Evening Post

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 107, 6 May 1926, Page 8

Evening Post

THURSDAY, MAY 6, 1926.

THE CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

Ten years ago Germany and her Allies wore still making headway with their desperate efforts to destroy the British Empire, and every defeat^was solemnly represented by the Kaiser's General Staff to be strictly "according to plan." The more formidable foe, which now has Britain by the throat, and will soon be increasing the enthusiasm of our Labour Party by bringing New Zealand and every other paTt of the Empire within, the range of its operations, is making much less dubious progress towards the same goal. We do not suggest that the leaders of British Labour are deliberately aiming at the destruction of tho Empire, but it is quite clear that they are out for tho destruction of the British Government by unconstitutional means, and that to succeed in the attempt would be to destroy the State. There is fortunately no present need to speculate whether, having destroyed the British State, the visitors would seek, to reconstitute it under the Red Flag, or, loathing nationalism and patriotism as equally vile with capitalism and Imperialism, they would prefer a Bed Flag heptarchy or an even minuter subdivision of the dis-United Kingdom into a galaxy of Soviet Republics. There is still a third possibility open— viz., that logic and gratitude might enforce the conclusion that Moscow, which has supplied the revolutionary movement in Britain with so much of its motive power, should be given a due share of its fruits, and that the Bolshevist rulers of Bussia, who, as we know, have already made a paradise of their own country, should be asked to do as much for Britain. From the standpoint of, the Empire, the choice between these interesting alternatives is immaterial. The supersession of the Union. Jack by tho Red Flag would be the end of the Empire, and, whether undor a little Red Flag of her own or not, New Zealand would have to fend for herself. Tho logical powers of a crowd are not usually great, but the crowd outside the House of Commons on Monday night was led by its instinct to a sound conclusion when it answered the singing of the "Red Flag" with what is described as "a far mightier chorus" of "God Save the King." In which of these rival choruses would Mr. Bamsay Mac Donald and Mr. J. L. Thomas have joined if, instead of being members of Parliament, they had been standing as OTdinjary citizens in the crowd outside? For Mr. Mac Donald the tall hat with which ho shocked tho reddest of his supporters whon he went to Buckingham Palace a little more than two years ago is a sufficient answer. Mr. Thomas has even, higher credentials than any that Mr. Mac Donald can offer in the genuinely Imperialist spirit and outlook which he displayed as the first Labour Secretary of State for the Colonies and has made no attempt to conceal since. But where were Mr. Thomas and his chiof last week? Where are they now? And where will they be next week? "We know what we are," says Hamlet, "but we know not what we may be." Mr. Thomas, who has, we believe, consistently opposed previous strikes, may be relied upon not to have made an exception in favour of the infinitely more disastrous strike now in progress when he spoke in the councils of his party. The trouble of soul to which ne confessed in July last must have been far more agonising during the last few days, and it is doubtless in the hope of peace that, even after their declaration of war, he still lines up with tho Bed Flaggerg. Where Mr. Thomas will be if the fight which they have started is fought to a finish he may not know himself, but this at least may bo confidently prophesied—that, if it ends in a victory for those with whom he is at present allied, there will be no room for the likes of him and Mr. Mac Donald in any Cabinet or Soviet or Committee of Safety that the victors may form. There was room for a Kerensky at the head of the revolutionary movement in Russia as long as it was relatively mild and restrained, but he had to make way for a Lenin, and a Trotsky took charge. It is Lenin and Trotsky that stir the admiration of the men who have engineered this general strike, and if they ever come out on top they will send half-hearted talkers of the Kerensky school like MaeDonald and Snowden and Thomas to the right-about and entrust the congenial task of scrapping the Army, the Navy, and the Empire to such mon as Swales and Purcell and A. J. Cook. As we have admitted, the latest blow at the Empire has so far succeeded infinitely bettor than that of the Germans. In less than four days it has transformed England to an extent which dwarfs the worst that Germany and her Allies wore able to accomplish at a prodigal cost in blood and wealth in more than four years. No camouflago bulletins aro needed from tho present enemy headquarters to conceal defeats ■0.l es3££prat« yittoiie*. The leaders

profess snrprise at their extraordinary success, and there is no reason to suspect that the surprise is not genuine. The campaign is not proceeding " according to plan" but even better. The naive exuberance of the statement issued on behalf of the Trades Union Congress relieves the tragic darknss with a ray of humour. All parts of the country, from John o' Groats to Land's End, says this remarkable document, surpassed all expectations. Not only railway transporters, but other trades came out, in a manner we did not quite expect, immediately. The difficulty has been to keep men in, forming the second line of dofence. To that extent we are naturally most gratified. It may, however, be doubted whether the gratification expressed by the strike leaders is really as genuine as their surprise. Probably nobody was more distressed than the more responsible of the_m when the Government called their bluff and the strike began, and already some even of the hotheads must be sharing this feeling. What a victory it is of which the first instalment has exceeded their expectations! London, we are told to-day, seems asleep. There is no street traffic, there are no trains, no morning newspapers, no proofs, no cables, no messages from tape-machines. Britain is completely cut off from the world. The cut-off of Britain from the rest of the world is not yet complete, or this message would not have come through, but the cable service may at any time share the fate of the foreign and colonial mails. At present the suburbs of London are more in tho dark as to what is happening at its centre than the Antipodes, and the completeness of the isolation of the provinces is illustrated by the surprise of the Australian cricketers when they motored from Leicester to London and found out for the first time what had happened during their brief absence. All that they had learned from a typed sheet published in Leicester was that something had gone wrong with tho local trams! The striko leaders must already see that their victory could only be over a ruined England, and that the national spirit is such as to make victory a sheer impossibility. "Be strong and quit yourselves like men" is a fine text for the first number of the "British Gazette," the Government newspaper which may be the "Daily Herald's" only rival.