Evening Post. THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1930. THE LATEST BOMBSHELL

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 119, 22 May 1930, Page 8

Evening Post. THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1930. THE LATEST BOMBSHELL

Tliree months ago the confusion which has heen introduced into British politics by the rise of a third party was temporarily worse confounded by the arrival of a fourth. But the division in the Conservative ranks over the "taxation of food which had brought the United Empire Party into being did not last long, and that party was' compromised out of existence by the agreement to make a referendum on the food taxes a part of the Conservative programme. About the same time the unity of the Liberal Party was seriously threatened by differences of opinion about the Coal Mines Bill, and one of Mr. Lloyd George's brilliant attacks on the Bill was defeated by the refusal of a few members of the parly to follow His lead. .It is now the Labour Party's turn tostrike trouble. Ever since Mr. MacDonald took office a year ago, the most bitter Parliamentary opposition that he,has had to face has come from the Left Wing of his own party. Mr. Maxton, who, as president of the Independent Labour Party, has been the leader of the malcontents, both in and out of Parliament, may be said to have hoisted the standard of revolt in speech on the Address-in-Rcply. Frankly, he said, I should be dishonest to my right hon. friends if I did not express very frankly my complete dissatisfaction with the King's Speech and with the speech of the right lion, gentleman, tho Lord Privy Seal, iii detailing one particular part of the King's Speech. The reference was to the speech in which Mr.. J. H. Thomas had outlined the proposals of the Government for dealing with unemployment. From that day (3rd July) to this, Mr. Maxton and his friends, mostly fellow-Clydesiders, have been incessantly harassing the Government, and especially Mr. Thomas, from the back benches, and the question of expelling them from , the party has been often mooted but never tackled. Last week these malcontents were seriously weakened by the death of Mr. John Wheatley,. who was probably the ablest Parliamentarian of them all. A/startling event which may change the whole faceoosf s British politics •' has now given tnem a brilliant recruit. Sir Oswald Mosley has resigned from the Labour Government and joined the party's Left Wing, "which now," as we are told at the same time, "has definitely revolted." Though he only held the unimportant position of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, he had, as one of the committee of Ministers specially charged with the handling of the unemployment problem, been directly concerned with the most embarrassing of all the Government's tasks, and as a man of ability, energy, and initiative *he had evidently been playing a part on this committee second only in importance to that of Mr. J. H. Thomas, the Minister in charge. , His resignation on this very issue of unemployment in order to join the Labour Left Wing which has now developed its unchartered, freedom into open revolt, therefore confronts Mr. Mac Donald with a problem in comparison with which the troubles of the other parties are of very small importance. For the shattering effect which the problem of. unemployment threatens to exercise upon their party the Labour leaders' pre-election attitude tow.ards it is largely responsible. It is a problem which on the scale developed in Britain since the War is the result of causes which every candid mind must recognise as' in very large measure beyond the control of any Government. How much indulgence did either Labour or Liberal critics extend to the Baldwin Government on this score? But two blacks do not make a white, and the Labour Government is entitled in the presence of uncontrollable forces to an indulgence which many of its members refused to concede to its predecessor. By a strange irony of fortune the Minister who stands most in need of consideration just now is the one who when in opposition was scrupulously careful to-refrain from making this question the ground for either unjust attacks or impossible promises. Mr. J. H. Thomas, who accepted what he knew to be the most arduous and invidious of all Ministerial tasks, cannot complain of any lack of chivalry on the part of his opponents, but from some of the hotheads in his own party he has received very cruel treatment indeed because he has neither achieved the impossible nor promised to do so. Yet through it all his candour remains as uncompromising as ever. Speaking in the House of Commons on the 3rd February,. Mr. Thomas said:

Quite frankly, if we are to he judged merely upon tho figures of unemploy-

ment, the figures are worse than they were twelve months ago. . . I am endeavouring to. keep in mind that this is tho most dangerous as well as tlio most human of all our problems, and thcro is no delight in mero party scoring over it. . . A profound mistake is made in always magnifying a thing. Equally frank was the statement of another Minister on the 21st January: I do not think anyone would suggest that any measures taken by the present Government siro affecting the unemployment situation "materially one way or the other, either beneficially or adversely. The speaker was Sir Oswald Mosley, whose candour appears less to his credit now that we know lh.it he must have been, glad to say a* bad word for a policy which he was doing his best to overthrow. As we write, a later message shows that the gravity of the position created by Sir Oswald Mosley's resignation has been intensified by the first use that he desires to make of his freedom. , The Parliamentary Labour Party, to which he made a personal statement regarding his resignation, decided to meet again on the following clay to consider unemployment, and the reason is believed to be that he indicated his intention "to table a motion expressing dissatisfaction with the Government's handling ■■ of the unemployment." On such a motion the Government would doubtless rely on a solid support from both Conservatives and Liberals, but no Government likes to look to its opponents to save it from its friends, and even a twenty-four hours' breathing space will be welcome to Mr. Mac Donald in his very painful dilemma. Before this latest bombshell had fallen we were told that he would probably form "a, practically new Ministry." "If he cannot compromise on this issue he might even find it desirable to attempt the formation of a new party. But the personnel of the Cabinet Committee whose rejection of Sir Oswald Mosley's memorandum on unemployment provoked him to resign does not suggest that Mr. Mac Donald, ■ whatever his own opinion might be, would find them just as unwilling to budge an inch as Sir Oswald himself. If. Mr. Snowden decided a few days ago that the proposed £250,000,000 loan would be impossible in the present state of the money market, and that its proposed allocation would be to a large extent undesirable, lie is not likely on second thoughts to split the' difference. And what would"' the Labour Party do without Mr, Snowden, and how could Mr. Mac Donald fill his place at the Exchequer? If he is ready to reconstruct the party as. well as the Ministry, he would probably find Mr. Lloyd. George quite willing to accept any reasonable offer. Seeing that a £200,000,----000 loan was a part of the Liberals' unemployment policy at the General Election, Mr. Lloyd George would surely not allow a matter of £50,000,----000 to keep him out of office. It would at least be worth trying.