_Monday, July 23rd_.--The country awoke this morning to find itself
threatened with a first-class political crisis and possibly a General
Election to follow. Members dwelling temporarily on the Western Front
had reluctantly torn themselves from their dug-outs on the receipt of
a three-line whip, and had repaired post-haste to Westminster.
[Illustration: PAPA MCKENNA LECTURES YOUNG BONAR ON EXTRAVAGANCE. EVEN
WHEN SOWING HIS WILDEST OATS HE (PAPA) NEVER CAME ANYWHERE NEAR SEVEN
MILLION POUNDS PER DIEM.]
The trouble was nominally about the agricultural labourer and his
minimum wage. Should it be twenty-five shillings, as set down in the
Corn Production Bill, or thirty shillings, as proposed by Mr. WARDLE,
the Leader of the Labour Party? The Amendment had the assent of the
hard-shell Free-Traders, who were glad to snatch at any chance of
defeating the proposed bounty to the farmer. They had been further
incensed by the appointment of Messrs. MONTAGU and CHURCHILL to the
Ministry, and hoped perhaps that some of the extreme Tories would help
them to give the PRIME MINISTER a good hard knock.
Mr. PROTHERO made it plain from the outset that the Government meant
to stand or fall by the proposal in the Bill; and most of the friends
of the agricultural labourer prudently preferred twenty-five shillings
in the hand to thirty shillings in the bush; with the result that the
amendment was defeated by 301 to 102.
Mr. HOGGE called attention to the anomalous position occupied by
Dr. ADDISON. The late Minister for Munitions and future Minister for
Reconstruction is for the moment only an ordinary Member. Ought he not
therefore to be re-elected before taking up his new appointment? Mr.
SPEAKER'S judicious reply, "I do not appoint Ministers," left one
wondering what sort of an appearance the Treasury Bench would present
if he did.
_Tuesday, July 24th_.--Major HUNT and Mr. KING, though in some
respects not unlike one another--each combining a child-like belief
in what they are told outside the House with an invincible scepticism
in regard to the information they receive from Ministers inside--are
rarely found hunting in couples. But they made common cause to-day
over the alleged award of the Distinguished Service Order to persons
who had never been near the firing line, and they refused to accept
Mr. MACPHERSON'S assurance that it was only given for service in the
field. Mr. KING knew for a fact that a gentleman in France who had
only served in the Post-Office had received it--presumably for not
deserting his post; while Major HUNT could not understand how anyone
should have earned it for fighting at home. "How has this country been
attacked?" he asked indignantly. Air-raids evidently do not count with
this gallant yeoman.
Efficiency, not economy, is the PRIME MINISTER'S watchword. Sir EDWARD
CARSON as a Member of the War Cabinet will have no portfolio, but will
enjoy the not inadequate salary of five thousand a year for what the
Profession calls "a thinking part." The new Minister of Reconstruction
is to have two thousand a year; and we shall no doubt hear shortly
that he has begun his labours by reconstructing another hotel for the
accommodation of his staff.
[Illustration: THE SECRET SERVICE IN THE HOUSE.
MR. KING HAS SUSPICIONS OF SOMETHING NEFARIOUS.]
With the spirit of expansion pervading the Head of the Government,
it is not surprising that the expenditure of the country continues to
rise. The panting estimators of the Treasury toil after it in vain.
Mr. McKENNA's passionate plea for a limit to our war-expenditure
would have carried more weight if he had shown any sign during his
own time at the Exchequer of being able to impose one. As it was, Mr.
G.D. FABER'S interjection, "Do you want to limit munitions?" quickly
reduced him to generalities. The House had to rest content with Mr.
BONAR LAW'S assurance that, though we could not go on for ever, we
could go on longer than our enemies.
_Wednesday, July 25th_.--In answer to Mr. PEMBERTON-BILLING the
UNDER-SECRETARY FOR WAR stated that since the outbreak of hostilities
there had been forty-seven airship raids and thirty "heavier than air"
raids upon this country, "making seventy-eight air-raids in all."
It is believed that the discrepancy is explained by Mr. BILLING'S
unaccountable omission on one occasion to make a speech.
He made one to-night of prodigious length, which brought him into
personal collision with Major ARCHER-SHEE. Palace Yard was the
scene of the combat, which ended, as I understand, in ARCHER downing
PEMBERTON and BILLING sitting on SHEE. Then the police arrived and
swept up the hyphens.
Opinions differ as to Mr. KING'S latest performance. Some hold his
complaint, that the Government had introduced detectives into the
precincts of the House, to have been perfectly genuine, and point to
his phrase, "I speak from conviction," as a proof that he was trying
to revenge himself for personal inconvenience suffered at the hands
of the minions of the law. Others contend that he knew all the time
the real reason for their presence--the possibility that Sinn Fein
emissaries would greet Mr. GINNELL'S impending departure with a
display of fireworks from the Gallery.
_Thursday, July 26th_.--Mr. GINNELL put in a belated appearance this
afternoon in order to make a dramatic exit. But the performance lacked
spontaneity. Indeed honourable Members, even while they laughed, were,
I think, a little saddened by the sight of this elderly gentleman's
pathetic efforts to play the martyr.
Only twenty Members agreed with Mr. RAMSAY MACDONALD in believing,
or affecting to believe, that the recent resolution of the German
Reichstag was the solemn pronouncement of a sovereign people, and that
it only requires the endorsement of the British Government to produce
an immediate and equitable peace. Not much was left of this pleasant
theory after Mr. ASQUITH had dealt it a few of his sledge-hammer
blows. "So far as we know," he said, "the influence of the Reichstag,
not only upon the composition but upon the policy of the German
Government, remains what it has always been, a practically negligible
quantity."
Any faint hopes that the pacificists may have cherished of a
favourable division were destroyed by Mr. SNOWDEN in a speech whose
character may be judged by the comment passed on it by Mr. O'GRADY,
just back from Russia, that "LENIN had preached the same doctrine
in Petrograd."
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