STONEWALL IN THE COMMONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 296, 14 December 1922, Page 5

STONEWALL IN THE COMMONS.

LABOUR PARTY'S MOVE.

FUNDS FOR UNEMPLOYED. HOUSE SITS AU. NIGHT. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.l ■(Received 11.30 a.m.) LONDON", December 13. The Labour party, with a view to compelling the Government to give greater consideration to the unemployed, declared their intention to keep the House in continuous session until Friday, and began a searching attack on the Supplementary Estimates. The party divided itself into relays, speaker after speaker devoting hours to irrelevancies, speakvng with mock solemnity on such questions as the Irish Vice-Regal housemaid's wages. The chairman ordered Messrs. Wheatlcy and Kirkwood to be seated, on the ground of irrelevancies. Their places were taken by other obstructionists, and the guillotine was applied frequently. At one o'clock the Labourites tired of the game and moved the adjournment. the Government successfully resisting this amid ironical Government cheers. At 4.30 the unemployment vote of mdVe than £1,000,000 came "up, and the Labourites bitterly protested against proceeding at such a late hour. Mr. Hogge, moving a reduction, suggested that the Distress Committees be established in towns to provide work. Mr. Lansbury and others denounced the Government proposals is inadequate. The closure was carried and the vote adopted, many Labourites refusing to vote. Ignoring further protests, Mr. Stanley Baldwin (Chancellor of the Exchequer) at seven o'clock introduced the Consolidated Fund Bill, which was immediately read a first time, and the IJouso rose.— (A. and N.Z. Cable.)