers in Moscow. But the Prime Minister was ill-advised even to attempt to give the announcement an appearance of being unconnected with the arrests. Quite clearly it is closely connected with the arrests ; and it was the fear that it might prejudice the fate of the accused which caused many to think the announcement ill-timed. It ought, so it has been argued, to have been made at the time of the arrests. However on Tuesday the Government issued a White Paper which showed the real genesis of the Bill and rallied their supporters. It showed at least that the very serious view taken by the Government of the arrests was founded on something more substantial than a claim that accused persons of British nationality in foreign countries should be exempt from the legal processes current in the country of their residence. The situation has a very nasty look, and Members are deeply perturbed about it.
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