Evening Post. THURSDAY, JULY 25, 1918. A WAR ELECTION IN BRITAIN?

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 22, 25 July 1918, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, JULY 25, 1918. A WAR ELECTION IN BRITAIN?

If Sir Joseph Ward's remark that the man who advocated a general election in New Zealand deserved to be hanged was warmly approved, except by those who profess an indifference as to whether the British or ths German flag flies over the Dominion, what would be considered, an appropriate punishment for the man who desires to expose the United Kingdom to the same ordeal? Remembering that Sir Joseph Ward spoke some six months hnfore the opening of the great German offensive of which the issue is still undetermined, one might be disposed to say chat the question could not be adequately answered without invoking the ingenuity and the barbarity of German methods of punishment. Yet though eaxly in 1915, when the first Asquith Government was beginning to totter, and again towards the end of 1916, when the days of the first Coalition were seen to be numbered, the perils of a general election seemed to be as great as anything that had threatened the cause of the Allies since the Germans were first turned back from the ( Marne, to-day the prospect may be regarded, if not with complacency, at any rate without consternation. There was

no suggestion of panic in the announcement cabled yesterday, on the authority of the Daily Chronicle's Parliamentary correspondent. " A general election this year, probably in the first week in December, is," says this correspondent, " now accepted as a certainty." He does not mention the prospect as held out by the Government as an inducement to recalcitrant followers to come loyally to heel, or as a reductio ad absurdum of censorious critics. Whether he is correct or not, it is clear that the Chronicle's correspondent is dealing with what lie believes to be facts m a historical spirit.

Whatever may be the sting in this authority's principal announcement is mitigated hj the comment with which he supplements it. "In view of the absence of a clear issue," he proceeds, " there is a possibility of an agreement by ( which the Liberals and Conservatives will not oppose one another, on condition that the life of the new Parliament is limited to the period of the war." In the circumstances of the two previous Governments to which we have referred, the possibility of such an agreement would have been precluded by a dissolution which presupposed a breach. Under existing conditions there is no reason to suppose that an appeal to the country would imply such a breach, or would set the two principal parties at loggerheads. There is no breach at present, and it looks as though the prospect of a general election would be more likely to reduce the present tendencies to a rupture than to increase them. These tendencies, though of course inflamed by the irrepressible spirit of party, are not, it is to be noted, along strictly party lines. It is not a Conservative or Unionist Administration, that is in office. . Mr. Lloyd George himself is a Radical of the Radicals, and he has many colleagues whose Liberalism is no more open to suspicion than his own. Though not so fully representative of the Liberal Party as the Asquith Coalition, it has not been threatened by the intemal v divisions w&ich brought that Coalition to its doom. And as to external attack, the patriotism of Mr. Asquith himself has given to his rival's Administration an immunity which he could not secure for his

own. Now and then, and especially with regard to the General Maurice fiasco, Mr. Asquith seemed to be lending himself to tho devices of the party wire-puller, but on the whole his attitude has been broadminded and patriotic, and his criticism has done the Government less harm that) the Prime Minister's own aberrations.

It is therefore impossible to suppose that at a general election Mr. Asquith would be willing to play into the hands of Germany by attempting to snatch a personal or party advantage from the difficulties oft the Government. It is, however, to be observed that the Daily Chroniole's correspondent does not regard the conclusion of a party truce for the purposes of the general election as a certainty. All that he says is that "there is a possibility of an agreement by which the Liberals and Conservatives will not oppose one another." This is a very cautious statement. The prophet does not commit himself to the' probability of such an arrangement, but it is at least certain that a clear-cut issue between the two parties is out of the question. The Unionists might be relied upon to support the present Government to a man against any alternative Government that Mr. Asquith could possibly get together. Loyalty to Mr. Lloyd George and to the prosecution of the war would rally a. lai'ge section of the Liberals to the same side, and Mr. Asquith's chances of doing anything but mischief by declaring against the present Government would be so small ho would surely decline the responsibility. But his name might still be used by the devotees of party and the ene,mies of the. Government in a mischievous fashion if hr, retained hia present position of independence, il h therefore

to be hoped that the project which was mentioned about a fortnight ago of finding a place for Mi. Asqiiith in th.c Government may be realised.

The working agreement of which the Daily Chronicle's Parliamentary .correspondent speaks would then be assured, and the general election under such conditions should serve'the purpose of clearing the air, emphasising the essential unity of the nation, and strengthening the hands of the. Government. The attitude of Labour would then be the most interesting feature of the election. Not long ago Mr. Henderson was talking confidently of the imposing array of candidates that the ,Labou# Party had got ready, and of the number of the seats that they were going to win. But recent tendencies suggest' that the array is likely to be too large for the good of j the party, and that Labour candidates will to a large extent be employed in cutting one another's political throats. Mr. Henderson himself will be opposed in East Ham South by Captain Tupper, the doughty champion of the seamen's boycott against Germany, and other Labour candidates who are suspected of pacifist leanings are likely to feel the weight of Mr. Havelock Wilson's militant organisation. The attitude of a largo section of the Labour Party to the party's representatives in the Ministry, the spirited "action of Mr. Hodge and his colleagues by way of retort, and the remarkable statement of Mr. Appleton, "that the whole of the .Labour movement is being handed over to m'en who really do not belong to it, and whose chief aim.seems to be to build-up after the war positions for themselves in enemy countries," indicates a very dangerous menace to the unity of the party. But we believe that the core of the Labour Party is as sound as ever it was, and that it will help the patriotism of the other parties to make the next general election not a curse but a blessing to the Empire.