The Press Friday, November 20, 1925. "Electoral Reform" and Realities.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18544, 20 November 1925, Page 8

The Press Friday, November 20, 1925. "Electoral Reform " and Realities.

In various newspapers the supporters of " electoral reform " are suggesting in a tentative and uncertain way that the recent election demonstrates the necessity for some new system of voting. The Reform Party, they urge, did not obtain a majority of the votes cast, but succeeded, nevertheless, in winning 52 (or, if Mr Lyons's election is sustained, 53) of the 70 European seats, op more than twice as many as the other two Parties hold between them. The Liberal Party might perhaps be able to claim that it had a. grievance if it were able to show that it represents a body of opinion equipped with a clear 3fld distinctive policy. But it cannot do this, because on every subject of first-rate importance, and on practically every othet subject the Liberal voters have the same opinion as the Reform voters. The main issue at the election, moreover, as everyone admits, was one upon which Reform and Liberal voters (those Liberal voters, that is to say, who arc something better than antiKefofmers out of prejudice") were on the same side. To say, therefore, that the result of the election was to give a huge majority to a Party which secured barely half the votes polled is to give a quite wrong account of it. The correct description of the result is this: that the anti-Socialist forces secured 64 oT 65 of fch6 76 scats, and (to use the Labour Party's figures) obtained 73 per cent, of the votes polled. The advoeale of electoral reform might (although lie is so little able to look plainly at plain facts that he! probably wooW not) admit this; bat he would be prompt to say that Labour, entitled to 20 seats, secured only 11 or 12. This, he would say, is " under-represcritation," but we cannot understand Bow Labour's interests cannot be expounded in Parliament as effectively by a- dozen members as by a score. It will be the fault of the dozen if they are not. An enorntoas dtial of nonsense is talked about " under-representation" and " over-representation." One would sttppode, to hear spne of the shallow stun* talked by" the advocates of "electoral reform," that Labour will be '* oppressed " 1M& times as hard if it has 11 members as it would be if it had 20 members. Or that Mr Coates, with a working majority of 20, will be 2.6 times as " reactionary " (of whatever it is) as if he had a |*M«jor% of 10. If they would take [thought long enough, to perceive that these !»nd similar absurdities are implied in ibrir theory of ,<ssaet representation, the friends of electoral reform would be doing themselves a service. From this they may go on to rid themselves of the foolish notion, which is implied in their complaints, that Mr Coates has been presented with a majority with which to run amok for three years. He has no intention of doing anything so silly. To him, as to every sensible Prime. Minister, the details of the polling are as important as the composition of the House of Representatives. He knows the size of the section which the Labour members represent, and the general shape and composition of public opinion, and with him, as with any rational and far-seeing Prime Minister, the 'existence of a substantial minority will be an everpresent thought. No Government nowadays which wishes -to live ever dreams of itself as the implement of a " brutal majority." The majority must rnle ? but it rujes in this country as a majority tempered by the influence of the minority; and as a matter of plain fact the Liberals and Socialists know perfectly well that any legitimate interests of theirs are as safe as if the Government's majority were a third, of what it is. This is what Mr Coates has said, concerning the situation as it appears to him:.

"New Zealand was o the home of a prosperous 1 community, and every means should be furnished for that community to make oqual progress. Every man and woman must have equal opportunity in all cases. Tho under-dog should be given the fullest opportunity to mako good. .There were people iu the congested areas of our cities who did not have a proper chance, and it was the country's duty to see that these people had full opportunity to climb out.of the depths of misfortune into the sunshine of prosperity. Finally, New Zealanders must maintain high ideals of

racial purity and constitutional government ''

This was said, not prior to the elections, .when he was asking tor popular support, but on Wednesday last, when the only doubtful matter was whether his majority over all other Parties would be 30 or 32. This is not in the least what, according to the theory of the "electoral reformers," the Prime Minister ought to be saying, and if they are surprised it is because their theory takes no account of the realities of politics.

The Crisis in Syria

The fact that the situation of France in Syria is now really alarming gives the Druse rebellion »an international significance. If the struggle were with the Druses only—a remote tribe perhaps fifty thousand strong dwelling hundreds of miles away in the interior—it would" interest Britain about as much as a frontier rising in India interests France; and to the distant British Dominions it would mean nothing at all. But it is clear enough that what is involved now is the ability of the. French to hold any portion of Syria away from the coast. The Druses have obviously been joined /by other tribes from the Lebanon and Syria proper, and to-day threaten Beirut as well as Damascus —a very alarming situation indeed. If the French cannot hold Beirut all work in Syria since, the Great War falls to pieces. For Beirut is of course under command of their cuus from the sea, is

the headquarters of their High Commissioner, and the port on which the Northern and Southern railway systems both converge. It is, moreover, a city about twice as big as Cbristchurcfa, and besides being the technical headquarters of the civil and military administration for the whole Mandate, lias usually had an army of from 10,000 to 20,000 based on ifc and supplied through it The fact that the French announce the landing of 7000 " first-class troops" means that most of the troops already there have been coloured forces from the African colonies, and it is not quite certain that some of these have not mutinied. It has at any rate been denied that they have mutinied, and when we remember that it is not so very long since the Druse rebellion was " completely " suppressed," we can hardly avoid being a little suspicious about the loyalty of the coloured army of occupation. It is indeed difficult to know how much reliance can be placed on any of the French dispatches, and it is obviously .a case where contradictions and uncertainty indicate deliberate misrepresentation. For there is no reason why we should not know what is happening between Damascus and Beirut except that the French do not want us to know. France has been spending 200 million francs a year in (Syria, and in that part of the territory to which the storm has now moved there has never been any difficulty about communication. The Mandate as a whole extends from the Turkish boundary on the North to Palestine on the South, and from the Mediterranean on the West to Mesopotamia on the East—an area of quite 70,000 square miles. But the really habitable and principally inhabited section is a narrow strip on the Mediterranean about 100 miles broad by 300 long, and this is not at all a savage or primitive region. We forget, of course, that what is called Syria is not one State but three or four, each with its separate administration politically and economically. Though the French High Commissioner is the real ruler of the whole territory, each of the three principal States has its own stamps, its own Customs duties, and at least an approximation to an independent legislative body. The difference between the French in Syria and the British in Palestine is that while the British rule openly and directly, the French liavc nominally handed over the 'Government to the Syrians. Ifc seems in fact to be one of the chief general causes of the present i rouble that the natives have awakened to the difference between real and* nominal independence. So long as the Syrians thought that they were ruling themselves, or at least rulim? themselves in part, things went fairly smoothlyj but the chief, aim of General Sarrail seems to bave been to shatter illusions. Politically he has made it clear, not only that the natives do not rule, but that they are not going to be permitted to rule, and he has made it equally clear that tribes must not expect, a privileged position merely because they are Christians. If support of the , Christians means the enmity of the Moslems, it may be good policy not to support the weaker battalions. But General Sarrail seems to have abandoned one faction without doing anything to gain the adhesion of the other. It is significant that he still speaks as though be had suppressed the Damascus, rebellion, while the cables from Damascus itself suggest that his achievement has been to convert a tribal revolt into a national uprising—and perhaps into an Eastern revolution.

A- Hundred or Forty-Five ?

It was not made quite clear in the brief cable message which we published yesterday whether Sir Arthur Keith dislikes old age or merely dislikes spectacles. But it is plain enough that he thinks Nature forgets herself when she permits anyone to reach a hundred. A civilisation in which " all lived to " be centenarians " would of course be a worse temptation to demagogues than the open bar, but that is hardly a reason why Sir Arthur should be anxious to shuffle us off at forty-five. If the human army must be r,un on the short service system we shall be afraid soon to go to bed. For bed runs away with one-third of our time now, and with meals and games consumes two-thirds, and no man will dare to. sleep eight hours a night, or eat or drink in a leisurely fashion or go to the raecs, if all the time he will have left for biuaness and politics will be one-third of forty-five years. We did not mind it so much when wc were "too old at forty" because we knew that any interfererice with us by the State meant a long period on pension Even when we died at forty, as we did when wc ware Neanderthali&ns, 'we had the consolation that our short life was a merry one. But Sir Arthur Keith's prescription is a short life and a bad-tempered one. We are going to be dragged out of after about four hours of sleep whether we are Napoleons or Edisons or Lumpkins. The experiment has in faet begun. Eight students and one professor went sleepless recently iu Washington for sixty hours in order to discover whether condensed sleep is not as practicable as condensed milk or tabloid dinners. Two indeed were so delighted with their experiment that they extended it to eighty hours, am? it was not proved in the case of any of them that their blood paled or their minds lost their readiness and resilience. They could even retain car registration" numbers Hashed before their eyes for two seconds, which proves of courso that if Socialism and Sir Truby King do not head these innovators off we shall be rushed to work soon at 4 a.m. and to the block a few years later.

The continuous stream of motor traffic, on England's main roads greatly struck Archdeacon J. Julius, of 31ma.ru, who returned to New Zealand by the lonic. "I was coming in from a place twenty miles outside London," he said, "on a Saturday afternoon, and there was a continuous stream of cars travelling at tho same pace all the way, with only a few yards between them.