RESIGNATIONS INEVITABLE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 310, 30 December 1915, Page 6

RESIGNATIONS INEVITABLE.

GOVERNMENT WILL SURVIVE. DIVIDED OPINION ABOUT THE PLEDGE. ATTITUDE OF PRESS AND ' HOUSE. (Received 2 p.m.) LONDON, December 29. The resignations of certain Cabinet Ministers is considered to bo inevitable. Most newspapers regard the position complacently, and anticipate that the opposition will subside in the face of Mr j Asquith's explanation next Tuesday on the peculiar needs of the situation. The general impression is that the entire Cabinet u'ust accept responsibility for the pledge, though opinion is divided whether tho pledge was necessary or wise, and neither a break-up of the Government nor an election is now feared. In the event of Mr McKcnna, Mr Runciman, Mr Harcourt, and Sir John Simon resigning, it is considered that the National Government will survive with greatly diminished strength. Some papers consider it will not change the majority against compulsion in the House of Commons, and legitimate discussion about the details is expected. Tho position nt the moment is that tbe | Government has decided on compulsion, but is undecided about exemptions. LABOUR'S ATTITUDE. Tho. Labour members' position is being j keenly watched. " I The Cabinet decision came as an un-1 pleasant shock, but in view of the latest ! estimate that possibly 750,000 unmarried j mon failed to attest, it is anticipated \ that many Labourites who were formerly j violent anti-conscriptionists will now hold modified views, and will be prepared j to sanction the course, realising that the j Government has no other course. ! A Labour conference is expected to sit i in the next few day 3, when Mr Henderson j will explain the information which is | influencing Cabinet. The result of the conference will probably disclose a grow- I ing opinion in favour of temporary com- I pulsion. I Mr C. W. Bowerman (Labour member I for Deptford) comments that as 2,000,000 j men have volunteered, it is an insult and an outrage to the country to talk of conscription. The Merthyr election was regarded as a significant pointer of Labour's changed attitude in viewing conscription as bad* but defeat as worse. It has been dis- j covered that in the districts in which the j men held back there was abundance of | work at high wages.