THE KING'S GOVERNMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 295, 11 December 1923, Page 4

THE KING'S GOVERNMENT.

A choice specimen of demagogisiu is the reference to "the King's Government" made by a Labour member at Glasgow and reported in our news to-day. "We have been told," said- this member, "that the King's Government must be carried on, but we do not see the necessity, as the movement which sent us into public life is net interested in the King's Government, but sent us to establish and carry on Government by the people." There may have been voters in the gathering addressed who really believed there was'a vital difference between "King's Government" and "Government by the people"; there are few limits to ignorance and prejudice. The truth is that "the King's Government" means the people's Government with the crown at the head of the system. That the King reigns but does not govern is one of the commonplaces of the British political system. If the Monarchy were abolished to-morrow and a President installed in Buckingham Palace, the people would not govern one whit more than they do to-day. No one realises this better than the leaders of the Labour party, and we believe that few of the rank and file in Parliament would be guilty of such a perversion of political truth as Glasgow has just heard. The left wing of his party must cause Mr. Ramsay MacDonald some anxiety.