Evening Post WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1916. BRITISH POLITICS

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 40, 16 August 1916, Page 6

Evening Post WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1916. BRITISH POLITICS

The British Government cannot bo accused of precipitation or extravagance in its proposal for the extension of the life of the present Parliament. Tho last General Election was held in December, 1910, and one of the first acts oE the Parliament then constituted was to shorten its own term. After a brief spell of triennial Parliaments, the term had for nearly two centurfes been seven years, but it was a part of the great scheme of constitutional reform on which the Liberals went to the country in 1910 that the term should be reduced to five years. This object was carried out by the Parliament Act of 1911J and it is a remarkable coincidence that the first Parliament since 1716 to tamper with the law on the subject should first of all reduce the term by general legislation, and then, before that legislation has taken effect, be driven to pass a special ■measure for the enlargement of its own term. When Parliament in 1716 decided thai the term of three years for which it had been elected should /be extended to seven years, the grounds alleged were that " a popish faction were designing to renew the rebellion in thisi kingdom, and the report of an invasion from abroad." The brief appearance of the Pretender in Scotland and the easy suppression of the rebellion which followed are not considered by the modern historian to have supplied any solid ground for the action of the Whigs in extending for four years the term of the Parliament then in existence. It is, however, impossible to suppose that the verdict of history will cast any doubts upon the propriety or even the necessity of the step which the Asquith Govern-? ment is now about to ask the British Parliament to take. ' The question involved is not one of popular panic and hysteria or of party advantage, but of the life of the* nation. Thanks to our incomparable Navy, no Pretender has been able to set foot upon British soil, but the magnitude of the danger with which the nation has been confronted for the kst two years, and which it has not yet overcome, admits unfortunately of no doubt; To break up the National Government and let loose the waters of domestic controversy while the nation is still fighting for its life would be an act of suicidal folly which, unless dictated by a practically irresistible necessity, wonld be hardly distinguishable from treason. IF Britain wants to win the war, she must be content for the present to schedule a General Election among her prohibited luxuries.

What is specially noteworthy in the action of the British Government under these conditions is its caution and moderation. The term of the present Parliament expires in January next; that is to say, in five months' time. Yet the Government has not yet moved in the matter, and all it proposes to do is to extend the term for four months. It is obviously only with great reluctance that the British Government undertakes the responsibility of a procedure which is, on the face of it, unconstitutional. It has waited until almost the last moment, and then proposes a minimum extension. Contrast with this attitude that of the only other Government in the Empire which has already taken similar action. With sixteen months of the normal term of Parliament still to run, the New Zealand Government has made itself responsible for an extension of the term by twelve months, although another- session will fall due in ordinary course before the end of the term, and both the Prime Minister and his first lieutenant have expressed the opinion that the war is likely to be over before the due date of the session. If the New Zealand Parliament had passed no Parliamentary Elections Postponement Bill, our General Election wonld not have fallen duo until six months after the date to which the British Government proposes to postpone the General Election in the United Kingdom. The effect of the Bill which our Parliament has passed is to postpone the General Election in New Zealand until eighteen months after the postponed date of the British elections. This strildng contrast must increase the wonder with which most people had been previously affected by the extraordinary precipitancy of the action taken by the New Zealand Parliament.

It would, of course, be a mistake to assume that the proposal of the Asquith Government not to extend the life of the British Parliament beyond the end of May implies a belief that the war will bo over by that time. The converse inference would be far more justifiable— viz., that, in the opinion of the British Government, the war- will not be over before then. It will be an easy matter to provide for a. further extension of the term of Parliament if in another six months' time it is evident that the war cannot finish by May. Such a procedure would be, from every point of view, far preferable to having prematurely extended the term for six or twelvemonths beyond tho end of the war, which is what our own Legislature may prove to have done. In the present instance, at any rate, Mr. Asquith's caution has led him to tlis tighu conclusion/ It Iws olso been a sojwd suids^yi inducing him. Jo

leave so highly controversial a matter as the qualifications for the franchise untouched while the war lasts. The battle royal which the question is likely to provoke may well take a front place among the bloodless contests of peace.