The Week in Parliament

(British Commonwealth of Nations)

The House of Commons took notable action only once last week-spent a great deal of time in debating the Anglo-Irak Treaty (TIME, Feb. 15,) which His Majesty's fiery Colonial Secretary, Colonel Leopold Stennett Amery defended in part as follows: "The rejection of this covenant would make Great Britain ridiculous in the eyes of the League of Nations, contemptible in the eyes of the Turk and odious in the eyes of the people of Irok!"

Observers winked an eye reflecting upon the oil beneath the surface of Irak and remembering Colonel Amery's passionate insistence before the League Council that it should "request" Britain to conclude the treaty which continues the British regime in Irak for another quarter of a century (TIME, Dec. 28, THE LEAGUE).

To dissipate these cross-reflections, they harkened to the words of Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain: "I am tired of the palpable untruth that this Government is in Irak for the oil that British capitalists can get out of the Mosul region. If we were after oil we could have had the concession for all the oil in Mosul and concessions for anything else we liked. . . . I was approached by a Turkish representative last March with the proposition that Great Britain should have the exploitation of all the oil in the Vilayet of Mosul, provided that Turkey should be granted as much of the Vilayet as she wished. The reply of His Majesty's Government was that they were trustees for Irak, that they were not possessors but mandatories, and that as mandatories and trustees they could not bargain away the rights and interests of Irak and her people in exchange for concessions.

"Never was a shameful allegation made with less shadow of foundation!"

The treaty was ratified 260 to 116, after the Laborites had rehashed the familiar reasons--chiefly "expense"--on account of which Britain should abandon the Christians of the unhappy Mosul frontier region to the Turks. The usual aftermath of crimination and recrimination ensued.

Meanwhile at Angora, the Turkish capital, Sir Ronald Lindsay continued to negotiate the dicker with Turkey, on the basis of which the Anglo-Irak treaty may or may not go into effect without blood-spilling in Mosul. Sir Austen declared last week that this exalted chaffering and higgling are still going forward in "friendly" fashion.

"Up, Saklatvala!" During the course of debate, an unidentified individual cried from the gallery: "Mr. Speaker! I am an unemployed man! What are you going to do with me?"

While an attendant was ejecting him, the Commons rang with cries of "Up, Saklatvala!" from laughing members. Shapurji Saklatvala, only Communist in the House of Commons, paid no heed to the alarm.

Mme. Lenine. Famed anti-Communist fire-eater, Home Secretary Sir William Joynson-Hicks (popularly known as "Jix") declared amid laughter, in answer to a question, that the widow of famed Bolshevist idol Lenine has applied for permission to end her days in England. Said the doughty "Jix," stiffly: "Such an application would be treated on its merits, if presented."