MR. BALFOUR'S RESIGNATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 137, 7 December 1905, Page 4

MR. BALFOUR'S RESIGNATION.

The storm in our own teapot has naturally diverted the colony's attention from the far graver political events which have been taking place in London and Windsor during the last few days, and even now that our general election is over the average colonist is not yet in a position to see things in their true proportion. A month ago he would have rejoiced to hear that the Government which colonised the Transvaal with, Chinamen had reached its final day, but he has been lately too busy cheering or groaning the Seddon Government, and he is to-day too busy taking stock of the returns, to pay more attention to thedownfall of Mr. Balfour. The Unionist Government had king been accepted as an equally inevitable permanence with thaX of Mr. Seddon, and colonists had, until quite recently, acquiesced in it even more gladly. Of the nineteen and a half years since Gladstone broke up his party and went out of office on Home Rule, the Unionists have been in power for sixteen years and a half, the last ten of which, divided into two almost exactly "equal portions by the "Khaki" election, have been consecutive. It was undoubtedly a clever , stroke of Mr. Chamberlain to time that election as he did. The Parliament had still two years to run when the dissolution took place, and the Government was in nowise discredited. On tli* contrary, it was at the very height of its popularity, for all 'the disastrous blunders of the early months of the war had been retrieved, and Lord Roberta's victories, which had just culminated in the annexation of the Transvaal, were considered to guarantee the speedy termination of the war. With the cry that every vote cast for the Opposition was a vote cast for the Boexs, the Government swept the country, and the free colonies would have been glad to see them in power still but for the discovery that the votes supposed to be for the Britishers against the Boers were really cast for Chinamen and foreign syndicates against both. While this shameful betrayal has utterly alienated the sympathies of colonists, who for a generation had been accustomed to regard the Conservatives of the Old Country as their friends and protectors, and had had their enthusiasm raised to boiling joint by their partnership in a war which they believed to be just, the main cause of the change of public opinion in the United Kingdom >has been Mr. Chamberlain's change of front on another question. It was on 15th May, 1903, that he first announced his belief that a system of preferential tariffs was essential to promote the permanent unity of the Empire, and on the 18th September of the same year he gave proof of his earnestness in the same matter by, resigning his portfolio in order to gain freedom for the prosecution of his crusade. Dissatisfied with the ambiguity of the Premier's utterances on the subject a fortnight later, the Duke of Devonshire resigned in order to be free to fight untrammelled for free trade, and after the loss of its two strong men the collapse of the Ministry seemed merely a. matter of days ; but Mr. Balfour has'shuffled along from defeat to defeat at the byelections, from evasion to evasion in the House of Commons, from indignity to, indignity in the eyes of the whole Empire, in the hope that something' would turn up. Something turned up last month in the shape of a definite declaration from Mr. Chamborlain that he will not be content to limit the issue- at the general election to retaliation, and Mr. Balfour lids resigned. It was clearlybetter tactics to resign than to dissolve, for the former course puts the Liberals to the difficult task of Cabi-net-making and propounding a policy before going to the country. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman has been sent for, and for once we are able to concur with The Times, which expresses the hope that' "by sincere compromise he will rally all that is best in his party, without whose co-operation the stability of the Cabinet must be exceedingly doubtful." The same authority adds that "his success at the polls depends upon his ability to appeal to the great body of comparatively neutral opinion." In the colonies the names of several of the men mentioned for important positions in the new Ministry —Sir Edward Grey and Mr. Asquith, for instance — will inspire far more confidence than that of their leader, but exigencies of space compel us to reserve further comment for a subsequent issue-.