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.
