_Monday, November 12th_.--An old Parliamentarian, when asked by a
friend to what party the PRIME MINISTER now belonged, sententiously
replied, "He used to be a Radical; he will some day be a Conservative;
and at present he is the leader of the Improvisatories."
The latest example of his inventive capacity does not meet with
unmitigated approval. Members were very curious to know exactly how
the new Allied Council was going to work, and what would be the
relations between the Council's Military advisers and the existing
General Staffs of the countries concerned. Mr. BONAR LAW assured the
House that the responsibility for strategy would remain where it is
now, but did not altogether succeed in explaining why in that case the
Council required other military advisers.
The SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND is about the mildest-mannered man that ever
sat upon the Treasury Bench. But even he can be "_très méchant_" at a
pinch. When Mr. WATT renewed his complaint that sheriffs-principal in
Scotland had very little to do for the high salaries they received,
Mr. MUNRO replied that "it would just be as unsafe to measure the
activities of the sheriff-principal by the number of appeals he hears
as to measure the political activities of my hon. friend by the number
of questions he puts."
The Pensions Department at Chelsea is to be reorganised. Mr. HODGE
excused the delays by pointing out that an average of thirty-three
thousand letters a day is despatched, but, as he added that there is a
staff of four thousand five hundred persons to do it, it hardly looks
as if they were overworked.
_Tuesday, November 13th_.--The House of Lords was to have discussed
the state of Ireland, but, owing to the absence of its LEADER,
fell back upon the less exciting but more practical topics of
sugar-substitutes for jam, and barley for beer. It was cheering to
learn from the Duke of MARLBOROUGH that the jam-manufacturers gave
great care to exclude arsenic from their glucose, and from Lord
RHONDDA that there would be plenty of barley for both cakes and ale.
Mr. WARDLE is the latest example of the poacher turned gamekeeper.
A few months ago, as leader of the Labour Party, he was instant in
criticism of the ineptitutes of Government officials. This afternoon,
upon his old friend, Mr. TYSON WILSON, venturing to refer to the
"stupid decisions" of the Board of Trade, Mr. WARDLE was down on him
in a moment. With the air of one who had been born and brought up in
Whitehall Gardens, he replied, "Stupid decisions are not made by the
Board of Trade."
The Pacifists had rather a mixed day.
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[Illustration: PENSIONS.