The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1929. MR. SNOWDEN'S BLUNDER.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 91, 18 April 1929, Page 6

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

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1929. MR. SNOWDEN'S BLUNDER.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the vyrong that needs resistant For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Though Mr. Churchill's Budget speech Mas generally voted dull and uninteresting, the debate 011 the financial statement produced a political sensation of the first magnitude. Mr. Philip Snowden, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in Mr. Mac Donald's Ministry, made a vigorous attack 011 Mr. Churchill and all his works, insisting that the concessions offered iai the Budget amounted to "barefaced bribery," and predicting that Mr. Churchill's disappearance from public life would be welcomed by ''men of all parties who have regard for sound, just taxation and honest finance." This bitter and vehement language is quite in keeping with Mr. Snowden's ordinary controversial methods, and it may bo excused by the exigencies of party warfare. But Mr. Snowden then carried his attack upon the Conservative Government into the arena of international affairs, and in dealing with the financial aspects of foreign policy he made certain statements that he will lind great difficulty in either justifying or explaining away.

It should be remembered that the agreements entered into between Britain and her Continental debtors in regard to obligations incurred during the war are based upon the Balfour Note, which laid down the principle that Britain would not take more from her allies and from Germany than the total amount of the British debt to the United States. A few months ago .Mr. Snowden referred publicly to the "monstrous pledge" given by Lord Balfour in this matter, and in the debate on the Budget he returned to the attack, describing as "scandalous" and "infamous" the arrangement by which Britain has allowed France and Italy to reduce very substantially the amount of the debts that they owe her. All these things are, of course, open to discussion, and Mr. Snowden is welcome to his own opinions about them. But he then alarmed and astounded the House by reminding his hearers that the Labour Party had not endorsed the Balfour Note, and by assuring them that if returned to power Labour would hold itself free to repudiate the agreements.

There could be no doubt about the meaning or the significance of Mr. Snowden's word.-. For when Mr. Churchill interrupted to warn him of the danger of using the term "repudiation," Mr. Snowden declared that he does not regard any government as necessarily bound by the pledges of its predecessors. Now, Mr. Snowden's frank confession is likely to have a serious reaction upon the political fortunes of his party. Quite apart from the resentment and indignation that must be naturally aroused abroad by the mere suggestion that Britain under any circumstances would refuse to honour her pledged word, Mr. Snowden should realise that Labour candidates will be heavily handicapped if they are met at every turn by cries of "repudiation" from the electors. Considering the outcry raised in Britain against the Americans for insisting that the Allies must pay every dollar that they owe, we do not understand why Mr. Snowden should denounce the British Government for making generous concessions to France and Italy. But . his talk of "repudiation" is entirely another matter, and we have no doubt that Labour will have good cause to regret this most unfortunate indiscretion before the election campaign is over.