Meeting of the Commons

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 November 1935, Page 7

Meeting of the Commons

PARTY LEADERS CHOSEN. (Bv Telegraph-Press Assn.-Copyright) LONDON, Nov. 26.

The British Parliament met for the Ilrst time this afternoon. In the House of Commons, Captain Fitzroy was unanimously elected Speaker. He has served as Speaker in the last four Parliaments, and was warmly congratulated by the Prime Minister (Mr Stanley Baldwin), Mr Attlee (Leader of the Opposition), and Mr Lloyd George (“Father of the House”).

Some hours before the House assembled members scrambled for seats, Mr George Lansbury ousting Lady Astor from her usual place. Mr Lloyd George said that the supremacy of Parliamentary institutions depended on the general conviction that every opinion in the nation should have a opportunity of fair and free expression. The Speaker wou'd maintain that freedom of speech which had made the position and fame of the British Parliament the admiration of the whole world.

Although there have been several informal meetings of Ministers, of which one took place at Downing Street this morning, to-morrow’s meeting of Cabinet will be the first since October 23, and it will also be the first meeting since the new Ministerial appointments were announced last Friday. It is understood that the time of Cabinet tomorrow will be almost entirely occupied with domestic affairs, and consideration will be given to the terms of the King’s Speech, which will be read by his Majesty 1 when ho formally opens the new Parliament on December 3.

Tlie Parliamentary Labour Party met to-day to elect its leader, and after two ballots in which Mr Arthur Greenwood and Mr Herbert Morrison were in a minority, Mr C. R. Attlee, who acted as leader in the last Parliament after the resignation- of Mr George Lans bury, was chosen. Mr Attlee secured 58 votes, Mr Morrison 43, and Mr Greenwood 33, in the first ballot, and Mr Attlee 88, and Mr Morrison 48, in the second. The Liberals in the House of Commons also met and elected Sir Archibald Sinclair to succeed Sir Herbert Samuel, who lost his seat in the election, as Parliamentary leader. Mr David Lloyd George was present, and Parliamentary correspondents of newspapers declare that he and other Liberals who ranked as Independent Liberals in the last House will now cooperate generally with the rest of the party in the new House, thus bringing the United Liberal strength to 21. Mr Lloyd George presided at the meeting and accepted the office of Liberal Whip.