THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT
BY A NEW MEMBER.
T'
debate on unemployment in the mining industry last week did good rather than harm. This was elliefly due to the attitude taken up by Mr. Vernon Hartshorn, who opened for the Opposition. His speech, the merits of which it would be difficult to exaggerate, consisted of a calm and informed survey of the present position, to which the House listened with ever-deepening gloom. The gloom was not diminished when Commander Fanshawe proceeded to attack British trade unionists, and very nearly succeeded in spoiling the atmosphere which Mr. Hartshorn had been at such pains to create. But the dulcet tones of Mr. Austin Hopkinson cooled the blood of Members, and soothed their nerves, so that a rapidly degenerating situation was fortunately retrieved. Mr. Hopkinson has an astonishing faculty for interesting the Labour Arty, and almost reducing them to an admir- ing and breathless silence, by telling them all the things one would have imagined they would least like to hear. On this occasion he expressed his deep conviction that settlement—if there be settlement—must be made by the logic of circumstances, not nationally, and not by districts, but pit by pit, and ultimately man by man.
Late in the evening the veteran Mr. Smillie rose, an heroic figure, to make one more appeal for those whose cause he has indomitably championed for so many years. In days gone by Mr. Smillie has inspired hatred and fear in the hearts of many of his antagonists. But now he is saluted by all as one who continues to toil in the evening of a lifetime spent in devoted and unflinching service to his own people and to the cause in which he believes. There is a feeling of satisfaction that Mr. Bridgeman is in charge for the Government as far as the mining crisis . is concerned, and all sides are agreed that the personnel of the Committee of Inquiry leaves nothing to be desired. But Members are at present in complete ignorance of the course of events. There is a note of optimism, but for this I think there is only too little justification.
If there is a discussion on the Colonial Office Vote, Mr. Amery is in for a pretty hot cross-examination from the Unionist benches. There is a growing feeling that the Government, after a good deal of talk on the subject, has done very little in the way of Imperial development. The Secretary of State will probably reply that all his schemes are turned down by the Treasury. But I do not think that Members will be easily convinced by the arguments of the latter Department which, together with its chief, has recently incurred a good deal of unpopularity. As a matter of fact one of the features of the political situation is the comparative discredit into which Mr. Churchill has fallen since that great day when the Budget was introduced. Was his speech on that occasion his swan-song ? Certainly some of his more recent efforts on the gold standard and kindred subjects were not such as to inspire confidence in either his judgment or his knowledge of his work. But, as the industrial horizon darkens, all questions of personality inevitably fade into the background. The atmosphere is tense, like that which precedes a thunderstorm. If only it were possible to see what is in store for us !
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