The Sorting Out of Parties.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16882, 9 July 1920, Page 6

The Sorting Out of Parties.

So far as the Prime Minister is concerned, the Statham incident is of no consequence. Indeed, it hardly concerns him at all, except as giving him an opportunity to show with how much consideration for his supporters he acted throughout. The country is naturally more concerned about tho consideration Mr Massey has given to the national interest in choosing his colleagues, and it is difficult to believe that anyone can say that, so far as he has gone in reconstructing his Ministry, he has not, 011 the whole, done very well indeed. AVe have not sp aco ' n a! "tiele to deal with the speed 1 in which the Prime Minister replied to the Opposition criticisms during the debate on Mr MacDonald's motion, but this iroubles us the less because that -criticism was sq

feeble that it hardly required an answer. No debate of the kind for very many years has been so little productive of useful criticism or so uninteresting. Apart from Mr Statham's reminiscences and reproaches, the only interesting feature of the debate was the division. Four members were absent—thre? Liberals and one Socialist—and if we assume that they would all have voted against the Government, we may add four to the Opposition tally ant! treat the division as having been 45 to 27. This minority includes 19 Liberals and 8 Labour members. The majority included Mr Craigie and Mr j Lysnar, two independent members, whose votes were probably counted upon by the Liberals. The Liberals r:!so appear to hav<> counrod upon Mr Stntham. and they certainly would hare

been surprised if it ha 1 been suggested that- Messrs Smith, Kellefct, .Mitchell, and Veitrli would not help them. The so fiv.' members, however, while unwilling

to register themselves as supporters of the Government, were more unwilling to appear as allies of the Liberals, and si lowed it in a very pointed way. The division m-rms that the Liberal Party may just as well take immediate steps to go into liquidation. That is all that 3ir .Mac Donald has .succeeded in

discovering. and :t is not surprising that it so demoralised him that he clutched at Mr Stathnm's reminiscences as the occasion for a farcical display of horror of the kind that one can enjoy at a boys' debating society, but that most politicians arc sufficiently sensible nowadays to escluvv. Before th<! war it was possible frankly to enjoy the old-fashioned methods of the Liberals. their endless variations of the one trick they knew, their blind buttings and belloiving.s. To-day this sort of tiling is simply tiresome. ]f over a party received notice to dissolve, it did so last night, not through the size of the majority against it so much as through the attitude of th;.- independents who walked out of the House or voted for the Government. Perhaps the Liberals will soon realise this, and we hope they will make the best of it. and learn to work a.s hard for the national interest as they have worked for a party interest that is now extinct.