The Press Friday, JUNE 26, 1931. The Governor-General's Speech.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20273, 26 June 1931, Page 10

The Press Friday, JUNE 26, 1931. The Governor-General's Speech.

No one can have expected to find much more in the Governor-General's Speech than is actually there. Although, normally, there is no good reason for the barrenness of these addresses, nothing or next to nothing is the tradition, and there are some reasons on this occasion why the tradition should be maintained. So far as the public are concerned, the Houso lias met to balance the Budget and to deal with the problem of unemployment, and at this stage the Government docs not know how to do one or the other. If however it succeeds in those tasks it will not matter very much whether the Session lasts four months or two, and whether the legislative programme that the Speech outlines is completed or abandoned. There are certainly some problems in addition to these, and almost if not quite independent of them, that call for attention; but they arc not front-rank problems, and no one will be very grievously affected if they are never reached. On the other hand one important development has been announced since the Speech was prepared—the suspension for a year of all our war debt payments—and although the Prime Minister himself is still not quite clear about the position, his financial programme may be affected. We of course are not told what that programme is, though we are warned that " drastic measures, involving considerable sacrifice on the " part of the whole community," are necessary. So long as the sacrifice is made by the whole community it will be accepted; but what Governments usually mean by the whole community is the whole community that they have been accustomed to tax, and it will be difficult to believe in that solemn warning until the necessary measures have actually been circulated. It is the same with unemployment relief. /We are told that "increased funds "must be placed at the disposal of "the Board," but not where or how they are to be obtained; and although it is generally expected that the levy will be increased we have yet to see whether the increase will be general. The-important consideration in both cases is that the sense of sacrifice should be as nearly universal as the facts of life will permit. If it were the case with most contributors, or even with many of them, that the unemployment levy involved genuine hardship, there would be an argument for graduation, but not for exemptions. Nothing is so important in times like these as taking some money directly out of everybody's pocket. Equality of sacrifice is an ideal which can only be aimed at ; universality of sacrifice is a definitely realisable policy which no Government should ever suspend. Fortunately tve < shall not have to wait long for an indication of the' Government's unemployment policy.