_Monday, May 26th._--On the whole I do not think that Sir AUCKLAND
GEDDES, who has now definitely succeeded Sir ALBERT STANLEY as
President of the Board of Trade, is to be congratulated on exchanging
the academic serenity of McGill University for the turmoil of
Whitehall (Bear) Gardens. The modified system of Protection introduced
under the stress of war seems to please nobody. While Colonel WEDGWOOD
complained that the price of gas-mantles (of which I should judge
him to be a large consumer) has gone up owing to the prohibition of
foreign imports, others objected that licences were issued so lavishly
as to cause British producers to be undersold in the home-market by
their American, Japanese and Italian rivals.
To avoid treading upon any of these varied susceptibilities the great
AUCKLAND had to execute a sort of diplomatic egg-dance; but he did
it with consummate skill and temporarily satisfied everybody with the
promise of a full statement upon trade policy so soon as Peace has
been signed. I hope this won't make the Germans more dilatory than
ever.
At the Press Gallery dinner the other night the SPEAKER, who was
the guest of the evening, recalled the three golden rules for
Parliamentary orators--"Stand up; speak up; shut up"; and added that
while some Members paid very little attention to the second of them
there were a few whose stentorian tones he would like to borrow in
case of a disturbance. But really I don't think he need worry. To dam
a rising tide of "Supplementaries" this afternoon he called the next
name on the Order-Paper; and his _crescendo_ effect--"Mr. Grattan
Doyle!--Mr. _Grattan Doyle_!!--Mr. GRATTAN DOYLE!!!--Mr. GRATTAN
DOYLE!!!!"--could not have been bettered by Mr. JACK JONES.
I hope the fighting Services are not going to revive their pre-war
jealousy of one another. The tone in which Dr. MACNAMARA, when
somebody asked a question about the Portsmouth "butchery
department," jerked out "War Office!" was calculated to give rise to
misapprehension.
The Ministry of Health Bill found Mr. DEVLIN in a dilemma. He makes it
a rule never to support anything that emanates either from the House
of Lords or from the Government. But on this occasion his two _bêtes
noirs_ were in opposition, for the Lords had decided that the
new Minister should have but one Parliamentary Secretary, and the
Government was determined to give him two. Whichever way he voted the
Nationalist Leader was bound to do violence to his principles. And
so, with that quick-wittedness for which his countrymen are justly
renowned, he walked out without voting at all.
[Illustration: A DIPLOMATIC EGG-DANCE.