The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1924. MANNERS AND MORALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 249, 20 October 1924, Page 4

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

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1924. MANNERS AND MORALS.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that ice can do.

— i At this particular juncture in the j political conflict at Home public attention seems to be directed most particularly to the storm of vituperation and abuse that the near prospect of an j election has aroused. As, a matter of ; fact there seems te he no doubt that i with a few honourable exceptions the great majority of the politicians now in the field have been so far carried away by their prejudices and convictions as to lose sight of the restrictions generally imposed by good feeling and courtesy in personal disputes. On the other . hand, we are hardly inclined to agree with the "Observer" that in this respect this present election is very nearly the worst on record. It is difficult to conceive candidates on either side, to use a colloquialism, "letting themselves go" more completely than in the great political fights of 1002-5, the years of the Tariff Heform campaign and the "Chinese Slavery" crusade. And in any case nobody with any long experience of public affairs could deny that a great many electoral contests everywhere are characterised at times by great lack of personal dignity and self-control on the part of the lending performers. The "Observer," in the article to which we have referred, cxeeptd the Liberal arid Conservative leaders and Mr. Lloyd George from its indictment, and defends Mr. Mac Donald's lapses by reminding its readers that "he has said nothing half as bad as the other parties have said of him." This last is no doubt true, but even after making every reasonable allowance for the difficulties of the situa- ; tion it is unfortunate that this sympathetic apologist feels compelled to adjure Mr. Mac Donald to "remember that he is still Prime Minister." As we have already had occasion to point out, Mr. Mac Donald has lost his 1 temper too oarly and too easily in the fight, and there seem to be certain definite reasons for his manifest irritation and lack'of self-restraint. In the first place, he is conscious that he has achieved a very substantial degree of success as Foreign Minister, and he apparently thinks that his services have not yet received sufficient recognition. It is, of course, unquestionable that Mr. Mac Donald was unexpectedly favoured by the turn of political fortune in France which drove Poincare from power and installed Herriot in his place. But even after allowing {or this, all fairminded peopie should be prepared to endorse the "Observer's" praise of Mr. Mac Donald's diplomacy in regard to Anglo-French relations, the .Sudan, Iraq and India. But, as Mr. Baldwin hae quite politely reminded the Prime Minister, these excursions into the wide field of foreign affairs have apparently left the Labour Government very little time or energy for its domestic duties; and Mr. Mac Donald and his colleagues can hardly be surprised, and should not be annoyed if their critics are less conkerned to express admiration for their success abroad than to emphasiso their seeming inability or unwillingness to devote sufficient attention to "the "problems at their own doors." But it is not only lack of generosity or appreciation that Mr. Mac Donald resents. He complains bitterly of the attempts made by his opponents to involve him and his party and his policy in one sweeping condemnation as being all "red" together. No doubt here again the Leader of the Labour party can find in his numerous writings and speeches sound evidence to refute such charges. But apparently Mr. MacDouald does not realise the extent to which his own

personal and political reputation is involved by the unrestrained and reckless assertions of many of l,ia followers. We do not suppose that Sir Patrick Hasting?, i" spite of his remarkable handling of the Campbell ease, i> really Communist and Bolshevik at heart. Yet in the heat and passion of the political conflict he has committed himself to an expression of feeling which will be carefully utilised by his opponents a.- a political wonpon In tho serious detriment of Labour. The Attorney -Oneral lias declared that Hie outcnuic of a ConBfrvntivo victory might be an acute development of (he Class War. culminating in a sanguinary revolution. It is true that Mr. MacDotiald has himself frequently protested against the extremist or Communist conception of the '(.'lass War, and has pledged himself on j Labour's behalf to purely constitutional J methods. But how can his disclaimers carry any weight against the fiery outbursts of his friends and followers? hi this connection we may observe that Mr. Mac-Donald may yet have good c-iiuse to regret his part in the AngloSoviet negotiations, for Zinovicff has just proclaimed to the world the hopes of Bolshevism that Mr. Mac Donald may come, back to power on the ground that he will be at the mercy of the Communist "left-wingers," who, according to the Kiusian Commissary, forced him not only to sign the Russian treaty, but to protect Campbell from the charge of .-edition.