Hunched forward on a bench in the Distinguished Visitors' Gallery, a plump cheese man from upstate New York sat watching the House of Commons at its work one day last week. "He's Chairman of their Congressional Rules Committee over in the States," the M. P.'s told each other. "Some such name as Snell."
To the hard, darting, practical glance of Congressman Bertrand ("Bert") Snell the House of Commons must have teemed with curious contrasts. In his own semicircular House of Representatives, for example, males and females sit hatless as in a theatre, facing the "well" beyond which rises Speaker Nicholas Longworth's rostrum. They may not eat, drink or smoke, but may address the House in Spanish—language of the Philippines.
On the contrary, Mr. Speaker Edward Algernon Fitzroy of the House of Commons sits not high upon a rostrum but low in his great oak-canopied Chair, facing an oblong room richly panelled. On his right rise the Government benches, on his left the Opposition. The members may recline at full length when the House is not too full. They may wear hats (must wear them when raising a point of order during a division), may not smoke, may not drink, may not address the House in any language except English.
U. S. Representatives refer to each other as "the Gentleman from Idaho" (or wherever) but an M. P. is "the Honorable Member from East Ham," or "the Learned Member" if a lawyer, or "the Gallant Member" if a military or naval man, or "the Right Honorable" if a Minister of the Crown.
Britain's Gandhite. Suddenly, Congressman Snell and every one else in the chamber beheld an ascetic looking Laborite with high cheekbones and owlish glasses leap up from his bench and, pulling a queer white cap from his pocket, clap it on his head. What did that mean?
In far away India obstreperous Gand-hites wear white, homespun "Gandhi Caps," which British policemen fish off their heads. The fishing is done with poles having a sharp hook at the end, and while they fish the police beat the nonresisting Gandhites with staves (TIME, July 7). It was in protest against such "inhumanity" that ascetic Laborite Archibald Fenner Brockway, M. P., 42, a leading publicist and orator of his party, was startling the House with his "Gandhi Cap." He demanded that without further ado his chief, Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald permit debate on India, then and there.
Scot MacDonald refused. Mr. Brockway in his white cap persisted amid cries of "Order! Order!" When he would not come to order the Speaker "named" him. Mr. MacDonald moved his suspension and the House proceeded to vote it by strolling off into the division lobbies. It was then that a supreme rupture of precedent occurred, electrifying and dumfounding every Briton present.
"A Damned Disgrace!" As the four tellers approached the Chair to inform the Speaker that Gandhite Brockway had been suspended by a vote of 260 to 24, Teller John Beckett, a Laborite nobody, was seen to whisper to one of his colleagues, was answered by a shake of the head.
As the other tellers began their traditional three bows to the Chair, Mr. Beckett without bowing suddenly shouted: