July 10.
The lobbies are buzzing excitement, That is the latest news from Westminster. A Political crisis is in the air, The faithful chroniclers endeavour to convey to the world something of the thrills which they are experiencing, Old hands, though some of. them may be, the sensation never palls. Yesterday after all the alarums and exeursions—may have passed off quietly and no news come of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald being less firmly in the saddle than he was on Tuesday night, when the buzz began. That will not matter. The whips, the private secretaries and the lobby correspondents have all had their special moments of importance. They have been able to impress the world immediately around them with a lively sense of their indispensability and of the gravity of the cares upon their shoulders, Meanwhile the dynamic forces in the background seem curiously inert. As for the Leaders whose destinies are thus supposed to be at hazard, they fade into a mysterious middle distance and only very privileged individ can buttonhole them or ask them even the simplest question. This air of aloofness is not necessarily studied, It arises most probably from: the prosaic fact that the great men have really nothing to say. There may be a crisis but no one knows better than the Party Leader that the actual control of the whirlwind is out of his hands, Cynieal whips discuss matters with their rivals; they allow the storm to gather, to assume all the appearance of a tornado, Then the decision when ther it should burst or merely: eter out is weighed after consideration of factors about which even lobby correspondents are not supposed to dare to express an opinion. So the balloon may not go up. The buzz in the Lobby subsides. The only disgruntled folk are normally cai free private members who had arranged to enjoy the Varsity match and had planned to follow up that event, -again at Lords, with a cheery party at the Eton and Harrow fixture.
In crises of this kind the bearing of the three Party Leaders may be studied with interest. The Prime Minister, heavily-bowed by the strain of his responsibilities, which he takes with ever-increasing seriousness, becomes more impressive than usual with his grand manner. He may borrow a little of Mr. Snowden's rasp in dealing with the too eager inquisitor but! otherwise he is darkly serene.
Lloyd George becomes htfully irresponsible than ever. His buoyancy is a thing to witness. He likes the pos-Political trouble and he again returns thanks ing, as he once put if, "the most cantankerous party God ever made", Mr. Baldwin wears a specially whim-1 smile; he deprecates the idea that he is responsible for anything—much less a party attack. He gives the int that, if he had his wa; Labour Government: should: remain. in office for ever. It would prevent him-from br~ing to find 2 portio for the ats ten, But there are Winston and the forceful young Conservatives. They have a mission and so Mr. Baldwin, as Leader of the Opposition, must humour their desire to transform his present shadowy office into the more substantial fabric now clothed in MacDonaldian majesty. That is the buzz in the Lobby—or as near as it can be interpreted in Shanghai without the aid: of the British Broadcasting Corpora.
ion.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.