TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 71, 25 March 1914, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

The "strike" of officers to which we referred yesterday Home Rule continues to be the and the main immediate Officers' Strike. phase of the Home Rule struggle. It is a sinister development, and, as the Daily Chronicle remarks, the evil will giow with tolerance. Unionist papers, fe till blind to what will happen when the present position of parties is reversed, acclaim the chief striker, BrigadierGeneral Gough. as "tho man of tho hour." The parallel that has already been drawn between civil war arising out of Ulster anarchy, and that which may hereafter arise out of a general strike, now finds a place }n the speech of Mr. Asquith, who asks whether the officers now refusing duty would again disobey orders because they believed the strikers' cause 0. just one. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald drives the same point further home. Trade unionists' interpretation of the situation is, he says, that " Army officers are prepared to" shoot strikers because they do not sympathise with them, but will not do their duty in Ulster because of class bias and political •prejudices." Probably one of the main effects of the officers' strike will be its ultimate reaction upon the Army itself, which has been associated with a class far too long, and which is ripe ior radical reform. In fact, the officers, like' their Unionist instigators. are throwing boomerangs which for years to come will be recoiling upon their own heads. On •the main issue there seems to be an increasing body of Liberal opinion in favour of excluding Ulster for a term of years, during which a system of federal Home Rule and House of Lords Reform may be worked out. On the other hand, some Dominion newspapers advocate a referendum. The first proposal amounts to postponement, the second to a definite verdict by the people themselves. Mr. Asquith *s recent dallying with the referendum leaves the Liberal attitude towards that method in ft vague and unsatisfactory condition. In fact, the chief.- feature of the Prime Minister's position is its indefinitene'ss. which may be dictated by bargaining motives, but ls - nOne .the less disquieting, as much to his friends as his opponents. So' far the net profit from the Citizens' Carnival is less than Results half of last year's of the Carnival, .surplus, but the difference can be explained. The lack of a public holiday in the gala week, the sudden arrival of the Day's Bay purchase scheme, and other factors had a reducing effect on the receipts (£1764 5s 7id on the provisional balance-sheet). The expenditure, £968 16s 6d, seems comparatively high, nearly 55 per cent., but it is claimed by those who have been closely associated with the working that the outlay was necessary to ensure the attendance of the public. If the zeal and energy of the promoters have stimulated the civic sense among old and young, that result will be the best of all. The Post has always argued that if a decent feeling of pride of place, a desii'e for the city beautiful, can be worked into the public, the anxiety ab'oub necessary money will vanish. Until tha.t spirit is strongly established, the people have to be cajoled and persuaded to make a stir for the benefit of themselves and their children. That is a task of which the stoutest heart can become weary, when the muss of the public appears to be hopelessly sluggish, but happily the case hero is not so sadly desperate, though it is not extremely exhilarating. Perhaps one disadvantage to the carnival management was the absence of a definite understanding as to the use of the profits. It was generally understood that the surplus would go to continue the work ¦at Central Park, but there was no official assurance. We believe that the interest of citizens in these fetes would be deepened and widened if there was less vagueness about the use of the surplus. 'Also, as a safeguard against "local feeling"'— the possible jeaJousy of suburbs— part of the money obtained each year should go into a general fund for beautifying, as distinct from large special Avork such as the Central Park project. Thus every part of Greater Wellington would have a chance to gain some brightness with a share of tho profits. The suggestion that temporary exclusion of Ulster from Irish > House of Lords Home Rule should be Reform. utilised .for working out the reform of the House of Lords raises again the whole issue created the Parliament Act. That measure "limited the veto of the House of Lords, and at the same time, in its preamble, promised for that Chamber a scheme of reform that has not yet materialised. Thus the restricted vqto of the unreformed Lords represents admittedly a temporary expedient. Unionists have argued, firstly, that a constitutional departure like Irish Home Rule should not be carried until the Upper Chamber is given its .permanent form and powers j secondly, that if tho Government is determined to take advantage of the Parliament Act to pass Home Rule, such a Btep should not be taken without a_ special mandate from the people, obtained either 7 by general election or by referendum. Both these arguments have been resisted by the Liberals, and on good constitutional grounds. Though a reformed House of Lords ha 8 been promised, there was no undertaking that the Government's legislative programme was to be shelved in the meanwhile. Liberals affirm that the Unionists. beat*en in the Commons, and now beaten in the Lords, are taking their last stand on class prejudice in the army. If, however, the Home Rule deadlock is terminated by a compromise based on the temporary exclusion of Ulster, the reform of the House of Lords must in the meanwhile be faced. Once Home Rule, Welsli. Disestablishment, and Plural Voting are'out of the way-—tem-porarify at any rate "-land policy and House of Lords' reform must claim the consideration of any Government, whether Liberal or Unionist.

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