Evening Post. MONDAY, APRIL 20, 1931. PARTY MISERIES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 92, 20 April 1931, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, APRIL 20, 1931. PARTY MISERIES

The; gloomy Dean was credited with "one of his gloomiest speeches" in a message from London on Friday, and to-day's news gives him an excellent opportunity for beating his own record. Such an exhaustion of Britain's reserves that '"we could not go to war, even if we were slapped in the face," the departure of our naval supremacy, ihe disintegration of the Empire, the loss of confidence in enterprise, the vast and ever-increasing army of parasites, paid by the State not to work, i the discredit of democratic govern; merits, the apathy of the democracies —these, were the main points in Dean Inge's jeremiad. New texts are provided to-day by the perilous condition of Britain's shipbuilding industry with 700,000 tons of work in hand in yards which could produce 3,000,000 tons, by the doubt whether after the withdrawal of the United States troops the .Monroe Doctrine will not be held to prevent Britain from protecting the lives of British residents in Nicaragua, by the fear that the unexpected collapse of the Franco-Italian Naval Agreement may imperil' the London Treaty, and reopen the whole problem of ,naval competition, and by the aggravation which is .threatened to the confusion and impotence of British politics by the determination of the Mosley party to run an independent Labour candidate for Ashton-under-Lyme. The optimists who were replying to the Jeremiah of St. Paul's last week will have a still harder task if he 'breaks out again, but one at least of their arguments has been strengthened in the meantime. If it is the darkest hour that precedes the dawn, to-day's news brings the dawn appreciably nearer than it was last week. Whether or not the division which took place in the House of Commons a few hours after, Dean Inge's >speech should be regarded as having made another contribution to his material may be open to doubt. It is obviously a deplorable thing'that a Government so feeble, so discredited, so utterly misrepresentative of the country should be permitted to misrepresent it any longer. ,On the other hand, it is possible that the effect of" an immediate appeal to the country might be more deplorable still. There is, in the first place, the imminence of the,.. Budget to be considered, and there is also the far more important point on which from this distance it is quite impossible to form a confident opinion, namely, whether the electors, who may be relied on to defeat the Government, will be able to substitute a Government with the will and the power to govern. As against either of the other parties the electoral pendulum has now for several months swung continuously and decisively in favour of the Conservatives, but ever since the General Election Mr. Baldwin's most formidable enemies have been those of his own household, and the fact that the other parties are similarly troubled will no more help him to form a strong Government than it has helped Mr. Ramsay MacDonald. Aided no doubt by Mr. Baldwin's slashing speech to the electors of St. George's, and the overwhelming victory over the Empire Crusade candidate with which they rewarded it, the Conservative Party was able to1 announce three weeks<ago an adjustment with Lord Beaverbrook of the fiscal issue which was - threatening to wreck the party. On the face of it the settlement was highly favourable to Mr. Baldwin, and this impression was confirmed by Press opinions representing all parties. It is true that Lord Rothermere was no party to the arrangement, and that the silence of th,e "Daily Mail" testified, if not to his disapproval, at any rate to his inability to approve. But the doubt about Lord Rolhermere's attitude is probably of less importance than the possibility that Lord Beaverbrook, whose emotions, evidently stronger than his appreciation of the niceties of language, have so often induced him to change his mind, may induce him to change it again. If, however, Lord Beaverbrook stays put this time, and the Conservatives escape another split, their prospects at the next General Election are exceedingly good, and the sooner it comes the belter for the country. But Mr. Lloyd George can read the signs of the times just as well as Mr. Baldwin. Four or five months ago he was actually encouraged by a slight improvement of the Liberal vote in Shipley, and a substantial improvement, due to the special and evanescent cause of Zionism, in Whitechapel, to prophesy a general advance. , We had 25 per cent, of it, very .nearly, last time, ho said t<i the National Liberal Club on the- sth December. Don't you be surprised i£ that 25 p.er cent, will increase- very considerably. But the Liberal slump has since resumed its previous pace, and for the Liberals to vote against the Government would be to commit suicide. Mr. Lloyd George therefore continues to attack the Government with a contempt at least equal to Mr. Baldwin's, but to vote in its favour. On Thursday this performance was deprived of its normal thrill by the readiness

pf a larger proportion of his parly than usual to follow his lead. The general expectation that the Government would have a close run on Mr. Baldwin's censure motion was disappointed when it was defeated by 305 votes to 251. Mr. Lloyd George's favours may lose in value if he dispenses them too liberally. A minority Government which has lost the confidence of its own party, and never had that of anybody else, has thus got another reprieve, and Mr. Lloyd George is said to hope that the process may be continued for another two years. By that time at any rate his party will be ripe for destruction. According to one of Mr. Lloyd George's most fervent admirers it is ripe already. Labour is now- drifting to «atas-. Lrophe at the polls, writes Mr. Garvin in. the "Observer" of Ist March. Liborals are ruining themselves in the constituencies by bolstering up the Government in tho House of Commons. Yet a Conservative regime, gaining once more a majority of scats, but not representing any realand settled majority of tho people, Would be faced with cnoirnous difficulties —financial and social. Single-handed it could not beadoquato to tho national and Imperial tasks. Its purblind vendetta against Mr. Lloyd George and Liberalism is ono of the most foolish things in its annals. Conservatism is not enough in this situation any more than it could have been enough in the War. The explanation of this eloquent idealist's purblind vendetta' against Mr. Baldwin and his purblind admiration of Mr. Lloyd George seems to be that a too eager contemplation of his ideals has blinded Mr. Garvin to the fact that personal character is still the one supreme and indispensable qualification of a leader.