Parliament's Week

The Lords--

P: Passed and sent to George V for signature the most bitterly fought (for eight months) measure of this session: the Labor Government's Coal Bill, previously passed by the House of Commons (TIME, March 10), setting up machinery for a general reorganization of Britain's most depressed industry. The bill guarantees to mine owners "the 90-hour fortnight." or an average 7 1/2-hour day instead of the present 8-hour day.

P: Welcomed to membership in their House George V's son-in-law who became the Earl of Harewood upon his father's death (TIME, Oct. 14). Previously known by the mere "courtesy title" of Viscount Lascelles, Princess Mary's lanky spouse is supposed to have smoldered angrily for years because His Majesty has not thought fit to create a new title for him. Last week, at the age of 47, he made his maiden speech on the Royal Veterinary College, pleaded for a larger Government appropriation, while Princess Mary beamed from the gallery.

Replying for the Labor Government with asperity, Earl De La Warr said that the Treasury is already contributing "quite enough" to the Royal Vets, namely "30 shillings for every 20 shillings obtained by the governors of the college."

The Commons--

P: Passed the London Naval Treaty Bill 1930, sent it to the House of Lords (see p. 20).

P: Fiercely booed John Beckett, the Labor M. P. who last fortnight picked up for a moment and thereby "desecrated" the Mace, when he resumed his seat.

Hours later Mace-snatcher Beckett rose to put (ask) a question, as he had every right to do, but subsided blushing when the House with one voice roared: "Sit down!"

P: Passed by a decent majority of 38 and sent to the House of Lords Chancellor Philip Snowden's long debated budget bill carrying payments ("doles") to the unemployed of more than $1,100,000 per day. The usual cat-&-dog fight between Chancellor Snowden and ex-Chancellor Winston Churchill was avoided when the latter statesman shifted from direct attack to drawling, honeyed words. "How pleasant it must be," he remarked, "for the Chancellor to see the fruits of the Labor Government's policy so speedily mature" (a reference to the fact that with 1,800.000 unemployed, Great Britain now has more men out of work than at any time since 1922).

Replying for Mr. Snowden, who sat imperturbable with a pale smile on his thin lips, Laborite Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence exulted:

"Mr. Churchill is beaten! Throughout he has threatened Mr. Snowden that the Opposition would force him to abandon certain clauses, but those clauses are still there! The Chancellor has got the money he wanted and in the way he proposed to raise it. He has erected the barriers against tax evasion which he intended to erect, and for the first time in five years the finances of the country have been put in a sound, intelligible position."

P: With both Houses of Parliament about to recess this week Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald announced that during recess (until fall) he will personally chairman a special Cabinet Committee on Unemployment, the committee to include all Ministers whose departments are in any way concerned In a late effort to attack this major problem--which he shelved to call on President Hoover and attend the Naval Conference--Scot MacDonald is further calling to his aid "a distinguished group of civil servants who will be relieved of their ordinary duties to help the Government in their great effort."

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