The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY. JANUARY 28, 1924. "STOCKS ARE UP!"

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 23, 28 January 1924, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY. JANUARY 28, 1924. "STOCKS ARE UP!"

• For the crate that lacks oeaittonm, j For the wrong that need* resietanee, ' For the future in the distance, j And the $094 that urn can 4a.

i Now that the unprecedented has actually happened at Home, and a Labour Government is safely installed J in power, the country seems to be adjusting itself to the new situation with remarkable rapidity. In on e sense, this is as it should be, for there never has j been any reason to anticipate that the advent of Labour in office would herald I any violent or destructive change to , Britain or the Empire. It is true that j the enemies of Democracy, whether they . call themselves Liberals or Conservatives, have constantly predicted that the j political predominance of Labour would involve untold disasters, till at last they seem almost to have persuaded themselves of the truth of (heir own pro-; phecies. But now that this dreaded possibility has materialised they are compelled to admit that their fears were largely the product of their own imaginations. As the excitement over the Parliamentary crisis subsides the political horizon is rapidly clearing, and a rising stock market supplies incontestable proof of the undisturbed serenity with which Britain is now facing the situation. Even Mr. J. L. Garvin, who lias made such persistent use of the Socialist bogey in the past, now assures the country that the new Government is at nearly all points as safe as the Bank of England. And no doubt he believes it. For we may remember that when Labour was called upon to play its part in the government of the country during the war the '•Morning Post." as well a» the "'Observer," declared that if Labour could produce more administrators of the calibre of Mr. Thomas and Mr. dynes there need be no further anxiety about the country's future when a Labour Ministry came into power. We may thus take it for granted that Britain expects the new Government to adopt a cautious and tentative policy, abstaining carefully from any violent or revolutionary change. And so long as the progress which is naturally associated with democratic ideals is steady and orderly, we can imagine little but beneficial results ensuing for the country and the Empire. At the same time it would be a mistake to shut our eyes entirely to certain contingencies of a less reassuring character. In the first place the extremists on Labour's left wing are certain to use every possible expedient to induce Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald and his colleagues to force the pace, and give material proof of their fidelity to Labour's cause at the earliest possible moment. But it is even j more important to remember that the . political theories professed by most of j the Labour leaders at Home, are more or less Marxian in origin and character, and that in upholding these doctrines in the past, Mr. Mac Donald and his friends, though they have repudiated Syndicalism and Bolshevism, have committed themselves to pledges and predictions of a highly revolutionary type. Now Mr. Mac Donald himself Is distinctly a doctrinaire, a thinker who is liable to overestimate the importance of words and phrases, and to carry his k theories to a logical conclusion irre- ' spectivc of facts and circumstances. It is quite conceivable that -if sufficient pressure is brought to bear upon such a politician he may be " stampeded " further and faster than he would be inclined to go, on his own initiative. And these comments apply not only to domestic affairs, but to the sphere of Foreign Policy where Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald has taken personal control. With Mr. Rariisay Mac Donald as Foreign Minister and Mr. Arthur Ponsonby as > his understudy the European friends of France —anil of Britain —may well feel l some anxiety about the future. But we may at' least hope that the sobering in- . fluencc of office will prevent these new arbiters of Britain's destiny from doing ' any serious harm before they become t adjusted to the burden of the weighty responsibilities that they have assumed.