Parliament's Week

The Commons:

P: Chief accomplishment of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's Government was to persuade the London Committee on Non-Intervention to accept the new British plan for withdrawing foreign volunteers and cutting the flow of munitions to both sides in the Spanish Civil War. The Prime Minister's satisfaction was short-lived however as both Liberals and Laborites tied into him, subjected him to a two-day tongue lashing in the House of Commons such as he had not experienced since he took office year ago.

Neville Chamberlain's political future largely hangs upon one problem of the war--the withdrawal of Italian forces from Rightist Spain, upon which the inauguration of his Anglo-Italian Pact is contingent. The British public, however, is growing more & more concerned with another problem--the continued bombing of British ships in Spanish waters by Rightist planes. Since the war broke out two years ago, 55 British ships have been attacked. Nearly half of these have been damaged or sunk by Rightist Generalissimo Franco's air force in the last two months. Making political capital out of British resentment to these attacks, Opposition forces last week demanded that the Chamberlain Government employ naval protection for British merchantmen venturing into Leftist Spam's ports. Bluntly, the Prime Minister replied: to bring the British navy into play would mean active intervention in the conflict, and his Government were determined not to risk the general European war which might result. Furthermore, Mr. Chamberlain admitted, almost casually, "While the war lasts we must expect a succession of these incidents."

Shaggy-maned Liberal David Lloyd George leaped to the attack. Mr. Chamberlain and his Cabinet members were carrying on "like a bevy of maiden aunts who had fallen among buccaneers," snorted the Wartime Prime Minister. "I should have taken very strong action if I had been Prime Minister. The airplanes which attacked British ships came from the Italian front in the Balearic Islands. I would first of all have seen these air-dromes destroyed until they stopped sending bombing planes against our ships. If Gladstone, Campbell-Bannerman, or Asquith had behaved as the Prime Minister has done they would have been howled down and execrated," scorned the white-haired old Liberal.

Next day, almost in answer to Mr. Chamberlain's expectations, two more British vessels were sunk. The freighter Thorpeness, was hit by an aerial torpedo from a Rightist plane outside Valencia harbor, went down with 7,000 tons of grain. The freighter Sunion, formerly of Greek registry, was showered with incendiary and explosive bombs, burned for six hours and sank.

Following day, the harried Prime Minister was again forced on the floor to defend his stand. Practically every sentence he uttered was interrupted by jeers and catcalls from Opposition benches. "You are encouraging Franco to murder British seamen," taunted a man in the gallery. Attendants hustled him through the door but a second, then a third protestant took up the cry.

The Prime Minister finally quelled the attack, marshaled his Conservative forces to beat down a Labor motion of censure by a vote of 275-to-141. Significant was the fact, however, that ten Conservatives, led by ebullient Winston Churchill and his son-in-law, immaculate Duncan Sandys, staged a sitdown, refused to leave their seats and vote. One Conservative ally deserted ihe Government, voted for the motion.*

This week, two more British ships fell victims to Rightist raiders, as the New York Herald Tribune's London correspondent meanwhile observed that if the Franco-Mussolini-Hitler combination continued to sink British ships bringing supplies to Leftist Spain, it might "eventually sink the Chamberlain Government to boot."

P: Nothing is of more interest to Britons and no issue is more paramount in British politics than air armament and air defense. In one of his quieter moments last week, the Prime Minister informed the House that Under Secretary of State for Home Affairs, 36-year-old Geoffrey Lloyd, regarded as a "comer" in Conservative circles, had been designated "dictator" of Britain's air-raid precautions. Previously, the young M. P. had been in charge of recruiting civilians for air-raid training. Fiery little Ellen Wilkinson, Labor M. P., attacked the new appointee, accused him of placing society women in charge of the women's voluntary air-raid precautions workers. Asked Miss Wilkinson: "Does he really think a matter of this importance to the women of the country should be put in the hands of fashionable society ladies and young debutantes?" "Dictator" Lloyd failed to answer.

*Another who broke with the Chamberlain Government last week was Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, president of the League of Nations Union, Wartime Minister of Blockade and until last week Government whip in the House of Lords. Scorning Prime Minister Chamberlain's attitude as "inconsistent with British honor" Lord Cecil resigned his whip position, declared he was no longer "even nominally a supporter of the Government."

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