TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 79, 3 April 1914, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

A new leader temporarily controls the House of Commons, and A Lower new chiefs have coolie Temperature, to the War Office, yet the Home Rule temperature is distinctly lower and the tone calmer. A favourable interpretation is I given by the Stock Exchange, and as the money-changers do not muddle their business nearly as badly as the politicians do, that fact is important. It there is to be no coercion without an election— and Sir Edward Grey, now leading the Commons, has enunciated this principle — • the conclusion forces itself that Sir Edward Carson's very dramatic departure from the House of Commons to Ulster, and the sudden ebullition of conscience (or" loyalty to the Empire," or whatever it, is) on the part of the Army officers, was premature. Everything went off at half-cock. Perhaps, however, this false alarm will do some good by letting off steam. Instead of a conference of Government and Opposition— to find a compromise' within the framework of the Home Rule Bill— a Select Committee of the House is now proposed. When Earl Grey advocated home rule on the federal basis, we pointed out that it could not be adopted within the four walls of the present measure, and that the drafting of a federal scheme would consume time. Sir Edward Grey's proposal to meet the difficulty is to pass the Home Rule Bill with a six-years' exclusion of Ulster, thus gaining time in which to draft a. federal measure for the whole United Kingdom. Obnoxious thougTj it is to many _ people in all parties, temporary exclusion still appears to be the expedient most likely^ to provide a modus vivendi and to avoid the greater evil. The Magna Charta and the Act of Habeas Corpus, bulwarks of A Moral British liberties, Appeal : Liberty should, in tho view —and License. of the House of Commons, be applied throughout the Empire. It is an expression of opinion, nothing more; and therefore has the greater weight. It is in accord with the best Empire'binding principles of moral appeal. Mr. Lewis Harcourt's insistence on the impossibility of dictating laws to self-governing Dominions is the .attitude to bo expected from any prudent Secretary for the Colonies. When (if ever) a dictatorial person enters that office, there will be trouble. If the South African deportation^ were a. general average sample of Dominion self - government, dictation might be justified, even though its corollary were dissolution. But the events in the Transvaal are a glaring exception, and their Very unlikeness to the general equity and justice prevailing in the Britains oversea has drawn to them an additional share of limelight. J Moral censure of the policy of the Union Government is general, and no injustice has yet arisen under our self-governing system that cannot by moral process be corrected. _ The day of force will be the day of disintegration. As a purely moral proposition, however, any opposition to a general recognition of the two great charters of British rights will be temporary and fractional. AH the Empire is proud of the Motherland as the home of liberty. But can the Empire be proud of the flagrant abuse of liberty, personified to-day by the Ulster " covenanters "? In South Africa, the Government struck before armed rebellion was proved to exist. In Britain the Government was passive in sight of the open parade of men and guns. The Union Government moved too soon, Downing-street too late. ' Is there not blame on both tides? Is the too hasty suppression of liberty much worse than weak toleration of the abuse of it? If not, what would the Mother Country think if a Dominion Parliament returned the compliment, and, while welcoming tho views of the House of Commons upon liberty, reciprocated with a well-deserved censure of permitted rebellion? ' Tho expected Tasmaniiui Ministerial ] crisis has arrived at Tasmania's last. After ct>m-Cabinet-Maker. mantling a following of U (in a, House of i 30) in two successive Parliaments elected by a iorm of proportional repreeentatioa, Labour, at a by-election, won a Liberal seat, thus making tho parlies even with 15 followers each. On the e\e of the assembling ol Parliament people weru wondering how either side could appoint a Speaker and stilt lule the House; but that interesting problem is wiped off the «,la,te, becau.se a Liberal (Mr, WhiUitl) hae changed, over to the Labour aida. As, r vomit, the Solomon

(Liberal) Government has been outvoted. When the Assembly met, Labour (now 16 strong) was able to elect a Speaker and still defeat the Government by one vote (15-14). Thus Mr. WhitsiU has un-made, and made, a Ministry, and, if not a King-maker, is certainly a Cabinet-maicer on a. large scale. His grievance against the LibefSls (resentment at a Ministeriai answer) is &xplained hy oui Australian correspondent, in a message published last evening, and certainly seems .a rather inadequate ground for changing the Government of a country. Anyway, the ins are out a,nd the outs are in. for a, Labour Ministry must certainly follow, unless the Governor takes the ummtal course of granting a dissolution before "exhausting" the House. Out of seven Governments in the Commonwealth, Labour will now control thTee— New South Walce, West Australia, and Tasmania— and the Liberals rule in the Federal sphere by virtue of one Vote in the House of Representatives. In Tasmania Labour is led by Mr. Ea-rle, who will no doubt be the new Premier. Mr. ! Whiteitt is still dictator, for lie may again turn his vote ; he states that he will not oppose a Labour Government till he has 6een its proposals, for he is in Parliament to support measures, not men. He has, however, an additional motive to adhere to the new Ministry. Should he, having deserted Liberalism, scuttle* Labour also, a dissolution mitjht quickly follow, in which the 'doublerenegade would be crushed between the two machines. But a system that gives a rail-sitter any chance at all to play the dictator is a danger. As Mr. M'Nab has already pointed out, Tasmania has not given proportional voting a lair trial, one defect being the even-number constituencies. At last Earl Grey has some very inspiriting comfort A House for for all his hard work a Great Family, on the Dominion House . plan. The scheme has been approved by the Australian Premiers' Conference, at which Mr. Holmau remarked that an expenditure of_ £8000 a year per million of population would secure a share in the great enterprise. That _ estimate of £8000 is in accordance with an assessment of £124,000 a year for the fifteen millions in the Dominions Overseas (white population^ ec[tial to 2d pel' head. This is the maximum calculation of cost, and assumes, for purposes of argument, that no part of the huge structure would be let to other tenants. However, those who know London say, confidently, that each of the Imperial partners will be able to find tenants for half to three-quarters of the floor area allotted, and thus the amount to be contributed by a State may be reduced from 2d to a point as low as id per_ head,_ a year. That is not a staggering price to pay for a big advantage. Surely if the administrative heads of the Qominions do not see more on the credit side than on the debit side they will expose themselves to a charge that they have failed to see the conspicuous benefits to be gained by a solid project of Empire-building, It is not a question of paying so much per head for sentiment, but for sound business. As a large factor for the Anglo-Saxon fellowship — a definite work for Empire, as a change from the ceaseless words— that House would be above price, but it will be well worth the investment for straight-out business reasons.