There was not a very large al tendance in the House of Commons, where Mr. Shapurji Saklatvala, the Independent member for Battersea, distinguished himself by remaining seated in the House until the other members had returned from listening to the King's speech in the House of Lords, In the debate on the Address in the House of Lords, Lon Parmoor and Lord Salisbury paid a tribute to the work of Sir Miles Lampson, the British Mini China, Expressing gratitude for Sir Miles Lampson's conduct of affairs under very difficult circumstances, Lord Salisbury. said that it was impossible to aggerate those difficulties or the great skill with which he had surmounted them.
The debate on the Address reply to the King's Speech opened in the House of Commons this afternoon, My. Ramsay MacDonald, the Labour leader, criticized generally the policy of the Government. In regard to foreign affairs, he condemned, especially, the " Government's "relations regarding the Kellogg Pact and the Anglo-French Naval Compromise.
Mr. Stanley Baldin, the Premi in the course of his reply, said thi the Government could not reply to the attack on their actions in reger foreign relations until they had the full ease of the Oppovition. While they had heard Mr. MacDonald, they had rot heard Mr, Lloyd George (the Liberal lender)
would be discourtesy to the liberal Party to attempt to deal with the criticisms in there circumstances, MacDonald arked whether the Government had no statement at all to make on foreign affairs, A Vote of Censure?
The Premice veplicd that the: Government had published a full White Paper on the Anglo-French aval Compromise. They knew that Inter they were te be censured this matter and that was the occasion on which the Government proposed to state their case, AM. Philip Snowden, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government of 1024, supported "the demand of My MacDonald for a statement by the wvermment on foreign affairs, 1 the absence of such a statement, declared, it as no use to proceed the debate and he, therefor red an adjournment of the House, Mr. Baldwin defended the absence of a statement by pointing out that for many years the debate on the Address in reply to the King's Speech had nearly always been of a general character. He understood that amendments relating to the matters in dispute, including one by the Liberals, were to be wyed. The Governient had bee: subjected to a great deal of criticism: and very hard things had been aid of them in the country, and the Government desired to see what was equivalent to n vote of censure moved upon them to observe whether the same things would b said in the House as were said in the country. The Government had perfect right to reserve their reply for that occasion. In these circumstances he could only congratulate Mr, Snowden on going back to the oid constitutional practice in moving adjournment of the debate at an early hour and he had pleasure in accepting it.
The motion for adjournment was agreed to without a division and the House rose.
Im the debate on the King's Speech in the House of Lords the Marquess of Salisbury, for the Government, protested against the description "naval pact" being applied to what was really a provisional accord reached with the French Government, which the British Government had communicated at once to all the other parties concerned.
Undoubtedly, he declared, the naval arrangement was now at an
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.