NEWS OF THE WEEK
MR. ATTLEE'S letter to the Prime Minister this week repeats the demand, made nearly a fortnight ago, that Parliament should be convened. Today the demand is hardly necessary ; for everyone recognises that Parliament must reassemble at the earliest possible moment to pass judgement on the events which have occurred since the end of the session. Only, significantly enough, it is assumed that that moment will not come until some final point in the crisis has been reached which Parliament will no longer be able to affect. Indeed, its task can be little more than to register, with approval or humiliation, facts that cannot be altered, and to applaud or condemn those responsible for them. It is worth noticing that neither in France, nor in Great Britain, nor in Czechoslovakia has Parliament been in session in these last decisive days. The Czecho- slovak Parliament may, at the moment of writing, still take matters into its own hands ; nevertheless it is significant that in all three democratic countries most closely concerned in the present crisis vital decisions have had to be taken, often without time for adequate consideration, by Cabinets in isolation from the Parliaments to which they are responsible. It is the kind of situation most suited to Herr Hitler's methods of negotiation.
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