ENGLAND TALKS FASCIMO

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 142, 16 June 1923, Page 14

ENGLAND TALKS FASCIMO

PRESENT POLITICAL PARTIES

CONCERNED.

On the most vital points, after five months in office, the policy, of Mr. Bonar Law seems to be., identical, with that of Mr. Lloyd George and the Coalition, says "Centurion" in the "National Review," just prior to Mr. Bonar Law's resignation. The fact is that'the leaders of. all political parties in England have gone astray. They do not seem to understand their own.- business—politics. In England there is now the danger, that what has happened in Italy will be repeated. The Italian people turned to Signor Mussolini, because, all the older political parties were found to be utterly rotten. Not one had any will of'its own, or any determination to uphold Italian interests. - All were pervaded with the vague sentimentalism which is ruinous in national affairs. The basis of national policy is national interest, or enlightened selfishness. A politician is a trustee, and has no right to be generous at his people's expense. The Conservative Party, by tradition and faith, is pre-eminently the party which stands for England and her vital interests. The real .question, says "Centurion," is whether there is enough "pep and punch" in the party to save Conservatism from its flabby machine politicians. If not, he considers that the clear alternative is a suspension of Parliamentary government, and a resort to such methods as Fascismo has applied in Italy, in face of .a similar, though even more dangerous, situation. The country is in no circumstances going to surrender itself tamely into the hands of Labour extremists who would wreck everything in a fe\v months. But all thinking men would infinitely prefer the sounder means of protecting the nation and the Empire by constitutional means. "Centurion" graciously adds that the Ministry has still time to amend its ways, and that the hour of repentance is not for ever gone. "What the nation needs is a cautious, economical policy. At home it wants to see order vigorously enforced and tr-eason punished, not treated as a joke; agriculture encouraged in the present critical period by such common-sense methods as Denmark employed a generation ago; and British industry assisted by relief from taxation and adequate duties' on foreign manufactured goods. Abroad, it eesires no more adventures and no more crusading in the East, but the withdrawal from' the mandated < areas to concentrate in Egypt (which is vital to us), and energetic support of France and Belgium in 'searching the German pockets.' "