ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.
Monday, April 12th.—Neither Ministers nor ordinary Members showed any marked eagerness to resume their Parliamentary labours. Little green oases were to be seen in every part of the House, and on the Treasury Bench even Under-Secretaries (who often have to maintain a precarious perch on one another's knees) had room to spread themselves.
The Underground Railway may, like Nature, be careless of the individual, but it is extremely careful of the typewriter, and insists on making a special charge for this instrument, officially regarded as a bicycle. But as Sir Eric Geddes announced that this extortion, "though legal," was in his opinion "neither just nor expedient," we may hope that it will shortly be abandoned. The Ministry of Transport at last seems likely to justify its existence.
Mr. Mills of Dartford.
Lieut.-Commander Kenworthy was annoyed to find that there has been no change during the recess in the regulations relating to passports, and that they are still not issued to Soviet Russia. The tone of the Minister's reply rather suggested that the Government might be disposed to make an exception in favour of the hon. and gallant Member.
Tuesday, April 13th.—After the official announcement that the Slough depot had been sold, and the chorus of satisfaction in the Press that the Government had disposed of its white elephant at a profit, Mr. Hogge was disappointed to learn that, though the heads of agreement were being discussed, no contract had yet been signed. He was indeed rather surprised that the Government should think of parting at all with what the Leader of the House had assured them was going to be "a dripping roast for the taxpayer." Mr. Law smilingly disclaimed the coinage of this appetising phrase.
Mr. Mills, the new Member for Dartford, is credited with being "very hot stuff" (a cadet, I am told, of the Moulin Rouge family), but he looked much too trim and spruce for a real revolutionary as he walked up, amid the plaudits of his Labour colleagues, to take the oath and his seat. In fact Mr. Greenwood, the new Coalition-Unionist Member for Stockport, who followed him, has much more the air of an homme du peuple. As for Mr. Fildes, his Coalition-Liberal colleague, I don't wonder that Stockport favoured a candidate whose genial countenance so strongly resembles that of Mr. Punch.
Mr. Fildes of Stockport.
The debate on the Civil Service Estimates furnished Mr. Hopkins with an opportunity of delivering an appeal, doubtless cogent but mainly inaudible, for the restoration of the exchange value of the pound sterling. Mr. A.M. Samuel, on the other hand, was more audible than orthodox. At least it rather shocked me to be told that we were getting too much for the pound before the War. Mr. Baldwin, for the Government, made a speech so full of sound commonsense that Sir Frederick Banbury hoped he would send a special copy of it to San Remo for the edification of the Prime Minister.
The rest of the evening was mainly taken up with the case of the Irish hunger-strikers. Mr. Bonar Law was at first very stiff in his attitude, pointing out quite reasonably that if the Government found it necessary to intern people suspected of crime it was absurd to let them out again because they threatened to commit suicide. Several Members, English as well as Irish, thought that there was a case for differentiating between convicted prisoners and those who were merely under suspicion, and on the adjournment the Irish Attorney-General a little relieved the prevailing gloom by a hint that some modification of the prison-rules might be made on these lines.
Wednesday, April 14th.—The Minister of Health announced with some pride that under the Housing Acts passed last year no fewer than 1,346 dwellings had actually been completed, and twelve thousand more were in various stages of construction. But he showed no enthusiasm for the suggestion that be should extend the benefits of the Acts to others besides the "working classes," and flatly declined to attempt a definition of that ambiguous term. It is believed, however, that recent experience has convinced him that builders in general and bricklayers in particular cannot properly be so described.
Mr. Rendall's attempt to get the House to pledge itself in advance to the full policy of Lord Buckmaster's Divorce Bill was defeated. The main opposition came from Mr. Ronald McNeill, who sits for Canterbury and spoke with cathedral solemnity. Mr. Munro supported the Resolution, on the ground that Englishwomen ought not to be refused the advantages enjoyed by their Scotch sisters. Marriage in Scotland appears to resemble Glasgow—there are great facilities for getting away from it. But Lady Astor, hailing from a land where they are even greater, displayed no desire to jump to conclusions, and asked for an interval of five or ten years to make up her mind.
Dr. Macnamara effects a labour exchange.
If the cheers that greeted Mr. Macpherson were meant to console him for his "Irishman's rise" in slipping down from the Chief Secretaryship to the Ministry of Pensions, they were assuredly superfluous. The supposed victim was obviously delighted to be rid of the responsibility for a policy which seems to grow more tangled every day. Only on Tuesday Mr. Bonar Law was assuring the House that the Mountjoy hunger-strikers must be left to commit suicide if they chose; the Government could not release men suspected of grave crimes. This afternoon he announced that sixty-six of them had in fact been liberated on parole.
The new Minister of Labour (late of the Admiralty) came on board again, looking none the worse for his strenuous exertions at Camberwell. He had a hearty welcome from all quarters of the House, which would hardly know itself without its "Dr. Mac."
It is one thing to gain a seat in the House, but quite another thing to keep it, as Sir W. Joynson-Hicks has just discovered. Returning from a prolonged tour in foreign parts he found that his favourite corner-seat had been annexed by another Member. Determined to reclaim it, he visited the House at 8 a.m. and inserted his card; but on coming back to the House for prayers found that the usurper had substituted her own. Mr. T.P. O'Connor, with old-world chivalry, considered that the only lady-Member should be allowed to sit where she pleased; but the Speaker upheld the principle "first come, first served."
On a Vote of twenty-seven millions for the expenses of the Ministry of Munitions Mr. Hope told a flattering tale. The Department might be spending a lot of money, but it was making a great deal more; and he anticipated that the Disposals Board would hand over to the Exchequer this year something like a hundred millions, if not more. The Slough Depôt, he maintained, had been run at a profit and sold at a profit. The Ministry might have made some mistakes, but it represented a prodigious national effort, of which the historian would speak with amazement and praise.
Unimpressed by this panegyric Sir Donald Maclean intimated that he came to bury the Ministry and not to praise it. In his view its administration had been grossly extravagant. He demanded the full details of the Slough transaction and suggested that the Vote should be withdrawn until they were forthcoming. To this proposal Mr. Hope, with more humility than I should have expected after the optimism of his earlier speech, ultimately agreed.
Our Animal Artist. "Those chickens I bought off you are no good to me."
Farmer. "No good, Sir? What's wrong wi' 'em?"
Our Animal Artist. "They've got no expression."