Parliament's Week

The Lords?

P:A scheme to enlarge the Monroe Doctrine, so that in case of war the United Kingdom would enjoy shelter under this U. S. umbrella, was outlined to Their Lordships last week by the Marquess of Lothian, fresh from the U. S. Alarmed by what he had learned of U. S. neutrality legislation, Lord Lothian warned that in the next war Britain may not only find it impossible to borrow from the U. S. but suffer even more. "In certain circumstances we may be debarred from buying raw materials and foodstuffs," cried the Marquess, "even if we have the cash in the United States with which to do so!"

Their Lordships were next reminded that "Britain would not have emerged a victor from the World War except for assistance from the United States," and then Lord Lothian outlined a scheme by which, instead of U. S. assistance being borrowed or bought, it would be given to Britain. "If one could get an extension of the Monroe Doctrine and a combination of the democracies under the Monroe System with the British Commonwealth sufficiently closely integrated so as to be invulnerable and able to stand outside the vortex of a European war, one would create a centre of stability and peace in the world which might exorcise forever the spectre of another World War!" was the way Lord Lothian put his scheme in one long sentence.

Up rose Viscount Cecil, No. 1 exponent in Britain of the League of Nations and stager of the 11,000,000-vote Peace Ballot (TIME, Sept. 2, 1935). "This is a perfectly impossible combination of idealism!" Idealist Cecil warmly told Idealist Lothian. "The feeling in America against such a proposal would be overwhelming."*

P:Were treated by the Bishop of London to a speech in praise of such high-power inducements to begetting as Italy's Grand Fascist Council adopted last week and in denunciation of "miserable propaganda for birth control!"

The Bishop of London pointed up his thesis by pointing to Canada, which he has just visited. He said he had ascertained that the railways of the Dominion "cannot pay their way without a larger population."

"I agree fully," cried the Bishop of London, "with a Canadian railroad official who told me, 'What we want is 10,000,000 more people!' "*

The Commons:

P:In the British popular mind, not only King Edward's determination to marry Mrs. Simpson but also his declaration that "something must be done" for the Depressed Areas of the United Kingdom set the Baldwin Cabinet against His Majesty, led to his abdication (TIME, Nov. 30 et seq.) Last week the Prime Minister did what he could to evaporate this popular view by submitting to the House of Commons a White Paper intended to "do something" for the Depressed Areas and based in great part on the advice of Sir Malcolm Stewart. It was he whom King Edward summoned just before leaving London on his last slumming tour to South Wales. Mr. Malcolm Stewart, as he then was, had long fought what seemed to him the do -nothing -for -the -Depressed -Areas policy of the Government. Sir Malcolm was knighted in the Honors List published last month (TIME, Feb. 8), and the White Paper of last week marked a combined vindication and surrender of the Rt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin.

From this White Paper the House of Commons learned that in the year ending Jan. 1, 1937 unemployment was reduced by 30% in Scotland, the Tyneside and Durham areas; by 20% in South Wales and Monmouthshire; and in West Cumberland by 10%--a record supposed to vindicate His Majesty's Government on the do-nothing charge. Next the House of Commons was told last week that the -L-2,000,000 ($10,000,000) recently given by Lord Nuffield ("Henry Ford of Great Britain") to succor the Depressed Areas and as a personal tribute to Stanley Baldwin (TIME, Jan. 4) is going to be used by the Nuffield Trustees in conjunction with a scheme in which Government funds will be used to buy up to 25% of the capital stock of new factories set up in the areas Edward VIII used to tour. South Wales is to get several brand-new plants in which war explosives will be made, and in Lancashire a single new factory erected to fill projectiles with these explosives is to cost -L-6,000,000 ($30,000,000)--or three times the sum given by Lord Nuffield.

P:The House of Commons, after hearing how upsurging new jobs are going to be provided in the Depressed Areas by Rearmament, rushed through vote after vote last week the enabling bill under which His Majesty's Government are going to borrow -L-400,000,000 ($2,000,000,000) for Rearmament. In rapid succession Crown ministers representing the fighting services asked such sums as $410,000,000 for the Army, $525,000,000 for the Navy and spoke casually of setting up "14 new munitions factories." Meanwhile the first long-expected "returning prosperity strike" in the Rearmament industry had suddenly immobilized half the mighty Rolls-Royce aircraft engine works at Derby.

Although British Labor M. P.'s know their constituents are eager for Rearmament jobs, they know these toilers are also for Peace, and at the tail-end of last week's debate Labor Party Leader Major Clement Attlee mustered practically his followers' full strength behind a motion to censure the Baldwin Cabinet on the grounds that their Rearmament program is: 1) dealing a blow to the League of Nations; 2) raising the cost of living in the United Kingdom, 3) preparing the way for an eventual new Depression more disastrous than the last. By a vote of 241 to 117 this Labor motion was defeated. Next the Rt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin put Rearmament to the test, triumphed overwhelmingly as the Government bill passed without even the formality of a division (nose-counting). This formality Major Attlee could have forced if Labor were sincere in wanting to get on record who is for and who is against Rearmament. Bleated Laborite Ammon of the rank & file: "Those who should hold the confidence of the country are using that confidence to bring on preparations for war--a war which was the very thing they pledged themselves against."

P:There is one war Britain is ready to fight today at the drop of a German helmet, according to idealistic young Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, fresh last week from vacationing at Monte Carlo. Some of his friends keep telling him there would have been no World War if in 1914 his predecessor as Foreign Secretary, the late Sir Edward Grey, had told the Kaiser what Mr. Eden is always telling Der Fuehrer and told him again last week in the House of Commons, namely: "Our arms might and would, if occasion arose, be used in defense of France and Belgium, against unprovoked aggression in accordance with our treaty obligations!"

Referring to himself and to Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary Eden concluded "and so I think the parallel of 1914 does not stand at all in the sense that we have not made our position clear." On the Continent Mr. Eden's words were taken as a declaration no less ringing and personally sincere than he made when he honestly thought the United Kingdom would fight to save League prestige and the independence of Ethiopia (TIME, Dec. 30, 1935, et ante). At that time Prime Minister Baldwin earned his nickname "Old Sealed Lips," and recently No. 1 British Political Cartoonist Low merrily drew First Lord of the Admiralty Sir Samuel Hoare and Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain resealing the Prime Minister.

P:The heartiest laugh in which Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin has indulged in many a long day came as Defense Minister Sir Thomas Inskip, a great churchman who received his appointment in part because of the influence of churchly Mrs. Baldwin, arose to address the House of Commons. Although it contains both male & female M. P.'s the Prime Minister could not avoid bursting into a loud guffaw as Sir Thomas, a tyro at politics but a veteran speaker at Sunday-school picnics, opened an address to the House of Commons with the unheard-of salutation: "Ladies and Gentlemen. . . ."

*Geneva partisans of the League are growing extremely anxious lest His Majesty's Government have seriously in mind the project of virtually scrapping the League in the guise of "reforming" it, as favored by Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain, reputed future Prime Minister. In League Secretariat circles everyone believes Mr. Chamberlain wants to have eliminated from the League Covenant its three most vital articles: Article X under which League States guarantee each other's territorial integrity and independence; Article XVI under which Sanctions are adopted against an aggressor; and Article XIX in which provision is made for revision under League auspices of treaties. If these articles were scrapped, the United Kingdom could take an aloof attitude toward war on the Continent, whereas today her obligations under the Covenant make this impossible, and such aloofness would be the first prerequisite for Britain to get in under a Monroe Doctrine or other protective umbrella spreading out from the American Continents. *Population of Canada at latest census (1931): 10,400,000.

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