The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : The
announce- ment on Monday of the decision of the Government with regard to ships proceeding to Bilbao found the Opposition in an unusually truculent mood. They began by demanding angrily why the Foreign Secretary was not present in his place to answer the 28 questions on the Order Paper addressed to his Department. It was explained that his absence was due to a speaking engagement. But though the Labour Party were far from satisfied by this excuse they had no legitimate complaint that their questions were not fully answered by the Under-Secretary. Lord Cranborne had as gruelling a half-hour of heckling as any Minister in the session. He stood up to it remarkably well. There was a great burst of cheering at the end when he finally hit back at his tormentors and in answer to an ironical question from Mr. Attlee as to whether the Government had any sources of information what- soever replied that the trouble was that " the Right Hon. Gentleman believes everything he sees."
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