Parliament's Week

The Lords--

P: Hamstrung since 1911 by the Parliament Act emasculating their authority (for which Liberal David Lloyd George takes chief credit) the Lords dared not hope that more power would ever again be theirs until the overwhelming Conservative landslide of last year (TIME. Nov. 9). As a result their Lordships were able to study last week a scheme for restoring the power of their house which has been whipped together by an all-Conservative "unofficial committee" chairmanned by James Edward Hubert Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury, Hon. Major General, twice Lord Privy Seal (1903-05 & 1924-29), Lord President of the Council (1922-24), Leader of the House of Lords (1925-29) and a thoroughgoing stuffed shirt (see p. 32).

The gist of His Lordship's report was that "It would be dangerous to leave the Monarchy as the only hereditary element in the Constitution."

Facing the fact of popular distaste for the upper House, the report urged: 1) reduction of the number of seats from 759 to 320. Of these 20 would be peers of the blood royal, archbishops, bishops and lords of appeal. Half the remaining 300 would be elected by the present hereditary peers and the other half would be "qualified persons," possibly nominated by the Prime Minister or elected by county and borough councils; 2) the new House of Lords would have power to veto legislation passed by a given House of Commons and this veto could only be overruled by the vote of a subsequently elected House of Commons.

By passing a bill along these lines British Tories, who now control both houses, hope to legally entrench the upper house and hamstring any future Labor Government.

The Commons--

P: Tut-tutted a rambling pessimistic speech by Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald which was called "far below his usual level."

P: The Prime Minister seemed to despair of the dole, deplored "created work and saw hope for recovery only in his long postponed World Economic Conference which he said ought to meet "before Christmas." (Chances are slim that it can.)

P: Questioned about cheerful reports that the Cunard Line would resume construction of their superliner, might christen her the Princess Elizabeth and might even build a sister ship, Scot MacDonald said: "I have made a careful inquiry but can find no basis for these reports."

P: Learned from frosty, Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain that "it is very easy to waste money trying to provide employment."

"After all, if a thing is a profitable enterprise," drawled Mr. Chamberlain, "why is it not going now?"

"Don't let's be too pessimistic," was the Chancellor's next remark. "There are signs in many quarters of recovery."

P: Pondered majority & minority reports, submitted after two years of investigation by the Royal Commission on Unemployment Insurance (i. e. "the Dole").

The majority report (Conservative-Liberal) signed by Chairman His Honor Judge Holman Gregory, K. C. (Liberal) will probably be whipped into law by the Lords & Commons. It provides for drastic dole cuts, reducing the expenditure from an anticipated -L-84,600,000 next year to -L-58,000,000 ($191,980.000).

P: Surmised from guarded remarks by Foreign Secretary Sir John Simon, who later left by plane for Geneva, that he will propose to the Disarmament Conference a pact under which all nations would "renounce force."

Sir John is seldom candid, but he was understood to think that if Japan had "renounced force" (instead of merely "renouncing war as an instrument of national policy" under the Kellogg-Briand Pact), something could have been done about the undeclared war during which Japan bombarded Shanghai while shooting up Manchuria.

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