Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1924. PERSONAL FORCES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 146, 17 December 1924, Page 4

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1924. PERSONAL FORCES

The very ugly possibilities opened up by the illness of M. Herriot and the apparent inability of Dr. Marx to form a stable Government illustrate the slenderness of the threads upon which the hopes of Europe s.till hang and the great part that is still played in world politics by personal forces. The three principal causes of the immense improvement in the international outlook which has distinguished the present year were the Labour Party's accession to power in Great Britain—or perhaps we should say Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald's accession to the Foreign Office— and the .General Elections which took place in Germany and France respectively early 'in May. Three or four months ago it was perhaps possible to exaggerate the part which Mr. Mac Donald's personality had played in the refconcihation both of Britain with France and of France with Germany. There is certainly a much more serious risk at the present time of undervaluing his services. Mr. Mac Donald's fall has been as rapid and complete as his rise was brilliant and unexpected. "During the last two months he has been very much under a cloud. The utter want of judgment and dignity with which he rushed to destruction at a General Election desired even less by his opponents than by his own party, the gross mishandling of the Russian Treaty, the Campbell case, and the Zinovieff letter, and the railing accusations and inflammatory appeals by which he lowered the dignity of his office, have made men wonder how it was that they had been induced to give him so much credit before.

Two very unpleasant items have added within the last few days to the load of personal discredit with which Mr. MacDonala was already weighted. Discrepancies in his explanations regarding the unfortunate business of the £30,000 endowment of his motor-car and the Campbell case were reported on Monday- to have come again into prominence, the . latest and most glaring of these discrepancies being that between the discovery of a departmental instruction agamst proceeding with the Camp-' bell prosecution and Mr. Mac Donald's denial that any such instruction had been given. The Socialists are reported to be " flabbergasted " by these' discrepancies, and for non-Socialists they have, of course, completed the shattering of the hope that Mr. Mac Donald, freed from his dependence upon Red influences, would broaden into a great national leader} But it was to the discriminatory supporters of the Labour Government the disillusionment administered the severest shock. "As Leader of the Opposition," said the "New Statesman," ■" he (Mr. Mac Donald) was tough enough, but as Prime Minister he seems too thin-skinned to live." It even went so far as to say that " as Prime Minister he has been an utter failure." One of the replies to this scathing candour on the part of the ablest of the organs which had supported the Labour Government was that Mr Sidney Webb and Mr. Bernard Shaw were no longer connected with it, and that it must now be classed as Liberal. What force, if any, is to be attached to this repudiation is immaterial to our present purpose.

If the "New Statesman" is really to be classed as Liberal, all the more credit is due both 'to it and to Mr. Mac Donald for the testimony borne in the same article to his ' immense success " as Foreign Minister. He was described as having in that capacity " won golden opinions from everyone with whom he has come in contact," and highly-placed officials of the Foreign Office were quoted as saying m private " that he is the best Foreign Secretary England has had for a quarter of.a century, if not longer." I n the following issue of the "New Statesman" (Bth October) its Paris correspondent, Mr Sisley Huddleston, testified from the French standpoint as follows .—

y, rtli the close of the first Mac Donald Ministry, it may be permitted to an ob?f r! el\ ln T Frauce express the view that the Labour Government has done more for the settlement of European problems m nine months than the whole i j i e Pr?, ceding Governments, whether led. by Liberals or Conservatives, have done in five years. With the internal politics of England the present writer has no thing to do, and caring nothing for parhes, but speaking as a simple on ooker interested in international affairs lie is bound t6 state that Mr. MacDonnlcl, inexperienced as he was at the beginning of the year iv pvacticai statesmanship has proved t0 be thb best Sf tim:r tary Eiigiand has had iv

"It was a bad day for M. Poincare," said Mr. Huddleston iv the same article, " and a good day for the world wh en the Labour Party took office." Patriotism had driven eveu the French Radicals to support M. Poincare " while the British hammered him," but Mr. MacDouald's gentler tactics deprived aim of thia aupngvij jtt the Qomml

got his chance. With M. Herriot in office, Mr. Mac Donald's diplomacy had a much more friendly Premier and a much less suspicious nation to work upon, and the joint influence of the two, men helped to bring Germany to reason. The climax of Mr. Mac Donald's great work as Foreign Minister came on the 16th August, when the London Conference concluded with the initialling of the agreement arrived at, and at his instigation M. Herriot and Dr. Marx shook hands. It was the best day's work since the Armistice, but where are we now? Mr. Mac Donald has fallen from power, and years are likely to pass before he returns. M. Herriofc is seriously ill, and will certainly have to take a long rest. Dr. Marx has survived another General Election, but his inability to form a stable Coalition means that the Jingoes and the wreckers are still a formidable danger. Mr. Huddleston considered that, in the event of the defeat of the MacDonald Government, the French Nationalists would spare no effort " to throw the settlements into the melting-pot again, and the peace of Europe may be jeopardised." The fall of Mr. Mac Donald, the illness of M. Herriot, and the deadlock in Germany combine to give the mischief-makers a rare chance.