The Dominion. FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1937. CONFERENCE CONTROL IN POLITICS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 159, 2 April 1937, Page 10

The Dominion. FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1937. CONFERENCE CONTROL IN POLITICS

If the Government can be as incontestably master of its own household as the Acting-Prime Minister contemplated in ns a; dditss to the Labour Party Conference on Wednesday night, it m 11 have reason to congratulate itself, ft can hardly expect however, I ha the acquiescence in Parliamentary leadership, apparently given • ‘ - now, will be perpetual. The political party is not supreme in the Labour Movement. Final authority lies with the partv conference, and it is inconceivable that a Labour Government, which was thou h to be out of step with the spirit of the party conference, could restore its prestige and secure support for its policy merely by saying, “We arc the Government; you must support us. , Conference’s sympathetic acceptance of Mr. 1< raser s cleai and courageous statement of the Governments intended independence cannot be read as binding future conferences. It would be a very strange political party which, at the end of the first year ot its first term of office, did not command enthusiastic support from its followers in the country. A new party has no enemies. It makes enemies quickly enough when it begins “implementing its policy, and it is no secret that already the Labour Party in office has found troublesome and persistent critics within its own ranks. For tlie time being, the Government can afford not to worry about these; but as time goes on their size and influence in the movement will grow, and although probably a situation will never be. al owed to develop in which the conference would repudiate the political party, that may be averted only by the political party giving way to pressure from the conference. . , - , ■, . Individual leaders in the Labour political movement might not give way Mr. Fraser, for instance, is a man unlikely to trim his principles to suit the wind of the moment. He might prefer, if ever such a conflict arose, and some of his colleagues in the pi esent Cabinet might prefer equally, to defy the conference; but that, although it might be greatly to their credit personally, would be their end politically. Labour members of Parliament must support the party platform, which is framed —-and may be changed—by conference. In the event of change, members already in Parliament must support the changes equally with the platform to which they subscribed on election. Whatever may be said of ordinary resolutions of conference, changes in party policy emanating from conference would be binding on its members in Parliament.