STEPPING OUT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 57, 7 March 1936, Page 8 (Supplement)

STEPPING OUT.

man of the second post-war England,

ONE day historians will note that it took the first post-war England rather more than 12 years to die (says a writer in the New York "Herald-Tribune"). But that was only one of the many Englands that have come and gone these last 1100 years, carrying on the line which started with Egbert, King of Wessex and first King of all England, in 827 A.D. Foreign observers saw this first postwar England as a senile giant staggering under the weight of conquests and acquisitions which had loaded it with an empire scattered over a fourth of the planet and containing 450,000,000 souls. The little home island had been overindustrialised until it had one of the world's densest populations—soo to the square mile—and was one gigantic workshop. It depended for its life on world trade in an era of contracting world trade, and needed 50,000 tons of foodstuffs dumped at its ports daily. For years the island people had been subjected to the competitive mass bribery of rival political parties, and their fibre seemed to be softening. Socialism was growing; also pacifism. By 1030 bankruptcy and financial collapse were in sight. A Labour-Socialist Government was stalling. Capital was in flight. Only £120,000,000 in gold was left in the central bank vaults. London's credit was exhausted in New York and Paris. The jobless numbered 2,331,000 and were increasing. And the economic sky, so far from clearing, was growing ominously darker. Civilisation itself was cracking. Done By Team Work. Sue were the highlights of the 1931 picture. Yet in four years ' the whole picture, has changed. Out of the ruin of his old self a new John Bull has been born. No dictator was called in to bring the second post-war England into the world. It was all done by team work, in the democratic tradition of the old Roman republic whose history is Stanley Baldwin's favourite reading and the inspiration of most of his speeches and essays.

But it was a close call. Ramsay [ Mac Donald, unable to hold his Socielist team, which was rebellious over proposed. dole cuts, lighted a cigarette with shaking hands and motored off to see King George. He was through. He must resign. It was all over. But the occupant of England's throne had lived through 20 years of crises, ranging from the Irish Home Rule problem and threatened civil conflict to the World War and the general strike. MacDonald's nerve might crack —but King George's held. He knew what the kingdom needed: a political truce, not a revival of the fierce war of the factions. He advised the rattled statesman to go home and have a good sleep, and come again next morning. Jt was sage advice. Next day the high-strung man was back, ready to abandon his party and head a national block around which the country would rally. The King promised to stand by him and so did Stanley Baldwin. The people did the rest. They returned the National team with the astounding rccord majority of 556 in a Parliament of 615, and a queer experimental new Government containing three Socialists, four Liberals and 14 Conservatives took hold, all headed by the Fabian Socialist intellectual who. had been a pacifist-defeatist in the World War and a political outcast after it. Recovery Before Reform. Recovery first, reform afterwards: that was the basic programme. It was translated into terms of retrenchment. The Budget was cut and cut again, until by 1935-36 it was down to £734,000,000. The latter figure is the low point of the post-war era, and represents quite a reduction on the Budgets of the first post-war England. Everyone on the State pay roll, from judge to jobless worker, had his pay cut 10 per cent. Despite yells from the Left about raising the cost of the people's food, the fiscal revolution was achieved, and the visible adverse balance of trade improved by £100,000,000. And despite howls from the Right about scuttle, betrayal and surrender, the new constitution for Inda was hammered out in a measure which constitutes the biggest bill in bulk and scope a Parliament.ever handled. The pound, cut loose from gold, was skilfully held stable by a two-billion dollar exchange fund operated by the experienced technicians of the central bank; and the biggest conversion operation in history was put through: £2,000,000,000 of war loans were cut from a o to a 3j per cent basis. Government stocks rose 30 per cent; industrials quadrupled in value; a housing boom got under way on the tide of cheapened money rates, and the deadweight of debt was lightened as mortgages, debentures and other fixed charges were converted to a lower interest basis. By 1935 jobs had been found for a million more workers than were on 1931 pay rolls. Early in the rehabilitation process John Bull's representatives went to Ottawa and bound the loose Empire -eeonomic-intecqat-ties.

Britain's New Plans and Policies.

STRENGTHENING THE WHOLE EMPIRE,

In 1936 John Bull is stepping out. He Has new plans, new policies, more money; and he is Feeling good. He is indeed a new man—the

So he arms and girds Ms loins to make his enemies think thrice before either attacking him or taking uncalledfor liberties on the assumption that he dare not turn and strike. He is looking beyond to-day. His reaction to Mussolini's exploit, for example, can be properly understood only in relation to its possible bearing on the next big war set-up. He has demonstrated to the war staffs of Europe in general, and Germany in particular, that Britain still has political unity and will play no limits in the poker game of war when challenged west of her uncompleted Singapore base; More and more, in an economically interdependent world, the political philosophies of Left and Eight tend to determine both national and international political allegiances. The struggle continues under the surface in Britain, and under the pressure of it the Eight element broadens and becomes nationalist, while the Left element tends to move away from doctrinaire Socialism and seek the wider base of a New Deal in alliance with Liberals, and, perhaps, progressive nationalists. The Nationalists are shrewd in organising the basis of their power—the "haves" who can be trusted to prevent the "have-no.ts" from upsetting the applecart of nation, empire, and capitalistic order. They work hard to create small capitalists (there already are 15,000,000), put their best brains at the head of savings associations, foster building societies which enable the wageearner to own his house. And luck plays their way, in that a New Deal must have a big magnetic personality. None is yet in sight.

The team which is now laying the foundation of the second post-war England resembles Joe Louis rather than Camera. The cut in its bulk to a

2(50 majority has strengthened it. Nor is it much, worried by the future menace of a Socialist party whose vote to-day is strikingly short of its 1929 record— a Socialist party which lacks talent alid orators and has lost its old leaders through death or desertion. But it wants more than five years to work out policies designed to strengthen •the Empire and its war machine and defences, to relieve high pressures which threaten to explode in large wars and to leifd powerful aid to shove the world into the new era of development and expansion which waits round the corner of to-morrow, thanks to science, invention, monetary adjustment and the increase in the gold supply. Can Britain hold her economic recovery ? The best judges think so. They believe that if' a big war can be sidetracked the world is headed for a great new expansion era, and that in this era Britain will increase her wealth and regain her old place as world finance leader by a policy of bold lending. Stronger Defences. The policy of "splendid isolation" is definitely off. John will not bolt himself in an armed citadel—because he cannot. His empire and his interests arc too far flung; his home island is too close to the European powder magazine, and the moats of the Channel and the North Sea are not the defences thej' once were.