* * The scene in the House of Commons last
week which resulted in the suspension of three Scottish Labour Members, Messrs. Maxton, Wheatley and Stephen, for applying, in the course of a discussion on the policy of the Scottish Board of Health with regard to Child Welfare the word "murderer "to Sir Frederick Banbury, and of another of the same group, Mr. Buchanan, for a very gross attack upon the impartiality of the Chair, had its sequel in the meeting on Tuesday of the Parlia- mentary Labour Party. The suspensions had caused something like a domestic crisis in the Party, for Mr. Ramsay MacDonald had used, from the Front Opposition Bench, his whole influence to persuade Mr. Maxton to withdraw, the offending word and had failed. And the official report of the Party meeting makes it clear that the Leader of the Opposition was constrained to walk delicately. No disciplinary resolution was introduced, while one was unanimously carried directing "the atten- tion of the• Government and the country to the fearful infant mortality of our land." But there is a deep-- seated difference of temper and temperament between the typical English Trade Union Members and the fiery spirits from the Clyde which will not readily be adjusted. A very real dilemma, indeed, faces the Labour Party in the House of Commons. Insistence on moderate methods would produce disappointment and disillusionment in the Clyde area, which furnishes an important quota to the debating strength of Labour ; while if the extremists continue in their present courses England will be alienated, since England does not love extremes any more than Coalitions.
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