So far as one could gather, the Bill is the outcome of a quarrel
between the College of Nurses and the rest of the profession. Who
shall decide when nurses disagree?
In Committee on the Bill for enabling women to become Justices of the
Peace Lord STRACHIE moved to restrict the privilege to those who
have "attained the age of thirty years." The LORD CHANCELLOR strongly
resisted the limitation on the ground that the Government are pledged
to establish "equality between the sexes." He was supported by Lord
BEAUCHAMP, who, however, thought it unlikely that any ladies under
that age would in fact be appointed. I am not so sure. Who knows but
that some day the Woolsack may be tenanted by a really susceptible
Chancellor?
There are limits to the credulity of the House of Commons. Mr.
BOTTOMLEY'S assertion that many clergymen did not know whether they
might marry a woman to her deceased husband's brother, and had written
to him for an authoritative opinion, only excited ribald laughter.
His inquiry whether the Recess could start three days earlier, in
order that Members might take advantage of the Epsom carnival to
study the social habits of the people and form an opinion as to the
possibility of raising revenue from taxes on racing and betting, was
in better vein, and reminded old Members of the days when Lord ELCHO
(now Lord WEMYSS) used annually to delight the House with his views on
the Derby adjournment. Entering into the spirit of the jest, Mr. BONAR
LAW replied that he regretted that his honourable friend should be put
to inconvenience, but he must do what we all have to do at times,
and decide whether his duty lay at Epsom or Westminster. From Mr.
BOTTOMLEY'S rejoinder one gathered that he had already made up his
mind, and that Epsom had it.
_Wednesday, May 28th_.--Colonel WEDGWOOD'S complaint that aeroplanes
were used to disperse rioters in India was ostensibly based on the
fact that, like the gentle rain from heaven, bombs fell alike on the
just and the unjust, but really, I fancy, on what I gather to be
his rapidly-growing belief that any anarchist is preferable to any
Government. Mr. MONTAGU, however, declined to interfere with the use
of a weapon which for the moment has greatly strengthened the hands
of the Indian Administration in dealing with disorder, whether on the
frontiers or in the cities.
The Ministry of Labour has lately introduced a course of domestic
training for "wives and fiancées." The indefiniteness of the latter
term offended Captain LOSEBY, who wanted to know at what exact period
of "walking-out" a lady became a fiancée. Mr. WARDLE, although the
author of a work on "Problems of the Age," confessed that this one
baffled him, and asked for notice.
The recent disturbance in the neighbourhood of the House by indiscreet
friends of the unemployed soldier led to a rambling debate, chiefly
remarkable for the hard things said by and about Mr. HOGGE, whose aim,
according to ex-Private HOPKINSON, was to make soldiers uncomfortable;
and for a hopeful speech by Sir ROBERT HORNE, who said that,
despite the "dole," unemployment was beginning to diminish, and that
four-fifths of the "demobbed" had already been reabsorbed by industry.
Then followed a lively but inconclusive discussion upon that hardy
annual, the alleged sale of honours. General PAGE CROFT attributed it
to the secrecy of party funds and proudly declared that the. National
Party published all the subscriptions it received, and heartily wished
there were more of them. The weakness of his case and that of his
supporters was that no specific instances of corruption were brought
forward, if we may except Mr. BOTTOMLEY'S assertion that some years
ago he might have had a peerage if he had paid for it.
_Thursday, May 29th_--A constitutional crisis is impending on the
question whether the MINISTER OF HEALTH should have one Parliamentary
Secretary or two; the Commons demand two; the Lords will not allow
more than one, even though tempted by Lord CURZON with the bribe that
the second shall sit in the Upper House. Having heavily defeated the
Government on this point, the Peers then decided that Miss VIOLET
DOUGLAS-PENNANT was entitled to a judicial inquiry into the.
circumstances that led to her retirement from the Air Force. The
LORD CHANCELLOR opposed the proposal in a speech described by Lord
SALISBURY as that "of an advocate rather than a judge;" but in spite
or because of this the Government were beaten by 69 to 20.
Somebody ought to move for a return of the amount expended by the
Government on the hire of furniture vans since the Armistice. Sir A.
MOND stated that in order to release certain hotels their official
occupants had been transferred to the Alexandra Palace, while the
interned aliens recently housed in the Palace had been sent to certain
country camps, whose late occupants (we may infer) have now gone to
the hotels. It is suggested that the Office of Works should now be
known as the "General Post" Office.
One can easily imagine what use a fiery demagogue would have made
of the secret circular sent out some months ago by the War Office,
instructing commanding officers to ascertain the attitude of their men
to the trade unions in the event of a general strike. Fortunately Mr.
ADAMSON is not that type of man, and he couched his criticisms in
a vein rather of sorrow than of anger. There was more sting in the
speech of Mr. DAVISON, and one Churchillian phrase: "They could not
maintain constitutional government on the theoretical inexactitudes of
kaleidoscopic politicians," which evidently pleased the originator.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Off to raise revenue--for the National Exchequer (bien
entendu).