PICTURESQUE REPORT

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 85, 9 April 1924, Page 5

PICTURESQUE REPORT

CHARACTER OF DEBATE

CROWDED AND EXCITED HOUSE.

(AESTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, 7th April. The " Daily Express " states that no London theatre could stage a scene to compare with the crowded" and excited ' House of Commons after the | division on the Evictions Bill. The; ■back-bench Socialists blared like a thousand " loud speakers." It was obvious from the beginning that a crash was bound to come. Mr. Pringle, who saved the Government last week, spoke for half an hour, pointing out that the amended elanse 1 did not instruct local authorities to pay rent for unemployed threatened with eviction, nor did 'it instruct County Courts to withhold eviction orders if rel'ef was obtahied. Mr. Mac Donald's speech was an entire failure. It was prosy, indefinite, and entirely non-committal. Interruptions rained down every minute. The Prime Minister spun meaningless words like a spider spinning a web, upon which the impatience of the House was increased. Mr. Baldwin declared that Mr. MacDonald's explanation only made the tenebrosity of the position more ■ profound. _ Mr. Asqtiith said that only the Johnsonian phrase " inspissated gloom" could describe the mental condition of members, including those on the Treasury benches. The Liberals were divided into three camps. Forty, including Mr. Asquith, Mr. Lloyd George, Sir John Simon, Dv Macnamara, Mr. Macpherson, Sir Edward Grigg, and Mr. Masterman did not vote. About forty voted with and twenty-five against the Government. The Unionists voted unitedly against the Government. The- Cabinet is undecided as to what i 4 will do. The latest lobby forecasts do Jot anticipate that the Bill will be reintroduced before Easter.