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14 FEBRUARY 1925

Sir Kingsley Wood, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, speaking in the House of Commons on the experiments in steel houses, said that in every contract for these houses there would be a fair wages clause inserted.

French comments on Mr Chamberlain’s statement regarding a security pact express the hope that Britain will be conscious of the realities of the hour. France, it is stated, will not refuse to consider any agreement which offers a guarantee of security.

The Speech from the Throne at the opening of the South African Parliament foreshadowed a heavy legislative programme, including Bills providing for a measure of self-government for South-West Africa, and dealing with South African nationality, electoral reform, and emergency powers Bills, wages regulation Bills, and measures for the control of the diamond trade and the uniform and direct taxation of natives.

The Second Opium Conference discussed and sustained the article of the draft convention which provides that any contracting party may authorise the supply to the public by chemists in urgent cases of tincture of opium, laudanum, and Dover powder.

Viscount Cecil of Chelwood spoke at Bournemouth on the evils of the opium habit, and gave details of the machinery devised at the Geneva Conference to watch and regulate the operation of the factories in which opium and other drugs were manufactured.

Mr Amery, speaking at Birmingham, said the Government appreciated that the nation expected attention to education, health, and every branch of social reform.

13 FEBRUARY 1925

The Prince of Wales, who will visit Southern Rhodesia in the summer, is due to arrive at Bulawayo on June 29, and concludes the tour on July 11 at Victoria Falls.

The mission of the Prince of Wales to South Africa and South America was strongly criticised by Scottish Socialist members in the House of Commons, on a vote of £2000 for the purposes of the tour. Mr Kirkwood, who was repeatedly interrupted and called to order, argued that the Prince would be better to make himself acquainted with working-class conditions in this country before undertaking that voyage. The vote was carried by a large majority.

Mr Wheatley, speaking in the House of Commons on housing experiments, said that in three months the Government had dissipated the good spirit prevailing in the building industry when the late Government left office. There was now a spirit of suspicion. Mr Neville Chamberlain, in reply, said he wanted to provide houses, and he was astonished at the persistent obstruction that came from the Labour party. He regarded the Weir houses as an emergency measure, and did not believe they would prejudice the building trade.

The Foreign Secretary, Mr Austen Chamberlain, asked in the House of Commons whether the Government were considering a new pact of alliance and security with France, said no negotiations for a separate pact with any country had been entered upon by the Government.

Dr Macnamara, opening his campaign as Liberal candidate in the Walsall by-election, said his party had suffered at the General Election for taking the right course. In its panic the country overdid it, and was now ripe for a great revival of Liberalism.

12 FEBRUARY 1925

The Earl of Onslow, replying to a question in the House of Lords regarding the proposed transfer of Swaziland and Bechnanaland to the Union of South Africa, said the Union Government did not intend to ask for the transfer of either territory at present.

The House of Commons adopted a resolution approving the possession by the Home Secretary of full authority to control alien immigration, and deprecating any weakening of the existing regulations, in view of the present shortage of work and of houses in this country.

Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, Secretary for War, addressing the Council of County Territorial Associations, said the Territorial Army would be the sole means of expansion of the Army in time of war, and the Army Council were now considering the preparation of a scheme to be put into operation whenever the need for expansion took place.

Lord Sands, presiding in London at the annual meeting of the Carnegie Trust, reviewed the work of the past year.

Sir Richard Lodge has given to a Scotsman representative his impressions of American University methods and ideals, on his return from a visit to the United States and Canada.

Two new Royal Scottish Academicians, Mr George Houston and Mr Robert Hope, were elected at an Assembly of the Academy.

Abdel Fattah Amayat, a student of the Royal School of Law at Cairo, who with his brother Abdel Hamid, a student teacher, was arrested on the train going from Alexandria to Hamman on January 31, has admitted that he took part in the attack upon the late Sirdar on November 19, and has given the names of the other persons connected with the assassination, including his own brother.

11 FEBRUARY 1925

In the House of Lords, Marquis Curzon, replying to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who asked for information regarding the expulsion of the Ecumenical Patriarch from Constantinople, stated that in the opinion of His Majesty’s Government the dispute was one that ought to be settled by discussion and agreement between the two Governments concerned. They would use all their influence towards securing a peaceful solution by conciliation.

The second reading of the Church of Scotland (Property and Endowments) Bill, which was moved in the House of Commons by the Secretary for Scotland, was agreed to. A motion for rejection, moved by the Rev. James Barr, was defeated by 252 votes to 110. Sir John Gilmour said the Bill would open the way for the Union which was desired by both Churches, and, he believed, by the vast majority of the Scottish people.

At question time in the House of Commons the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries announced that he proposed to appoint a Departmental Committee to inquire into the conditions under which horses are exported to the Continent.

The Prime Minister, Mr Stanley Baldwin, has intimated to the Town Council of Dundee his willingness to accept the freedom of Dundee.

The German Chancellor, at Cologne, declared that the German Government was ready to negotiate with the Allies regarding the evacuation of the Cologne zone and promptly to remove all legitimate doubts on their part in respect of disarmament. Berlin would, however, refuse to let evacuation be made dependent on a settlement of the question of security.

Two persons were killed and nearly a hundred injured in a Communist-Roman Catholic riot at Marseilles. A well-known local priest was assaulted and badly beaten on leaving the Catholic League Conference.

10 FEBRUARY 1925

Parliament resumes to-day. In the House of Lords the Archbishop of Canterbury is to put a question regarding the expulsion of the Ecumenical Patriarch. In the House of Commons the second reading stage of the Church of Scotland (Property and Endowments) Bill will be taken.

Mr Neville Chamberlain, Minister of Health, speaking at Plymouth with reference to the housing problem, said that he was sorry to see that already some people, whose motives, he feared, were not above suspicion, were taking upon themselves to crab the demonstration houses, which some of them certainly had not yet even seen.

Steel-sheeted houses are strongly criticised by a technical committee appointed by the National Housing and Town Planning Council.

Mr Lloyd George, in receiving the freedom of Hull, spoke on the part the politician played in the Great War.

Mr A. J. Cook, Secretary of the Miners’ Federation, in an interview regarding Mr Hodges’s proposals for solving the problems in the mining industry, said nationalisation would be more likely to appeal to the coal owners than unification.

9 FEBRUARY 1925

The British Government’s Note setting out in reply to M. Clementel’s request its policy with regard to inter-Allied debts has been received by the French Government. The Note suggests the lines on which discharge of obligations between Britain and France should be effected. It is reported to have been favourably received by M. Herriot.

Following the American example, China has withdrawn from the International Opium Conference. The delegate stated that present conditions in China unfortunately made it impossible for the Chinese Government to enforce effectively its policy of prohibiting the production of opium for other than medicinal and scientific purposes, but these conditions, he added, were only temporary.

Mr. Champ, Industrial Secretary of the N.U.R., speaking at Grantham, said that while there should be no talk of strikes until all other resources of reason and argument had been exhausted, there would be no cool dropping of their demands. If extreme action were needed they would not shrink from it.

The Executive of the National Union of Railwaymen have decided to refer the whole of their programme to the Central Wages Board.

President Cosgrave, speaking at Cavan, said there was no need for pessimism regarding the future of the Free State. They were far from being bankrupt. The running of Republican candidates in the partitioned North of Ireland for the Imperial Parliament was, he considered, a political blunder of the first magnitude.

8 FEBRUARY 1925

Sources close to the British Government said that they were disappointed with the withdrawal of the American and Chinese delegations to the Geneva Opium Conference.

Sir William Joynson-Hicks, the Home Secretary, said that the Government would be introducing legislation to gain powers which would restrict the activities of the underworld and undesirable nightclubs.

7 FEBRUARY 1925

The “American delegation has withdrawn from the second Opium Conference at Geneva, stating in a memorandum that the difficulties encountered make it clear that the purpose for which the Conference was called cannot be accomplished.

The Turkish Government’s reply to the Greek Note of protest against the expulsion of Mgr. Constantine rejects the suggested reference of the dispute to the Hague Court, and insists that the question is a purely internal one.

The Duchess d’Alpuferi was fired at in Paris by one of her former tenants, a farmer named Danre, and wounded. The man was taken in custody.

A meeting of the Executive of the N.U.R., hurriedly called to consider the railway deadlock, lasted all day, without a decision being reached.

Professor Grierson, speaking at the annual dinner of the Aberdeen University Edinburgh Association–at which the principal guest was Professor Mackintosh, Aberdeen–complained that the entrance of women into the University had introduced an element of distraction.

6 FEBRUARY 1925

Objection has been taken by Britain to the presence of two Turkish experts with the Mosul Boundary Commission on the ground that they are undesirables, whose presence is resented in Mosul, and who quite recently were engaged in an attempt to stir up the local population against the mandatory Power. The Turkish Government denies the British charges.

Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister, at Edgware, replied to Mr Runciman’s criticism of the Government’s proposals in regard to the safeguarding of industries. The Government, he said, were following the same course as a previous Liberal Administration, so that their action could not be unconstitutional.

Lord Mackenzie has been appointed chairman of a Committee set up by the Secretary for Scotland to consider the question whether it is desirable that further provision should be made as regards Scotland for appeals in criminal cases tried on indictment.

Evidence on behalf of Scottish Co-operative Societies was given before the Commission on Food Prices. It related mainly to meat and the charges to be met in its preparation.

Successful experiments have been made at Southampton with a wireless telephone service between ships and the shore which may be linked up with the General Post Office land telephone lines.

The Rotor ship Buckau left Danzig for Leith.

In trade union circles, indications point to the early development of a stubborn struggle in connection with the railway companies’ proposals to reduce wages.