Parliament's Week

COMMONWEALTH British Commonwealth of Nations

The Cabinet. Premier Macdonald, Miss Ishbel Macdonald, hostess of No. 10 Downing Street, John R. Clynes, Lord Privy Seal, and Mrs. Clynes attended a dinner given by the Earl of Granard, King's Master of the Horse, and the Countess of Granard, nee Beatrice Ogden Mills of New York, at which the King and Queen were present. Ramsay sat at the Queen's left hand.

House of Lords. Their Lordships began debate on the retention of the imperial preference duties agreed to during the Imperial Conference of last year (TIME, Oct. 1 et seq.)-The Duke of Devonshire, ex-Governor General of Canada, uttered a solemn warning when he declared that there was a feeling of uneasiness in the Dominions and that imperial preference could not be separated from the whole imperial policy.

House of Commons. By unanimous vote of the House, a motion proposing mothers' pensions was passed.

P:Premier Macdonald said that the Government would decide at once-- one way or the other--on British recognition of Mexico.

P:After declaring that the best way of ensuring peace was to prepare for peace and denouncing the maxim of "Trust in God and keep your powder dry," William Leach, Under Secretary of State for Air, announced that the Government would carry on its predecessor's policy of expanding the Air Force. "Shame!" cried a Labor member. Mr. Leach said that what was needed were "new excavations to raise the lid from the sarcophagus of the New Testament." Major General J. E. B. Seely (Liberal) retorted: "If the Empire is to be defended by Sermons on the Mount, God help us !" A motion for closure was proposed, but was disallowed by the Speaker. The Government's certain defeat was thereby avoided.

P:The Government announced that five new cruisers and two new destroyers are to be built to replace obsolete warships. The Liberal Party, after moving adjournment with the help of the Laborites, forced a debate. The Premier took the opportunity of lecturing his renegades on increasing the difficulties of the Government. He was promised that, if Labor members could not vote for the motion, they would not vote against it. In the evening, E. Thurtle, Laborite for Shoreditch, asked: "Will the honorable member inform the House whether or not this decision is to be taken as a great moral gesture to the world?" In a general answer the Premier stated that disarmament could only come about by international agreement, not by ending the British Navy by allowing it to waste away. On a division the House voted 372 for the Government, 73 against, majority 299. The result was cheered and jeered by "Saved by the Tories!" "The new Coalition!"

P:The second reading of the new Rents Bill (control of rents) was passed by 248 votes to 101. There was a bitter feud between the Laborites and the Conservatives. The Bill was passed with the help of the Liberals.

The Labor Government was quoted as being "all things to all men."