Bricklayer Expelled

His Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Right Honorable Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, was expelled last week by the union from which he recently and jocularly obtained a card proclaiming him to be a bricklayer (TIME, Oct. 29).

Such drastic action was taken not lightly, but after hours of anxious wrangling by the Executive Committee of the Amalgamated Union of Building Trades' Workers. In its final and awful form the order of expulsion against whimsical Mr. Churchill charged that "he has never laid bricks, except as a pastime on his own estate, and furthermore he does not intend to earn his living by laying bricks, or to take any part in the internal affairs of this union."

When official notice of this excommunication was conveyed to the Chancellory of the Exchequer, there came in retort from that sanctum a weighty, mocking reply:

"Mr. Churchill does not see how he could accept expulsion without endangering the position of other members of the union who, having been duly accepted as members by responsible authorities, ought to have assurance that they cannot be turned out for political reasons.

"It would be injurious to the interests of the union if doubt were thrown upon the validity of the signatures and authority of its responsible officers. Mr. Churchill hopes, therefore, that the matter may be further considered and the correspondence studied by the Executive Committee."