THE THIRD YEAR

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 78, 29 September 1934, Page 14

THE THIRD YEAR

BRITISH PARLIAMENT

FRIENDS AND FOES SPEAK

EECORD EXAMINED

"For any Government its third session is critical. The fervour that carried.it to power has waned; its achievements are assessed in a cold temper; its critics arc active and vocal, says the "Daily Telegraph." "All the disintegrating forces have had their play during the present sittings, but the Government is emerging from its third year unshaken and with real achievement to its credit. Any comparison of the conditions amid which the National Government took office with those of today, whether tho test be financial conditions, the state of trade, the volume of employment, or the general ■contentment of the country, emphasises the triumph of the Administration." "There were times in the earlier part of the session when the credit of tho Government appeared to. be sinking," says.j.he "Morning Post." "Sir Henry Page Croft's motion, which dealt with India under cover of Ceylon, brought the Government majority down to something under forty. India was and remains a cause of trouble which may yet bring the Conservative Party and the National Government to shipwreck —a danger the more tragic as so entirely superfluous. On tho other hand, the Budget, a difficulty courageously faced, brought the Chancellor of the Exchequer well-deserved credit." RECORD OP FRUSTRATION. "It- is difficult to believe," asserts the "News-Chronicle," "that the most self-complacent and easily satisfied of Ministers can look back on the session which Iras just ended without a vague feeling of uneasiness. Tho one thing really accomplished has been the passage of the Road Bill. The rest is .i record of mere frustration. The Betting Bill, despite the Government's angry outcry that it must and would pass' it, remains iinpassed. The reorganisation of agriculture, in which some progress might have been expected from Mr. Walter Elliot's undoubted energy and ability, has not escaped the blight which has paralysed all the Government's activities. The new Marketing ~ Boards daily sink deeper into the morass of muddle in which they are all floundering." "This is how a day or two ago one of the Labour chiefs classified tho next Parliament: Nationalists (with other odds and ends), 375; Labour, 220; Liberals 20," writes Mr. A. J. Cummings, in the "News-Chronicle." "That is a defeatist statistic which offers a pretty challenge to Liberals. It will be definitely in the public interest if, in the result, the Liberal Party makes mincemeat of tho statistic. "Incidentally many Labour politicians say plainly that they do not want a majority at the next election: (a) because Labour is not ready for its 'programme of action,' and (b) because it wants a mandate backed by an overwhelming majority of the electorate. APPREHENSIVE OF OFFICE. "Actually Labour is apprehensive of office. It lacks confidence in its own power of leadership, in its personnel as potential members of a progressive Cabinet, in its immediate competence to transform a complex economic situation with credit to the party and to Labour ideals. "In any case (in the absence of some national calamity) the prospect of an unfettered Labour Administration seems a long way off. The probability is that at tho next election Labour will secure heavy majorities in many industrial areas, but make little impression in rural constituencies and in suburban constituencies of a familiar type." "It is a virtue of a Parliament such as ours," says the "Aberdeen Press," "that it contains in both Houses men with specialised knowledge of many topics intimately connected with the life of the nation, who can, in the course of debate, contribute useful material and suggestions to the common stock and thus make legislation and administratio.il moro.practical and effective. "There can be no doubt that this quality in Parliament has a good deal to do with the steadiness of British political evolution and with, tho amaz-' ing resilience that characterises Britain in an emergency. "The last year or two is" a case in point. In most countries the economic collapse arid financial crisis of 1931 would have eventuated in a long period of tribulation, perhaps in revolution. In Britain, it may be said, the incident is now closed, and only three years have elapsed." PRAISES OPPOSITION. ' "With tho adjournment of Parliament for the summer recess the time has come to pay tribute to the Labour Opposition for its remarkable fight against very great odds," points out the "Daily Herald." "Rarely, if ever, in democratic history, has such a small group had to shoulder such heavy burdens of responsibility as the handful of Labour M.P.s which Major Attlce has led so ably in the regrettable absence of Mr. Lansbury. "Since the session began, forty-four public Acts of Parliament have received the Royal Assent. Only experienced House of Commons men can realise the tremendous toll on the mental and physical resources of an Opposition which such a legislative programme means. "The strain always tells on an Opposition of normal size. But it is increased at least fourfold under these exceptional circumstances. "They.have had to make .themselves masters of every subject under the sun in order to hold their own against the massed experts on the Government benches." . ■ - ■ CAMPAIGN OF, EXPLANATION. "It is to be hoped that before Parliament reassembles," comments the "Yorkshire Post," "a great efforfwill be made throughout the country to give the electorate in the constituencies clear, broad'pictures of the policy of the Government, showing the fitting in of the sections into a whole and disproving the frequent assertions of critics'that there Js no clear view of national problems together, but only a haphazard choice of this method or that for dealing with each particular difficulty as ittarises. , "If enthusiastic support is to be maintained, or reinvoked where it has shown signs of slackening, a public which1 does not readily fit the pieces together for itself must be provided with an easily intelligible general picture. ;

/'There is the more reason why this should be undertaken in the early autumn, because when Parliament reassembles members and country alike are to be confronted with the immense complexity of the Indian Eeforme problem and the Government proposals regardirig it. •.■"lt seems certain that an intensive campaign of explanation will be needed if-the. country is to follow the Parliamentary -proceedings intelligently and to accept Parliament's conclusions oveniually, not with an indifference mixed, in some quarters, with resentment, but with reasonable comprehension of what is'involved."