GENERAL IMPRESSION

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 147, 19 December 1930, Page 11

GENERAL IMPRESSION

PRICE OF LIBERAL SUPPORT LABOUR'S TERM OF OFFICE

(Received 19th December, 1 p.m.) , LONDON, 18th December, j According to lobbyists important decisions were reached, at a joint meeting of the Parliamentary Labour j Party, the National Executive and Labour Peers. It is understood that the meeting by 133 votes to 20 approved of the text of the- Electoral Reform Bill, including the alternative vote, the abolition of ; plural voting, university vote, restriction in the use of motor-cars at elections, alternative division of two-member constituencies, and reductions in candidates' expenses. Mr. .J. Maxton vehemently protested that the Bill meant yielding to the Liberals' blackmail. Mr. Mac Donald and Mr. Henderson denied that there was any pact with the Liberals, but members admit that they obtained the impression that the price obtained by the alternative vote is Liberal support for the Trades Dispute Bill. Sir Oswald Mosley surprised everyone by accepting the Electoral Bill, and appealing for party unity. v Mr. Mac Donald declared that it would be political suicide to go to the country at present. Mr. Henderson, supporting the contention, made it clear that* the party was aiming at remaining in office for a further two years in. the hope that unemployment would diminish. ' The Government's greatest present difficulty is the School Age Bill, forty members intimating that they must vote against the measure owing to Catholic dissatisfaction with the treatment of non-provided schools. In the House of Commons Sir Charles Tre-velyan, Minister of Education, announced that he was unable to complete the Committee debate on theSchool Age Bill, as he was proposing in the New Year to hold conferences regarding voluntary schools. • It is understood that the general effect of the Trades Disputes Bill is to restore trade union law to the conditions prior to the 1927 Act. The new Bill legalises the sympathetic strike, but does not affect the legal position of the general strike as denned in the 1927 Bill. It reverses the position of the political levy, requiring payments from all trade unionists.