Parliament's Week

The Commons--

P: In a two-seater Army bombing plane, tearing through space at more than two miles per minute, Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald returned last week from his Scottish home at Lossiemouth for the reopening of Parliament after Easter recess (450 miles in about four hours). On this wild air ride, which he has made a habit during the past two years, Mr. MacDonald serenely perused Gifts of Fortune and Hints for Those About to Travel by Henry Major Tomlinson. Miss Ishbel MacDonald piloted a plane for half an hour last week, aspires (so she said) to become her father's regular pilot.

P: Smack in the face of the House, soon after it convened, James Henry Thomas, Laborite Minister for the Dominions, hurled the announcement that Australia had just been granted a two-year moratorium on repayment of her War debt to Great Britain.

This action rank-&-file Laborites hope and suspect is the prelude to a request by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden for a two-year moratorium on the British debt to the U. S. Last week's moratorium rewards the Australian Government for its prompt action three weeks ago in making good to British bondholders the default of New South Wales (TIME, April 6 & 13).

P: Biggest, longest, most exciting debate of the week was that on Conservative Leader Stanley Baldwin's motion censuring the Labor Government for failure to meet the unemployment crisis. In a House hushed and tense, the Prime Minister warned that if this motion passed, he would at once advise George V to dissolve Parliament and order a general election.

Leading the attack, Mr. Baldwin charged that Scot MacDonald when he came to power chose three dunderheads as his lieutenants in fighting unemployment. "A stranger trio than these three," cried the Conservative Leader, and his shot went home, "have not tried to get anywhere since the immortal party set out for Widdecombe Fair!*

"The immortal party" according to the marching song of the Devonshire Volunteers, never reached Widdecombe Fair, died on the way with their old gray mare, still haunt Devonshire on dark nights. First verse:

Tom Pearce, Tom Pearce, lend me your gray mare,

All along, down along, out along, Ice;

For I want to go to Widdecombe Fair

Wi' Bill Brewer, John Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan Whiddon Harry Hawk, old Uncle Tom Cobley

And all.

Chorus:

Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all!

Seventh verse:

When the wind whistles cold on the moor of a night,

All along, down along, out along, lee,

Tom Pearce's old mare doth appear gashly white, etc.

By way of pot calling kettle black, Prime Minister MacDonald retorted that Mr. Baldwin "has changed his mind more often than any other party leader in the history of the nation! . . . What is his solution today?"

Mr. Baldwin dared not offer his solution for unemployment (high tariffs) last week because he needed to snare as many Liberal (free trade) votes as possible for his motion censuring the Laborites.

The new Lord Privy Seal, Thomas Johnston, 48 and Scotch, rose to defend the Government.

"England [with its Dole] is the only land," he cried, "where unemployed men and women are not standing in bread lines, eating at soup kitchens! In America there are 8,000,000 unemployed, in Germany 5,000.000, in France. . . ."

Interrupted famed "Jumping Jack" Jones, M. P.: "There's one more unem- ployed man in France than there was yesterday. The King of Spain's just arrived!" (See p. 20.)

In the final showdown words did not count. Decisive was the Liberal-Laborite ("Lib-Lab") Pact made just before Parliament recessed between Scot MacDonald and Liberal Leader David Lloyd George, frequently rumored since to have broken down.

By a vote of 305 to 251 Scot MacDonald triumphed, consolidating his power as the Liberals swung into line. In London well-posted observers soon said, "The Cabinet will not fall before fall."

P:C. Snatch!--moral Miss Edith Picton-Tubervill tried to grab a green bookful of Irish Sweepstake tickets away from jovial John Beckett in the House of Commons-- but Jovial John held on tight.

"Is it in order," cried a shocked questioner, "for members to sit here filling out counterfeit Irish Sweepstake tickets?"

Amid guffaws the Speaker ruled: "I think that is outside my province."

*The MacDonald-picked trio: J. H. Thomas who failed so conspicuously as Lord Privy Seal and Minister of Unemployment that he resigned, became Minister of Dominions (TIME, June 16); Sir Oswald Moslcey who quarreled with Messrs. Thomas & MacDonald, then led five M.P.'s out of the Labor Party to form his own (TIME, March 9 & 16): and George Lansbury, still undistinguished as First Commissioner of Works.

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