HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 May 1923, Page 3

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CARLE ASSOCIATION. ALL NIGHT SITTING. (Received this day at 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, May 30. The House of Commons sat till six in the morning debating the Indemnity Bill. Mr Baldwin and Ministers remained till the early morning. The light centred around the Government’s clause providing for compensation to deported persons. Despite Mr Hogg s emphatic undertaking that those deported would receive the full compensation to which a law court declared them entitled, the Oppositionists moved a succession of amendments. Mr MacDonald moved to report progress, declaring the Bill was now in a state of hopeless confusion. When a general debate on this motion seemed imminent, a group of Government members lelt the Chamber. l ord Robert Cecil moved the closure amid erics of “gag” and' “return of the wanderer.”

The closure was carried by 197 to 103 and Mr MacDonald's motion was defeated by 19S to 105. Labourites pressed amendments demanding compensation for “moral and intellectual damage,” and for the deportees’ dependants. Lord Cecil again moved the closure, when Mr Neil McLean rising from the front opposition bench violently thumped the table. During later divisions, a- number of Labourites assembled in the corridors sang “Glory; Glory Hallelujah, and “Hang Bob Cecil on a sour apple tree.” The Government maintained a majority of between eighty and ninety and passed the. Bill through committee, but agreed to postpone the report and the third reading stages until Friday.

IN THE COMMONS. (Received this day at 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, May 30. Replying to a question in the Commons whether he was prepared to endorse the statement by the late Premier that no recognition would be accorded to’the Soviet until full compensation had been made to our nationals, and every just claim had been honourably met, Mr Baldwin _said he fully endorsed, on liehalf of the Government, the statement made by the late Premier on November 29th. Mr McNeil replying to a question, said the Allied Powers having declared themselves unable to accept the British plan to settle German reparations, the Government had no reason to suppose they could usefully take further steps at present.