A SCENE IN THE COMMONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18324, 14 February 1923, Page 3

A SCENE IN THE COMMONS.

Sir,—ln last Thursday's leader 'in „: the Hehald there was a comment on an historical scene in the House of Commons. | Your remark that the Speaker "rebuked" Mr. Bonar Law "for not keeping his followers under better control" is likely to produce a wrong impression of the conduct of the present Prime Minister on that occasion. The Unionists were goaded to fury by the autocratic policy of the Radical Government. Therefore the spectacle, almost without precedent, was witnessed of a Prime Minister (Mr. Asquith), the first servant of the Crown, attempting to speak, only to be shouted down by angry and incoherent cries. After the uproar had been continued for some time the Speaker rose and inferred that perhaps Mr. Bonar Law might be in * sympathy with his unruly followers. This at once brought a dignified and manly denial from the Leader of the Opposition, and the only "rebuke" was in a direction quite contrary to that indicated in your article. Mr. Bonar Law is a great politician, whose sense of order and fair play is far too strong for him to depart from the forms, conventions, and legalities of ordered Parliamentary debate. After the scene the House was. adjourned and the members of the Opposition left the House first—it was safer. The writer was present, as he was also at the "scene in the House on May 22, 1905, when the Radical Opposition refused to hear Mr. Lyttleton, the Colonial Secretary that is another story. Mace.