UNTESTED METAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLIII, Issue 9786, 31 January 1923, Page 8

UNTESTED METAL

BRITAIN’S NEW HOUSE.

VIVID DRAMA AHEAD. Mr Ramsay Macdonald is hack in the House of Commons as Leader of the Opposition. Behind him a great, solid phalanx of Labour members, ranging through every shade that lies between extreme Right and extreme Left. Mr Newbold, the long-shanked, hoavy-bodied, small-headed Communist M.P., boasting almost deliriously of his pride at being under the flag of “Comrade Lenin,” and talking of the

1 tom-fool show” of the State opening of Parliament by the King. Labour leaders and Asquithxan Liberals manoeuvring for seats on the front Opposition bench. Mr Lloyd George in Mr Bottomley’s old seat below the gangway. Mr Austen Chamberlain on a back bench with Sir Laming Worth-ington-Evans, Sir Robert Horne, and other ex-Ministers grouped about him. Mr David Kirkwood, the big-voiced Clyde deportee, crying in the House of Lords. “We will smash all this.” . . . And on the Treasury Bench the slender, coughing figure of the Prime Minister, soft-spoken, utterly self-pos-sessed, modestly confident, surrounded by a team of untried or semi-tried Parliamentarians, preaching the gospel of tranquillity while a packed House leans forward to catch the first real sounds of the battle that everybody thinks must come. That is the swift, many-coloured impression with which one leaves Westminster, having watched for a week .the assembling of this astonishing new Parliament, wrote the Parliamentary representative :Of the “Sunday Times” some days after-the British House of Commons had assembled in November. There have already been clashing speeches and * the crash of opposing volumes of shouted sound, but one has the thought that these are only the preliminaries, and that there is plenty of action and more vivid drama ahead. Tranquillity may be the policy of the Government, but it will not be the programme of the House of Commons. True, Mr Macdonald, in a really front bench speech, plumped for quiet, orderly, constitutional procedure, but his leadership was challenged twice within a few hours of his occupancy of the seat of the dispossessed Mr Clynes. He asked Mr Bonar Law for a short session, and the Prime Minister agreed.; but hardly, had the request been made and. granted when the emotional Mr Lansbury, the gesticulating Mr Scrymgeour, and others of his new found colleagues demanded that the House should sit night and day until the unemployment problem was not only dealt with, but solved ! Half-way through the debate on the Address, Mr Macdonald consulted with the Government with a view to the customary early adjournment on the first night of a session. But his followers would have none of it.. They had come to the House, of Commons to speak, and they insisted on doing it to such good purpose that within five hours 17 maiden speeches had been delivered ! Never before has the House of Commons been engulfed in such a flood of first-night oratory. Mr Macdonald will have a powerful-Opposition if he can get its' members, to obey orders. But a team with Sidney Webb at one end and David Kirkwood at the other is a difficult one to handle, especially while the controversy about Mr Macdonald’s leadership continues to rave as it does. Mr dynes took his defeat in such a thoroughly sporting manner that he drew a warm and obviously sincere tribute from Mr Bonar Law, but there is still some bitterness in the Labour ranks. No fewer than 23 members of the Labour Party were absent from the meeting -which elected Mr Macdonald, and included in them are two of the most vocal of the pro-Clynes section. Had there been a full meeting, Mr Clynes would have been elected by just about such a majority—five votes—as Mr Macdonald obtained; but the loyalty to leadership will not be strained from this side. This strain will come, if it comes at all, with a dissatisfaction on the part of the Left with the orderly and constitutional procedure which Mr Macdonald made it plain he will insist on. There has been no real test yet, because all through the week the Government have adopted the very wise policy of allowing the Opposition to blow tho froth off its rather heady election cup without let or hindrance. The first test will come in the next few days, when Labour, choosing the battleground of unemployment, will put- up its real initial challenge to the Government. There has been: neither time nor opportunity yet to gauge the mettle of -the personnel or the Government. Only two of the new Ministers have spoken—Mr Ronald McNeill (Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs) and Sir William Joynson-Hicks, who is in charge of the Department of Overseas Trade. Both of them were content with a few courteous and unenlightening generalities. ■ , There has been equally little opportunities to judge either of the temper or the strength either of the -Asquithlan or the Lloyd George Liberals. Sir John Simon has yet to be heard, and of. the- followers of the late Prime Minister only one of importance (Dr. •Macnamara) has spoken, and he was mainly concerned with a vigorous defence of the Labour Ministry’s unemployment measures, of which he was in charge until so recently. The Labour men,have held the centre j of the stage as yet. Here are a few lightning sketches of some of them as |

they struck an observer of several Parliaments:—Mr Ramsay Macdonald —a shrewd, experienced Parliamentarian '.vith a front-bench manner and an easy confidence' born of knowledge. Mr Newbold—an unimpressive fanatic who tries *to tack himself on to a party that does not want him, hurts his throat in an attempt to frighten a Parliament that only laughs at him, and is a living monument of the foolishness of Moscow. Mr Scrvmgeour—an elderly and inoffensive-looking man, who waves his arms and shouts coher-

ently. Mr E. D. Morel—a. tall, goodlooking man who speaks fluently and impressively, but has to live down a reputation. Mr Shinwell—a keen lit-

tle Glasgow Socialist, who has the makings of a Parliamentarian who will command serious attention. Mr

David Kirkwood—a

big burly man

from Clydeside, good humoured and loud-voiced, an unusual type of extremist, who wants to spend the day putting the world right and the night

quoting Bohbie Burns. Mr Saklatvala labour Party. Because they are big they are wisely biding their time.. And so are the other Oppositions.

There was an interesting little bit of by-play just before the House rose for the week-end that may provide a clue. Mr J. M. Hogge, the Wee Free Whip, walked up to Mr Lloyd George’s corner seat and shook hands with the exPrime Minister as with a long-lost brother. Sir John Simon followed, and, sinking on to the bottom step of the gangway, literally sat at Mr Lloyd George’s feet. All this may mean nothing or it may mean a lot. There were signs all through the week of a mutual desire for friendliness. And the manner in which that desire works out may mean a lot to the new Government.