Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 1931. BRITISH POLITICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 206, 13 June 1931, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 1931. BRITISH POLITICS.

The difficulties confronting the Labour Government in Britain are again exemplified by the position that has arisen in connection with the land tax proposals in the Finance Bill. The Liberals are determined, it is reported, to press an amendment providing for exemption from the tax of land in respect to which income tax has been paid, thus confining the impost to undeveloped areas. The position is said to be critical, and a surprise general election is regarded as the probable outcome. The leader of the Liberal Party asserts that his amendment is designed not to create embarrassment for the Ministry but to obtain fair treatment for the owners of land. This may be so, but it is none the less true that a division might lead to the defeat of the Government. The attitude of the Liberals toward Labour is based on nebulous grounds. So° : i after the last general elections, Mr Lloyd George deemed it necessary to announce that there was no alliance between the two, only a working agreement. As time went on, the basis and extent of whatever agreement existed were subject to change owing to the stand taken by certain members of Mr Lloyd George’s following. The latest development was in reference, to a suggestion for an alliance by which the Liberals would keep the Government in office for another eighteen months, in return for a pledge that, when an election came, Labour would not oppose the Liberals in certain constituencies. This, however, was rejected by the Liberal ‘ shadow Cabinet,” and the party, by thirtyseven votes to seventeen, approved a policy of co-operation, based on full independence of the Liberals, the °* s ' sentients insisting that there should be no measure of co-operation whatever. There have been several defections from the ranks of Mr MacDonald s party, but these were in the nature of protests against decisions on individual matters of policy and not declarations of adherence to any of the other political forces. But the fact remains that the Conservatives are the only party who have been able to close their ranks in some measure in face of the probability of a not distant election. Following his refusal to be stampeded by one set of die-hards in connection with India and his unprecedently vigorous trouncing of'the Press barons, Mr Baldwin’s prestige stands higher than it has done foi many years. There have been several occasions on which predictions of an early election have been made, but though the Government has once or twice escaped defeat by the most slender margin, it has falsified the prophets. Its safety lies in the fact that the Liberals are so situated that, so far as the majority are concerned, they do not desire an election unless assisted by some arrangement with the Labour Party. It will be interesting to watch whether in the present instance they maintain principle at the expense of a possible jeopardising of their position at the polls.