Acts of Men

The House of Commons last week adjourned to November 1, giving the Chamberlain Cabinet a general vote of confidence after a speech in which the Prime Minister explained his novel move for solving the Czechoslovak Question (see p. 15). The session closed with a fiery field day of spouted indignation because ships of the Royal Navy continue to stand by while British freighters are bombed in the ports of Leftist Spain. No fervent orator, however, went so far as to demand the alternative: that Spanish Rightist bombers be fired upon by Britons. As members sped to their homes, the Spanish War remained the subject on which the House has wasted most words at this session, but to the credit of M. P.s was much work done:

The Bacon Act established a Bacon Revenue Board, with adequate powers to rationalize the British bacon industry and extend subsidies for the improvement of antiquated packing houses.

The Coal Act obliges the private owners of all coal mining royalties to sell these out to the State, as of July 1942, for a total compensation of -L-66,450,000 ($332,250,000). This does not nationalize the coal industry (since private interests will continue to operate the mines, paying royalties to the State), but means a mighty stride toward Nationalization.

The Air Raids Precautions Act injected new activities into every home in the land, set Britons digging bomb shelters in their gardens and parks.

The Infanticide Act repealed the Infanticide Act of 1922 and introduced the reform that an English mother who slays her child before it is one year old is no longer guilty of murder but only of "infanticide," which is punished as manslaughter.

The Hire-Purchase Act cracks down on many of the sharp practices employed by British sellers on the installment plan, permits buyers who are unable to complete their payments to take back the goods for cash, less a fair reduction for wear & tear.

The Eire Act set the seal of Parliament on the new and even freer status which Prime Minister Eamon de Valera won for his country in the British Commonwealth (TIME, May 9).

The Supreme Court of Judicature Act increased the number of puisne judges that may be attached to the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court, enabling it to handle an increased volume of divorces arising from the passage of the Matrimonial Causes Act which last year broadened the grounds of divorce (TIME, Aug. 2, 1937).

The Housing (Rural Workers) Amendment Act, The Housing (Financial Provisions) Act and The Housing (Scotland) Act, offered State aid in the abatement of overcrowding, .all designed to stimulate local and private initiative in a program of "Tory Socialism."

The Pensions Act lowered the age at which blind Britons become eligible for pensions from 50 to 40.

The Unemployment Insurance Act extended the British "dole'' paid the unemployed to include jobless farm workers.

The Cinematograph Act upped on a new sliding scale, the number of films U. S. producers must make in the United Kingdom. For each 100 films shown, 15 must now be British-made and in ten years this figure will have climbed to 30.

The Air Navigation Act increased the annual State subsidy to British commercial aviation from $7,500,000 to $15,000,000.

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