Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : No one can truthfully
say that the Government occupies quite such a strong position as it did twelve months ago. One or two of the departments—notably the Air Ministry—have had a bad time in the House of Commons, a fact which depreciates the credit of the Administration as a whole. Of no Minister except Mr. Malcolm MacDonald can it be said that he ha., greatly added to his reputation during the session (though it is necessary to reserve judgement on Mr. Hore-Belisha until the Select Committee on the Official Secrets Acts has reported). Nevertheless there has been no marked decline in popularity or prestige, and the Opposition parties still have an immense amount of leeway to make up. Whether the Government will be able to retain its hold upon the House of Commons and the country depends upon the determination of three matters—the creation of circumstances in which the Italian agreement can reasonably be ratified, the success of Lord Runciman's mission to Czechoslovakia, and the report of the Select Committee on the first part of its terms of reference, that is to say on the Sandys affair. Until these issues have been decided it is impossible to cast up the Parliamentary accounts or to decide who has been the gainer and who the loser from the events of the past year.
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