Parliament's Week

Right Honorable members of the House of Commons who made notable pronouncements before it last week:

Premier Stanley Baldwin, answering a Liberal member's question, denied that Italy has granted secret political or commercial concessions to Britain in return for the very liberal treatment which Count Volpi received at the hands of Mr. Churchill when the terms of the Italo-British debt settlement were agreed upon (TIME, Feb. 8).

Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain reviewed the existing status quo in China with especial reference to British interests. Said he: "The Government of Canton is for the time being under influences which are so blindly anti-British that the Cantonese are not open to a reasonable settlement" (of the anti-British commercial boycott* declared by the local Chinese Bolshevist Government at Canton [TIME, June 29] in defiance of the impotent "Government of China" at Peking).

Questioned about the Russo-British debt, Sir Austen cautiously declared: "His Majesty's Government will observe with the closest attention the Russo-French debt negotiations, which I am informed will shortly begin at Paris, in the hope that these may be of a nature to facilitate a renewal of [Russo-British] conversations upon that subject."

Minister of Health Neville Chamberlain (brother of Sir Austen) vigorously attacked a resolution moved by Dr. E. Graham Little (Senior Physician of the East London Hospital for Children), in which it was demanded that an "authoritative inquiry be made into the whole position of irregular practitioners" (chiropractors, osteopaths, "bone setters," etc.).

Championing these gentry, Mr. Chamberlain queried oratorically amid lively applause, "Why should not we be free to take advantage of the skill of any man qualified or unqualified, it being understood that anyone who goes to an unqualified man goes at his own risk, and must take the consequences?" The temper of the House was seen to be so markedly against the resolution that it was allowed to peter out by general assent, although no actual vote was taken. U. S. physicians recalled that famed vegetarian G. B. Shaw and numerous other enlightened Englishmen swear by the officially non-existent "bone setter."

* The "boycott" now amounts to such a complete "blockade" that British merchants in Canton are not only unable to do business but are forced to virtually smuggle in the food and supplies which they personally require. Since very heavy investments of British capital have been made at Canton, the merchants have remained there despite every difficulty to protect their property.