MEMBERS' RIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 4, 6 January 1936, Page 7

MEMBERS' RIGHTS

MR. HERBERT'S FIGHT

JOKING NOT HIS POLICY

THE DIVORCE LAWS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, December 7.

After Mr. A. P. Herbert, Independent M.P. for Oxford University, had made his maiden speech in the House, he was complimented by Sir A. Sinclair, the Liberal leader, for his "wit and courage."

Mr. Herbert was protesting against the Government's proposal to take private members' time until Christmas.

The new M.P. described himself as the junior .burgess of the University of Oxford, the elected mouthpiece of innumerable clergymen, and the second trumpet of 20,000 Bachelors of Art. He had been sent to the House, he believed, at' a very unusual election by his constituents largely to stop or try to stop the kind of thinking which was behind this motion. SYMBOLS OF SLAVERY. The Prime Minister, he understood, was taking away from the private members what he said was only one Friday, and he said that he understood that there was no objection among the Opposition Whips. In his comparative inexperience he wondered what that had to do with it. Was it not a contradiction in terms that the Whips, who were the symbols and the officers of the machine, of the slavery, of the organisation, whatevertbey liked to call it—(laughter and cheers)— should be able to barter and give away the time of private members, which ex hypothesi was not theirs to give? (Laughter and cheers.) The third reason, of the Prime Minister was the most extraordinary of all. He said that this was being done for the benefit of the victims, because the back b,enchers, being uncivilised and backward and unintelligent, had not had time to prepare their contributions for the safety of the country and the legislation of the future. WALLS OF JERICHO. "I hope the Prime Minister does not think all private members are quite so deficient in imaginative and constructive power as that. At any rate, let me tell him that I have here in my hand a Bill—(laughter)—which' I am ready to introduce next Friday or the Friday after, or on all the Fridays—(laughter)—until it is passed into law, and I swear that it shall be passed before this Parliament is over." (Renewed laughter.) It was- said, Mr. Herbert continued, that, with his extraordinary opinions, he ought to go to Hoxton, the tavern, the racecourse, in the hope of scrambling together a few votes, and not to Oxford, the citadel of Christian enlightenment and the stronghold of orthodoxy, the constituency with more parsons to the square vote than any other constituency of the size. (Laughter.) But he went, and the walls of Jericho fell down. Here was his Bill, not a feeble little Bill, and it was called the Matrimonial Causes Bill. (Laughter.) It was a Bill to reform the indecent, hypocritical, cruel, unjust marriage laws, and it was based on the recommendations of the majority report of the. Royal Commission which reported twentythree years ago. He was wondering whether some part of the decline in the public interest in the proceedings of the House might not be due to the fact that so many high and great problems were discussed in that House which were not understood or understandable by the common people, while simple human problems, such as the Bill dealt with, which the common man thought he understood, were so seldom mentioned there, and, when they were mentioned, were dismissed as frivolities. ' ' NEVER ANY TIME. He was tired of hearing that the Government had no time to do this, that, or the other. The more he heard that, the more the Prime Minister, and other defenders of liberty and democracy, were driving him into the camp of his old captain, the right hon. member of some part of Bristol (Sir Stafford Cripps). (Loud laughter.) If they mentioned such things at General Election time, they were told , they must not trespass on what were called the main issues; if they mentioned them after the election they were told that, since they were not mentioned at the election, they had no mandate for them. At the beginning of a Parliament the Government had no time, at the end of a Parliament, the Government had no courage to do anything; and in the middle of a Parliament they could do nothing because there was a change of Ministries. (Laughter.) Party Government could not do this thing; National Government could not. It would seem that if any Government should be fitted for such a task, it would be a National Government, which claimed to represent all sections of society. It seemed to him that there was no conceivable combination of political conditions in this great democracy which would ever be favourable for tackling or even discussing these problems. DIVORCE REFORM BILL. Now, when he came to the House, pledged especially by his great constituency—the most remarkable and unlikely constituency to give him this message—the first thing that happened was that the Prime. Minister said that the first day on which he could move his little Bill was taken away by the Government. That little Friday, which could not mean very much to the Government, might mean a great deal to the thousands o£ unhappy souls who might benefit from his Bill. (Laughter.) Labour members laughed. But by what feat of political chemistry could they isolate the problem of slums from the problem of the sexes!

How could they dare to say that housing, which they were always talking about, bricks and mortar, was important, but not ,those problems of the home which a marriage created?

He would ask the Ministry: "What is the use of a salaried, sterilised midwife—(loud laughter)—to a woman whose husband has deserted her and gone to Australia, or a woman whose husband is an incurable drunkard or is incarcerated in a lunatic asylum, or in one of his Majesty's prisons for life? What is the use of saying that is not a social problem just as exciting and interesting as slums and housing?" (Laughter.)

He had not come to the House of Commons to make jokes. Every joke, every laugh, was only another form of criticism. He had not come there even to collect the background for a work of fiction. He had come to raise his small voice for a very large body of small people who thought that a number of small but important things like this were being thrust aside. If he could not make that voice effective he would go back to his books and plays, but h% was proud indeed to stand in that. plac* among the faithful Commons of the King. (Cheers.1)

The motion was pressed to a division by the I.L.P. members, and was carried by 232 votes to 8.

The Labour members abstained from voting.