Parliament's Week

The Lords--

P:Heard with emotion the valedictory oration of the Most Reverend Randall Thomas Davidson, who now automatically loses his seat in the House of Lords, as a result of his resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of All England (TIME, June 25).

Beloved and venerable Dr. Davidson hurled his last parliamentary attack against a bill legalizing the marriage of a widower to his aunt or niece by marriage.* Although the measure had seemed certain to pass, it was defeated by one vote out of respect to the Primate, who thus departed in triumph from the assembly of his Peers.

Everyone recalls that Dr. Davidson suffered bitter defeat (TIME, June 25) when the House of Commons refused to approve his "life work," the Revised Prayer Book of the Church of England.

P: Passed a bill authorizing the use on British racetracks of a betting machine similar to the familiar French pari-mutuel apparatus. The British machine, called a "totalizator," has already been nationally nicknamed "The Tote."

P:Roundly cheered the King-Emperor's personal physician, Lord Bertrand Dawson of Penn, at the conclusion of his annual philippic against anti-vivisectionists, who continue a potent force in England, though ridiculed elsewhere.

This year Lord Dawson of Penn was able to point with alarm to a patient who had died of lockjaw in the Anti-Vivisection Hospital, London, "because," stormed the King's physician, "solely because they would not administer a proper serum obtained by the vivisection of dogs. . . ."

"It has been conclusively proved that dogs do not feel pain to the same extent as human beings."

The Commons--

P: Became for two days a whispering gallery of sensational rumors that the Baldwin Cabinet was hopelessly split on the protectionist issue, and that major Cabinet resignations were imminent.

The scare broke when Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill made a minor anti-protectionist announcement to the House, only to be challenged next day by Home Secretary Sir William ("Jix") Joynson-Hicks, who proceeded to deliver a passionately protectionist public address.

Since Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin lost the election of 1923 by championing protection, he is now anxious to avoid the issue at all costs. Therefore, he pussyfooted as follows in referring to the "Jix"-Churchill spat:

"I must frankly confess that, after such examination of these speeches as I have been able to make, I am struck not so much by the universality of human testimony as by the many-sidedness of truth."

The House roared with mirth at this witty weasel, and afterwards Mr. Baldwin and Sir William were seen conversing in an undertone with their heads confidentially together.

P: Were startled by the unwonted apparition of several sweating and Honorable members clad in vanilla-ice-cream-colored suits.

P:Most M. P.'s continued to suffer in black, dark blue or dark brown.

P: Famed Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (TIME, Dec. 20, 1926) wore on to the floor of the House a light grey "topper," which, he said, "seems cooler."*

P: Learned with ejaculations of surprise that rich, stern-hearted Viscount Inchcape of Strathnaver has at length decided to aid in a peculiar manner the penniless widow and son of one Captain Walter Hinchliffe, who was lost while attempting to fly the Atlantic with Lord Inchcape's daughter, the Hon. Elsie Mackay. Unwilling to aid Widow Hinchliffe directly, Viscount Inchcape placed -L-10,000 ($48,700) at the disposal and "absolute discretion" of Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill, last week, with the request he administer it in such manner as to alleviate "any complaint by other sufferers from the disaster." Widow & Child Hinchliffe are the only "other sufferers" and they have complained loudly, asking alms of Lord Inchcape.

When this complex affair was expounded to the House, last week, by Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill, his round, merry, moist visage seemed that of a Summer Santa Claus.

The Lords & Commons--

P:Jointly harkened to a Speech from the Throne, proroguing Parliament to Nov. 6. The Speech was sonorously read by Baron Hogg of Hailsham, rotund Lord High Chancellor, because His Majesty, a keen yachtsman, was en route to Cowes for the famed annual Regatta.

P: As usual Royal Assent to the Money Bills passed by Parliament was intoned in archaic Norman French: "Le roi remerci ses bons sujets, accepte leur benevolence et ainsi le veult!" ["The King thanks his good subjects, accepts their benevolence (grants of money), and so wills it!"]*

P: The Speech from the Throne, which is actually neither more nor less than a declaration from the Cabinet, contained one trans-Atlantic allusion: "My Government has been happy to accept the proposed treaty for the renunciation of war proposed to them by the Government of the United States. The proposed treaty has similarly been accepted by my Governments in the Dominions and my Government in India. It is my confident expectation that when completed it will constitute a new and important guarantee of the world's peace."

P: The chief achievement to the credit of the session of Parliament just closed is the passing of the famed "Votes for Flappers" bill, seldom heard of by its correct title "The Equal Franchise Act." Thus the vote is given to females between 21 and 30,* elder females having been enfranchised by the Act of 1918.

*Marriage with the near blood relations of one's deceased husband or wife was first made illegal in England by the Marriage Act of 1835. The Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act of 1907 and the Deceased Brother's Widow's Marriage Act of 1921 legalized the types of marriage implied in the titles of those acts.

*A member may wear his hat when seated, must wear it and remain seated when raising a point of order during a division (vote), and must not wear it when addressing the House or passing the Speaker's chair.

*Thus the aboriginal Islanders of Great Britain (an almost if not quite extinct species) were reminded, last week, of the battle of Hastings (1066), wherein their ancestors were trounced by outlandish Normans from across the Channel. The outlandishly descended Britishmen of today are half-breed scions of these Normans, who, having conquered England, turned back to conquer at Crecy (1346) and at Agincourt (1415) what is now France but was then a loosely allied conglomeration of feudal lands.

Still more outlandish is the thoroughly German so-called British Royal House. Indeed almost the sole consolation of mongrel Britons, amid their wholly outlandish state of affairs, is to waggle a finger at the even more poly-national citizens of the U. S. who dwell in proud, luxurious conquest upon the lands of ousted aboriginal Indians.

*Thus giving to women a majority of votes in a majority of the constituencies of Great Britain. Extreme is the preponderance of females in South Kensington, where there are 47,000 women voters, and but 19,000 men.