ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.
Monday, March 15th. The great Food-prices debate hardly justified its preliminary advertisement. Mr. McCurdy took sure ground when he argued that high prices were mainly due to world-shortage; and, though he entered more disputable territory when he declared that the Profiteering Act was not primarily intended to punish profiteers, Mr. Asquith did not seriously attempt to dislodge him. Indeed, the ex-Premier's speech was mainly composed of truisms, his only excursion into the speculative being an assertion—with which not all economists will agree—that inflation of currency is a consequence and not a cause of high prices.
An ex-Food Controller, Mr. George Roberts, defended the Government against charges of extravagance, and ventured to remind Labour—as Thomas Drummond reminded Irish landlords—that it had duties as well as rights.
Early in the evening the Prime Minister, who had sat through many speeches in readiness for the threatened attack, folded his notes and silently stole away.
On the adjournment General Page Croft accused the Ministry of Munitions of unfair treatment to one of its employees. The peroration to Mr. Kellaway's spirited defence deserves quotation: "The decision taken by the Ministry is a decision that will stand." That's the stuff to give 'em.
Mr Clynes. Mr. McCurdy. Mr. G. Roberts.
Tuesday, March 16th.—"The Lord Chancellor was so unusually apologetic in his exposition of the War Emergency Laws (Continuance) Bill that none of the Peers had the heart seriously to oppose him. Lord Salisbury took note of the Government's admission that they were anxious to say Good-bye to D.O.R.A. and only complained that the farewell ceremony was so long-drawn-out. Lord Buckmaster failed to understand why D.O.R.A. should have a longer life in Ireland than in England, and was so carried away by his own eloquence as to declare that all the crimes attributed to the Sinn Feiners had been due "to misguided attempts to enforce special legislation against a misunderstood and a gallant people." Lord Birkenhead replied that there was at least a plausible case for the contention that the boot was on the other leg.
It is unusual to find Members of the House of Commons objecting to their speeches being reported, but apparently some of them do—when the reporters are police constables. The Home Secretary thought it quite possible that if Members attended certain meetings the official stenographers might think it worth while to take down their utterances but I gathered that he was not prepared to give any guarantee on the subject, and that Colonel Wedgwood and Lieut.-Commander Kenworthy must not count too confidently on having a further road to fame opened to them.
Mr. Bonar Law read a telegram from Lord Kilmarnock regarding the situation in Berlin. As it was already a day old, was admittedly based on a communiqué from Wolff's Bureau, "censored" by Mr. Trebitsch Lincoln (late Liberal Member for Darlington), and had in the meantime been officially contradicted by the old Government, it did not add much to our knowledge.
Time was when it was usual to move to reduce a Vote by a hundred pounds if you wanted to defeat the Government. But such paltry figures are no good in these spacious days. Sir Donald Macleans's proposed reduction in the Vote on Account for the Civil Services was the much more mouth-filling morsel of one hundred million pounds. Mr. Chamberlain considered it very handsome of the Opposition, on the eve, he understood, of coming into office, thus to cut off its own supplies. Nevertheless he declined to accept the generous offer. Our finances would be all right if the House would back the Government by practising economy as well as preaching it. As it was, he thought the worst was over, for—strange and agreeable phenomenon—the floating debt was sinking.
After this it was, perhaps, not very complimentary'of Mr. J.W. Wilson to urge the Government to put forth their best speakers. The Prime Minister was still coy, but Sir Robert Horne, in virtue of his new office as President of the Board of Trade, stepped nimbly into the breach, and made a speech so cheerful both in substance and delivery as to justify the hope that in him the Government have found the Horne of Plenty.
Wednesday, March 17th.—Seventeen years ago Lord Balfour of Burleigh, as a hard-shell Free Trader, sacrificed office sooner than bow the knee to the new gods of Birmingham. This afternoon he brought in a Bill (to safeguard "key industries" and counteract "dumping") which would have gladdened the heart of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. Some of the other Free Trade Peers were still unrepentant. Lord Beauchamp, for example, declaring that shipping was our real "quay-industry" and needed no protection, announced his intention of moving the rejection of the Bill; and Lord Crewe, although one of the authors of the Paris resolutions, on which the measure was ostensibly based, thought that it went far beyond present necessities. The only dumps with which Germany was likely to be associated for some time to come were doleful, not aggressive.
The Report of the Supplementary Estimates furnished the Commons with abundant points for criticism. In protesting against an increase in the remuneration of the Law Officers, Mr. Hogge revealed a hitherto unsuspected admiration for the Prime Minister, whose services, he considered, were most inadequately rewarded with five thousand pounds a year and no pension. If anyone deserved an increase of salary it was he.
Mr. Tyson-Wilson had the temerity to complain that the Government were not finding work for all the disabled ex-Service men whom they trained in the technical schools, and laid himself open to a damaging "tu quoque" from Sir Robert Horne, who pointed out that this lack of employment was largely due to the trade unions, which refused to admit these men as "improvers."
In introducing the Naval Estimates for eighty odd millions Mr. Long was almost apologetic for not having made them larger. The personnel has been drastically reduced, and parents are actually being offered a premium of three hundred pounds to remove their sons from Osborne. On the other hand promotion from the lower deck was to be encouraged, and in future every youngster entering the Navy would metaphorically carry a broad-pennant in his ditty-box.
Thursday, March 18th.—A proposal to erect a military monument on a hill near Jerusalem was adversely criticised by Lord Treowen. Lord Southborough, as a recent visitor to the Holy City, thought that the Government would be better advised to demolish some of the recent buildings, including the ex-Kaiser's ridiculous clock-tower, which had not even the negative merit of telling the time.
In consequence of his rather exhausting séance with the Liberal Party the Prime Minister was looking a little jaded. But he perked up wonderfully when Mr. Will Thorne, à propos of a story that the Russian Soviet Government had introduced martial law into the workshops, asked whether he did not think that all able-bodied people ought to be compelled to work. There was the old twinkle in his eyes as he replied that it would be very interesting to know if that was the view of the trade unions. From recent information I gather that the bricklayers, at any rate, would not subscribe to it.
Upon the further consideration of the Navy Estimates General Seely urged the re-establishment of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Mr. Long said the Admiralty were most anxious for it. Mr. Asquith also approved, but from his ten years' experience as its President entered a caveat against expecting the Committee to take upon itself executive functions. "Had it done so," he observed, "there would have been collisions, cross-purposes, waste of application, and in many cases something approaching to administrative confusion." Which things of course never occurred under his régime of—shall I say?—expectant watchfulness.
The rest of the debate was chiefly remarkable for Lady Astor's bold declaration, "The sea belongs to England, and it could not be in better hands." Coming from a country-woman of Mr. Daniels it was doubly exhilarating.
Captain. "'Ere let's pack up now; it's getting late. Besides, the kid wants his shirt back."
"Direct Action" at Putney.
"When the Light Blues went out a second time R.C. Barrett, of the winning trial eight crew, was at strike,—Daily Paper.