The Week in Parliament

COMMONWEALTH-(British Commonwealth of Nations)

All Night Session. Right honorable members of the House of Commons indulged in antics last week which seriously weakened the popular myth that Britons are a stolid and decorous race. The Government had announced its intention of jamming through a bill empowering it to cut down disbursements to the health insurance fund; and a certain arrogance manifested by Mr. Neville Chamberlain,* the Minister of Health, roused the Opposition leaders to obstructionist tactics which rapidly degenerated into low comedy.

Liberal Whip David Lloyd George popped many a stinging comment in his coarsest and least happy vein. Labor Whip Ramsay Macdonald egged on J. H. Thomas, usually one of the calmest Laborites, to make no less than twelve disparaging orations. Meanwhile sleepy members formed quartets and sang the U. S. Civil War ditty "John Brown's Body" to keep awake. Recitations of "Pop Goes the Wease"/- were loudly applauded in the lobbies, while one right honorable member chanted:

God saves the weasel, While pop goes the Queen!

As the night passed and jaws grew blue with dawning whiskers, the official barber of the House of Commons was summoned from his bed. With voracious appetites the members sought the House Restaurant, consumed 1,200 eggs, 2,500 rashers of bacon, 3,000 cups of tea and coffee.

Many aging members nodded, snored. Angrily an Opposition filibusterer paused in his speech to demand: "Is it in accordance with the rules that right honorable members be allowed to sleep in the House?"

Drowsily, the Speaker ruled: "It is, provided that they sleep sufficiently quietly." Amid the ensuing guffaw many a slumberer was rudely awakened. At last, after 18 hours of debate, with 257 members still present, a temporary adjournment was moved and carried by a show of hands as the members stretched, yawned. The economy bill continued pending.

Spoliation? Debate on the Government bill for state regulation and unification of the electrical industry evoked serious opposition from the Government's own ranks. Sir Charles Wilson, arch Conservative, nicknamed "the Kaiser of Leeds," flayed the bill: "It envisions "something worse than nationalization--spoliation!" None the less, a vote of 325 to 127 carried the measure past its second reading.

Brazil to Blame. Sir Austen Chamberlain declared privately before a committee representing all parties in the House that Britain will oppose the granting of a new permanent League Council seat to any nation other than Germany at the September League session. He added that, unless Brazil agrees not to repeat her veto tactics against Germany, Brazil will not be re-elected to her present nonpermanent seat. Sir Austen declared positively that Brazil's recent act blocking Germany's entrance to the League was due solely to orders from Rio de Janeiro, which he personally believed were given on account of local political conditions connected with the impending presidential election.

*Brother of Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain, the recently discomfited "hero of Locarno" (TIME, Nov. 2 et seq). Neville has been described by his intimates as "a man to die with, not for."

/-An immemorially popular English nonsense rhyme.