MR. ASQUITH'S DILEMMA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 93, 13 January 1908, Page 6

MR. ASQUITH'S DILEMMA.

The "Manchester Guardian " ; ;ia one- of tlib , soundest Liberal newspapers in Great Britain) and fit" the same time One of the most reliable members of tlie British Press. It is unlikely to be stating more, than a plain fact when, as a cable message 'reports toit speaks of " difficulties" in' the British Cabinet over the financial problem involved in the proposed establishment of a system of old. age pensions. Lord IVeedmouth and Mr. Haldane, it js said, axe unwilling to make the sacrifice of Navy and Army expenditure that will be required for the pensions scheme.. The report tallies so. exactly with what one should expect that it is easy to believe that Mr.' Asquith is, indeed, experiencing trouble witli his colleagues in arranging his Budget. The difficulty is one that we alluded to,the other day wlien we poiiited out that the enormous sum that would be swallowed up in pensions would make it impossible to increase, or even to maintain, the present expenditure upon the Navy. The Government has not disclosed witli any exactitude the intentions which it has in mind, beyond declaring that it desires to make a comparatively moderate beginning, involving not more than six or seven millions per aiinum. It has been shown, however, that a pension scheme under which ss. per week will be paid to everyone over GO years of age will cost anything up to A' 30,000,000. This is the .minimum demand of Labour as made at the Bath Congress in September of last year. When it is remembered that the current agitation for an annual naval expenditure- bf i' 40,000,000 is regarded as an agitation for almost unthinkable extremes,- the / serious disturbanco which would be caused in the Treasury by even a more moderate scheme of pensions than that required by the Bath Congress can easily be imagined. The Freetrade Unionists, opposed on principle to any non-contributory' system of the endowment of old age by. the State, are sharpened in their opposition by their conviction that if a pensions scheme is to be superimposed upon, arid not created, at the expense of, the present financial commitments of the State, the money required must 1)6 raised by the abandonment of Freetrade. That the additional thirty millions can be raised by direct taxation is believed by nobody. The Bath Congress contented itself with making the demand. The business of providing the money was the Chancellor of the Exchequer's. It did not matter how ho was to do it, but do it somehow lie must. Like our own advocates of " the right to work," the Socialist agitators who arc driving the British Government are sublimely indifferent to " ways and means." Lord Cromer recently told an excellent story in illustration of this point. The story was of a conjurer who exhibited in London a few years ago. Ho invited ono of tlio audience to lend him his hat. Ho then, '.o all appearances, cut it into small piccer., and oventuaUy, of Course, gave it back to tho owner uninjured. Ho then invited anyone amongst the suidionco to do the same. A young officer of tho Army, stopped on to ;ho platform and said ho would like to try. Ho borrowed a hat from a confiding old gontlamnu, and cut it into small pieces. Then ho stepped down from the stago, with the remark, ''I can only do the cuttiug-up part; I leave the rest to tho professional conjurer, who, I do not doubt, will be able to restore the hat to its original condition." Labour can " cut up ": it is for tlie conjurer to do the rest. The Government is committed to some kind of pension scheme. The nation is committed to the maintenance,unimpaired, of her military and naval efficiency. The conflict must lie between the two —between " pensions " and " power." Mr. Asquith is not to be envied in his task of arranging to have both.