WORLD AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 118, 21 May 1931, Page 6

WORLD AFFAIRS.

A WEEKLY REVIEW.

(By BYSTANDER.) The Liberals held a conference at Buxton last week, and Mr. Lloyd ueorge explained to his followers that the policy of the party was in future to be "one of co-operation with the Government without sacrificing its independence." This is a view of the position which Mr. Lloyd George has frequently elaborated before. In an address delivered in London a few weeks ago he maintained that there is nothing really 'abnormal, politically speaking, about such an arrangement; but he has always insisted that the parties concerned can and should preserve their own political identity. "You cannot have co-operation unless you are independent. The mere fact that you propose co-operation means that you are independent." It is only because the Liberals have maintained themselves as an independent party that they can afford to say to Labour, "If you carry through certain measures we will co-operate with you." In doing this, Mr. Lloyd George thinks, the Liberals "are asking no surrender of principle from Labour, are proffering no surrender of their own." All this may help us to understand how and why the Liberals have decided to assist the Labour Government to hold the fort against this onslaught of the Conservatives. There is evidently a strong prejudice in the Liberal ranks against even a temporary subordination to Labour. But the occasion for this working alliance is "the adoption of the general tariff as a policy by the Conservatives," which, according to Mr. Lloyd George, "has changed the whole political situation." The Liberals have decided to combine with Labour "in defence of Free Trade," and presumably the strong reaction of British public opinion against Cobdenism has induced many of the Liberals to adopt a course which they feel to be alien from their own best traditions. But, of course, Mr. Lloyd George must realise that the responsibilities which he and his followers have assumed in regard to Labour cannot be confined to the single question of fiscal policy, and the recent division in the House over Russian trade, when Mr. Mac Donald was once more "saved by the Liberals," is a case in point. A Discredited State. One of the most significant of the many ominous cable messages that have readied Australia of late was the news, reported from London last week, that the new Agent-General for New South Wales, Mr. A. C. Willis, had I arrived, but that he did not receive any official welcome either, from Australia House or from ! any other Agency-General, or from any represeni tativc of the British Government. Considering 1 the circumstances—that is to say, making due • allowance for the impression that Mr. Lang's policy of Repudiation and Inflation and ( Confiscation has produced at Home—one > can hardly be surprised that the British r public did not welcome Mr. Willis with open arms. But Mr. Willis was, as usual, obdurate and unregenerate. He stated in an interview that he had not come to London "to L apologise for New South Wales or Australia," ! and he even had the assurance to suggest that . Australia "is entitled to a reconsideration" of her indebtedness to Britain. This may be true, but , the last man in the world who should make such ; an appeal is the man who has publicly repudiated . his debts and made a merit of his dishonesty. ' But Mr. Willis has at least the courage of his ; convictions, and he went on to tell the British public Mr. Lang's reason for paying his American rather than his British creditors. "New South Wales had only enough money to pay the New ' York creditors," and in a family matter like the : settlement of an inter-Imperial debt, it seems ; natural to Mr. Lang and Mr. to consider the feelings and the pocket of the stranger rather ; than the relative. For sheer impudence this seems , to me to represent something near high-water i mark in political sophistry.

Riding the Whirlwind. While Mr. Willis is endeavouring to "bluff" the City and the Money Market into treating him as the representative of a decent and self-respecting Government, Mr. Lang goes on his self-appointed way, reducing to chaos the political and economic condition of New South Wales. Just now the Law Reform Bill is the storm-centre of controversy in Sydney. Anybody who "spreads or publishes unfounded statements about the Government's policy, powers or administration" may be liable, "in terms of this Bill, to a fine of £200 and a penalty of two years' imprisonment." There is a great deal more in the Bill, but that is quite enough. No Czar or Kaiser could ever have devised a more effective way of stifling criticism and suppressing free speech than this outrageous expedient. In fact, the positively infamous character of this proposal has alarmed even loyal Labourites, who have been pointing out to Mr. Lang that such a law might react unpleasantly against him "in the event of a party opposed to Labour obtaining office when freedom of speech has become a thing of the past." In the meantime, Mr. Lang's reckless precipitancy has evidently 'got on the nerves of a large section of his followers, and they are beginning to wonder what may happen next. The Labour members of the State Legislative Council have been requested to sign a pledge of allegiance and loyalty to the Lang policies, but they have refused to commit themselves irrevocably. The defection of Mr. Lyons from the Federal Labour Party has had its repercussion in New South Wales where even some of the extremists are beginning to falter. It may be no long time before Mr. Lan~ discovers that it is not easy for a man who has stirred up a political tempest to "ride the whirlwind and direct the storm."

Bolshevik Butter. "This is not trade; it is economic war." Mr. Baldwin used these words last week in describing , to a great audience at the Albert Hall the ! Russian method of "dumping" produce in accordance with the Five Years Plan. Against , this attempt to "sap the foundations of i civilisation by economic warfare," the Leader of • the Conservatives maintained that the only \ effective means of defence available to Britain I are tariffs and the promotion of inter-Imperial \ trade. Evidently the recent influx of Russian J timber, Russian Avheat, Russian butter, Russian i soap, Russian fruit pulp, all sold at "knock-out" ; prices in the British markets, has seriously . alarmed a great many people at Home. But the ■ Bolshevik organisers of this great campaign insist on maintaining an air of injured innocence which ; would be amusing if it were not annoying. The J Soviet delegate to the Wheat Conference has , remarked that he cannot think "how anyone could . imagine that Russia's butter exports were harmful • to the Dominions." In fact, he had the effrontery , to suggest that he was "hopeful of securing the 1 Dominions' co-operation in a general butter-selling ! campaign" to break down the English taste for ' margarine! But the important fact remains that the Five Years Plan is a grave danger to the ' world's economic stability, and the best chance of its defeat appears to lie in the misery of the I Russian people, who, between forced labour and i famine produced by the excessive exportation of 1 the necessaries of life, may yet be driven to rise " up against their new masters, who have proved themselves sc much more relentless and tyrannical than the autocrats of the Czardoni at its worst.