Parliament's Week

House of Commons:

P: On a motion of Premier Baldwin, the suspension of David Kirkwood, Laborite (TIME, Mar. 16), was unanimously rescinded.

P: Ex-Minister of Education C. P. Trevelyan, Laborite, offered a motion (defeated by 255 to 133 votes-- majority of 122) to transfer to Parliament the royal prerogative of concluding treaties with foreign powers upon the advice of the Cabinet. If the motion were defeated; the next Labor Government would see that it was carried, he said. The motion was designed to preclude secret treaties; but Ronald McNeill, Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs, stated that all treaties with foreign powers were even now registered in their entirety with the League of Nations.

P: Publication of the Army estimates showed that they had been cut by Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill from -L-4,450,000 to -L-3,950,000. The establishment of the regular Army was reduced from 161,600 men to 160,600, decrease of 1,000, or a battalion; the Territorial Army stood at 186,010 men and the Army Reserve at 99,000-- total 445,610 men.

P: Publication of the Naval estimates revealed an increase over the current year's expenditure of -L-4,700,000, the exact figure being -L-60,500,000. The increase is explained by uncontrollable causes, such as increases in wages and prices; -L-1,320,000 for the cost of Air cooperation with the fleet; -L-50,000 for experimental work; increase of 2,175 men.

The strength of the Navy for 1925-26 is 102,675 men.

P: The corridors of the House buzzed humorously with the news that ex-Premier MacDonald had de-decided to return his Daimler automobile to its donor, together with nearly -L-30,000 worth of biscuit shares "lent" to him for its upkeep. It was this car which caused such a furore in the country last fall (TIME, Sept. 22).