Irish Bill

Parliament returned to the Palace of Westminter to pass a bill to enable the Government to appoint a commissioner for Northern Ireland on the Irish Boundary Commission (TIME, Sept. 29). Parliament will adjourn after this business has been settled and will meet again Oct. 23.

The Parliamentary position of this bill was most obscure. The Conservatives, sympathetic and bound by promises to the Ulsterites (people of Northern Ireland), are certain to move rejection of the bill; but the Liberals have already intimated that they will support the Government which means that it is sure to be passed in the Commons. To prevent passage of the bill, the Lords would have to move rejection and send the bill back to the Commons; and, as the Conservatives are in a majority in the Upper House, the motion would be sure to be carried if the latter voted en bloc.

The Lords' rejection would not, however, suit the Conservatives, because the Government could then take the bill to the country on the issue of abolition of the House of Lords. The "Shadow Cabinet" (Conservative) of ex-Premier Stanley Baldwin discussed this phase for a whole night, last week, without coming to any decision. It was believed in Whitehall that the Conservatives would be permitted to vote independently, which case there would be some likelihood of the measure passing the Lords.