_Monday, March 15th_. The great Food-prices debate hardly justified
its preliminary advertisement. Mr. MCCURDY took sure ground when he
argued that high prices were mainly due to world-shortage; and,
though he entered more disputable territory when he declared that the
Profiteering Act was not primarily intended to punish profiteers,
Mr. ASQUITH did not seriously attempt to dislodge him. Indeed, the
EX-PREMIER'S speech was mainly composed of truisms, his only excursion
into the speculative being an assertion--with which not all economists
will agree--that inflation of currency is a consequence and not a
cause of high prices.
An ex-Food Controller, Mr. GEORGE ROBERTS, defended the Government
against charges of extravagance, and ventured to remind Labour--as
THOMAS DRUMMOND reminded Irish landlords--that it had duties as well
as rights.
Early in the evening the PRIME MINISTER, who had sat through many
speeches in readiness for the threatened attack, folded his notes and
silently stole away.
On the adjournment General PAGE CROFT accused the Ministry of
Munitions of unfair treatment to one of its employees. The peroration
to Mr. KELLAWAY'S spirited defence deserves quotation: "The decision
taken by the Ministry is a decision that will stand." That's the stuff
to give 'em.
_Tuesday, March 16th_.--"The LORD CHANCELLOR was so unusually
apologetic in his exposition of the War Emergency Laws (Continuance)
Bill that none of the Peers had the heart seriously to oppose him.
Lord SALISBURY took note of the Government's admission that they
were anxious to say Good-bye to D.O.R.A. and only complained that the
farewell ceremony was so long-drawn-out. Lord BUCKMASTER failed to
understand why D.O.R.A. should have a longer life in Ireland than in
England, and was so carried away by his own eloquence as to declare
that all the crimes attributed to the Sinn Feiners had been due
"to misguided attempts to enforce special legislation against a
misunderstood and a gallant people." Lord BIRKENHEAD replied that
there was at least a plausible case for the contention that the boot
was on the other leg.
[Illustration: "CONTROLLERS" CONTROLLED.