AFTER THREE YEARS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 60, 8 September 1934, Page 13

AFTER THREE YEARS

BRITISH GOVERNMENT POSITION OF COUNTRY TODAY THE NEXT ELECTION

The third year of a Parliament is traditionally in this country tho dangerous age for Governments, writes Vis- ' cpunt Cranborne, M.P., in the "Quarterly Review." During tho first year they are carried high on thelflood tide of victory. They come into power as the result of a strong reaction of public feeling against ' tho Administration which preceded them. They can do practically what they like. By the second year, the issues of the General Election are beginning to fade from the memory of tho voters. Signs of irritation are beginning to show themselves. Unpopular things havo inevitably been done. Yot* the impetus, which brought the Government in, still carries it through. But by the tiling year the tide has slackened. It is even beginning to ebb. Ministers have been put into power to carry out some mandate. Either they have failed, in which case they are fightly discredited; or they 'have succeeded, in which case their mandate iS .exhausted. The public begin to ask .what they are going to. do next. It is of no use for them to point to what has been achieved once it has been assimilated into the social and economic life of the nation. It cannot be distinguished from what has been done by other Governments in the past, aids Viscount Cranborne. PARABLE Or THE ELECTOR. Their position may be compared to that of a man who carries, with great .' effort, a bucket of water and pours it .into a pool and then calls his employer and says, "Look, I have put a bucketful into, that pool; the level is higher than ever before," only to get the discouraging reply, "I cannot distinguish between your bucketful and all the others that havo been put in; aud anyhow, I wanted not merely a pool, but a lily pool. When are you going to' put in'the lilies?" That is the attifude of the electorate. They are never impressed by achievement. They are constantly asking for more. These persistent demands the Government generally finds it increasingly difficult to satisfy.. After discussing the situation and position of the Socialist and Labour Parties in ojiposition, Viscount Cranborne refers to foreign affairs, and says: The voter will bo told that the whole blame for the present lamentable situation in Europe lies on the British Government,' for, it will be said, if it had taken a strong line earlier, a Disarmament Convention would long ago have been signed. This argument has, of. course, a specious charm for the Englishman., It flatters his vanity. England, he says with unction, should lead the world. At the same time, in the present instance, it entirely ignores the realities of the situation. What has, in fact, held up the Disarmament Conference throughout the last two years'? Tho difficulty of harmonising two conflicting demands, the. demand of Germany for equality and tho demand of France for security. ■ That difficulty would still have persisted, even if by-some cataclysm Great Britain had been sunk in the depths of tho North Sea. No action that we, as a nation, could havo taken could have entirely removed it. Our function has, indeed, been less that of a dictator than of a mediator. In our position of comparative detachment from tho difficulties of Europe, wo could assist 'in attempting to find a basis of compromise between two conflicting opinions. We could recognise the justice of Germany's claim for more equality. We could minimise the threat to France's security which she believed that German , equality involved by offering her some quid pro quo in the form of assistance by us in the event of a crisis. That is all we could do. HAS BEEN PURSUED. But it would be entirely wrong to describe this as the negation of a policy. It is a very definite policy; And it is a policy that has unswervingly been pursued. t It was tho motive force behind tho Draft Convention of March, 1933, : behind the British proposals of last October, behind, the* White Paper of January of this'ycar, and behind all the negotiations which have flowed from that document. Unfortunately, in spite of our efforts, no basis of compromise has been, found. France, in her late Note, has indeed indicated that no offer of security by Great Britain could, under present circumstances, compensate her for German re-armament. In the meantime, Germany is steadily re-arming. Under these circumstances, obviously Great Britain must now reconsider her position. The time for mediation is past. This country must make up her mind how best she can safeguard her own security. The steps which the Government takes to this end will be of crucial importance in determining the attitude of the British people at tho next election. If nothing is done the Government will bo attacked both from the Eight and from the Left. It might have been hoped that it would be worth while making even at this late hour one last attempt to get agreement by a general restatement of oiir position, setting out clearly the amount of re-armament which we believe should be acceptable to Germany and the extent of the guarantees, of security which we are prepared to give to France as a counterbalance. But after M. Barthou's speech at Geneva on May 30, this seems hopeless. It is true that a formula has been found which allows the Conference to continue its work. But it would be "unwise to build too much on this. Unless France is willing radically to alter her present attitude, we must face the fact that there is no common ground upon which an agreement between her and Germany can be based, and sooner or later we are likely to be faced by a collapse of the Conference.

THE ONLY COURSE. Should that happen it looks as though our only course will be to fall back on Locarno,. and provide ourselves with adequate armaments to make our intervention under that Treaty not merely effective, but conclusive. That should be a formidablo check on an aggressor. But should this melancholy situation be reached, it will bo essential that the Government should make clear, and continuc to make clear, to the people of this country the progress of events which have led up to it. Great Britain today is profoundly pacific, and unless the general public are compneed that every possible step has been taken to avert the catastropho of war, it will go hard with the Government when the election comes. But this can be said, concludes Viscount Cranborne, the National Government stands for certain broad principles. It stands for liberty. It stands for sound economics, in the sense that nit believes that a nation, like an in!dividual, must live within its income. It is realist rather than academic in its outlook. The maintenance of these principles