Parliament's Week

The Commons:

A long-awaited Opposition demand for a public washing of Great Britain's air rearmament problems was beaten off last week as Prime Minister Chamberlain swung his Conservative M.P.s into line and downed a Labor motion for an inquiry, 329 votes to 144. Since many Conservatives had previously howled as loudly as the Opposition in attacking the Air Ministry while it was under the ousted Viscount Swinton, Mr. Chamberlain last week had to threaten Conservative members with ostracism at election time in order to insure himself of a comfortable margin.

Debate preceding the vote narrowed down to a personal exchange between portly, twinkly-eyed independent Tory Winston Churchill and the solemn-faced Prime Minister. Expressing regret that New Air Minister Sir Kingsley Wood had been taken from his "salubrious employment as Minister of Health and forced to don the panoply of Mars," Mr. Churchill cracked that Mr. Chamberlain was trying to solve the air problems by "putting a round peg in a square hole." The House roared with laughter. Sir Kingsley, called "Cherub" by his friends, is as round-bellied as Mr. Churchill himself.

P: The comeuppance delivered by the Mexican Government to His Majesty's Government three weeks ago. when Mexico jibed that even great powers like Britain were behind in payment of debts, dragged the skeleton of Britain's $4,000,000,000 War debt to the U. S. out of its seven-year closet. Last week. 37-year-old Conservative M.P. Robert John Graham Boothby, who five months ago accused President Roosevelt of precipitating the current stock-market decline, appealed to the Commons to send a "really authoritative mission" to Washington to negotiate a War debt settlement, "if necessary to restore economic prosperity."

The Lords:

P:The Marquess of Zetland, Secretary of State for India and Burma announced that the Government has now acquired a huge secret store of raw materials as a war preparedness measure, in addition to the stocks of wheat, sugar and whale oil disclosed by Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon three weeks ago. "We do a great many things unknown to the public," confided the Marquess to his peers.

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