EVENTFUL SESSION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 45, 22 August 1938, Page 8

EVENTFUL SESSION

EASED SITUATION

MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S

PRESTIGE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, August 3.

After an eventful session during which the House of Commons devoted something like 200 hours to the subject of foreign affairs, on which there were 24 debates and 1400 questions answered, the Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, will go north for a fishing holiday in Scotland with the satisfaction of knowing that his prestige and position in the House remain strong and dominant.

It has been chiefly on his foreign policy that Mr. Chamberlain has been fiercely criticised from the time of the resignation of Mr. Anthony Eden, and this has made him the target of concerted attacks by the Opposition. These, however, lost much of their acerbity towards the end of the session, and although there remain many among the Conservative Party who have certain misgivings about his policy, the majority give it their approval. They accept his plans regarding Spain, and dubious though they may be about his Italian Agreement, they desire to see it fully tried out.

Another point which is declared to cement their loyalty is a certain indecision as to where t.he party would turn for a successor to Mr. Chamberlain. Again, many of his critics who were impatient of his methods earlier in the year have found that with the passing of the months their views have mellowed, and they now admit to an incipient belief that Mr. Chamberlain's policy, after all, may produce the desired results.

Marked as the predominance of the Prime Minister in the House has been, it is admitted that it has not been emphasised by forceful methods. He has driven on an easy rein, and yet he has differed greatly from his predecessor, Lord Baldwin. He has not been content to leave his Ministers to work with a free hand within certain broad principles laid down, nor has he been content to accept the advice of the Foreign Office, as did Lord Baldwin. He has worked vigorously, and set and followed his own policy. The strain of the session he has carried with apparently little effort. He has been not merely Prime Minister and Leader of his party, but quite definitely Leader of the Government.

Ministers and rank and file members left for their holidays with easier minds, for the tension of the earlier days of the session has noticeably relaxed. There has been a general feeling that the foreign situation, a constant cause of worry for so long, has improved!

During the session 73 measures were passed, 51* of them Government, and 20 private members' Bills. One of the most important measures of the session was the Coal Bill, which has received the Royal Assent Under it royalties will be purchased for a total sum of £66,450,000, and provision is made for compulsory amalgamation of collieries. It has passed into law after a memor-. able Parliamentary battle in which the Lords played a strong part.

Air-raid precaution schemes are now compulsory in all areas as a result of another Act, and important reforms have been made in the hire-purchase system following the passing of Miss Ellen Wilkinson's Bill. A'most important and generally satisfying measure during the session was the AngloEire Pact, and. another popular Act was that by which Mr. Ernest Brown will secure holidays -with pay for a" further 2,000,000 workers through the trade boards and agricultural wages committees. More paid holiday plans will be revealed next session.

• A feature; of the session was Mr. Hore-Belisha's reforms, which have culminated in the "democratisation" of the Army by facilitating ' promotion from the ranks.'

An.incident which caused considerable commotion was when Mr. Duncan Sandys put down a question said to contain secret military information. This raised personal issues as well as the general problem of the position of M.p.s under the Official Secrets Acts. The whole matter is being investigated by a Select Committee whose first repoft will be ready oh October 18. It will be discussed as soon as the House resumes on November 1.