OBSTRUCTION TACTICS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 16 April 1926, Page 7

OBSTRUCTION TACTICS

EXTRA EDITION.

— r » I EXTRAORDINARY SITUATION. LABOUR’S NEW METHODS . THIRTEEN MEMBER'S SUSPENDED BY CABLE- PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. Received 1.5 p.m. to-day. LONDON, April 15. In the House of Commons an extraordinary situation developed at six o’clock in the morning, after an allnight debate in committee of the House on the Economy Bill, resulting in the suspension of thirteen Labour members, owing to the invention of an entirely new method of obstruction. Messrs Lansbury and Wheatley and eleven;others, in a division on a Labour motion to adjourn the debate, remained in the “ayes” lobby joking and singing for over half an hour, delaying the whole business. Cabinet Ministers and the chairman lengthily consulted, and finally called the Speaker from bed. The Hon. Neville Chamberlain, amid Labour uproar, moved the suspension of the thirteen Labourites. The Labour opposition thereupon adopted the same tactics, but after- another half-hour’s --fdelay the Speaker ordered the tellers f to report the figures, showing that the motion had been carried by 163 to 76. * The thirteen members were then ordered to withdraw and business resumed

ECONOMY BILL’S SLOW PASSAGE.

The House of Commons rose at nine o’clock this morning, after sitting for Over eighteen hours. Up to the present it has passed four clauses of the Economy Bill in thirty-six hours of parliamentary time, and there are twenty-one clauses besides four schedules. The opposition made two further attempts at obstruction in the same manner, but the Speaker announced that he would devise procedure to deal with the unusual circumstances and consult the Prime Minister with a view to amending the standing orders. The battle will be renewed this afternoon.

Mr. Lansbury, interviewed regarding the suspensions, alleged that Mr. Chamberlain and his colleagues adopted dictatorial, contemptuous, and insolent methods. He particularly complained of Mr. Chamberlain’s action in securing the” closure on Mr. Wheatley in the middle of a brilliant speech, in which he denounced the Economy Bill as a robbery of the Working-class insurance funds in order to benefit the rich.—“Reuter.