r SD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1935.

Evening Post, Issue 36, 12 February 1935, Page 8

r SD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1935.

NO TIME TO "WAIT AND SEE" As the result of two brilliant successes at Geneva in December -in which Britain played «the leading part, two grave threats to the peace of Europe were averted, the association of peace and good will with the Christmas season ceased for once to1 be a mockery in its application to international affairs, and as Mr.- D. Graham Hutton writes in* last month's '^Nineteenth Century,"' "the year 1934 closed with the stocks of the League and the British Government standing at higher levels in the political market than for years past." Before a week of the new year had _passed the hopes of Europe were carried higher still by the Franco-Italian agreement in which differences that had long been a menace to European peace, and had recently derived a greatlyincreased importance from the rise of the-Nazi power, were completely settled. On January 31 the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister of France- arrived -in ' London on- a special peace-mission, and their "sue- ■ cess in] arranging with British . Foreign - Office the-terms of a proposed Western European . Air Convention was -hailed by "The Times" on February 4 as perhaps "the most valuable contribution to European peace since the Locarno Pact." Yet on the very stme day we were told that,^n the opinion* of the Sydney "Sun's"-London correspondent, as the result of the recent turn of events the National Government's stock is ,the lowest since it took power. j This authority had applied the same figure of speech to the position of the British that Mr. Hutton had applied a month previously, -but in the exactly opposite sense! Foreign, affairs had, of course, nothing to do withi this disastrous depreciation, of the National Government's stock. Popular opinion had heartily applauded its skilful handling of the Saar and the Yugoslav-Hungarian problems and of the "Aerial Locarno" problem. When the "Sun's" correspondent spoke of "the recent turn of events" it was only domestic events that he had-,in.view, and their recent turn was the result.in large measure of the latest turn of the most versatile i acrobat! in British politics. Mr. .Mac Donald, he said, was "very worried," not wanting £o reconstruct his Cabinet until the India Bill had been passed, but finding great difficulty in resisting the efforts that were being made to force his hands. Mr. Neville Chamberlain "would not tolerate Mr. Lloyd George's inclusion in the Cabinet at any price," and this though his brother had a few days previously certified Mr. Lloyd George as almost a plaster saint for political virtue, and Sir John Simon had committed the appalling indiscretion of virtually offering him a seat in the Cabinet. As we remarked at the time, the effect of such an offer, tendered in public and without conditions, was to make the Cabinet look very small and cheap. Every day that Mr. Lloyd George has since wisely allowed to pass without a word of public comment has made it look smaller and cheaper, and the interval of more than a fortnight has brought other events which have played right into his hands.' One of these events was already in contemplation at the time of the "Sun" correspondent's report.. One of Mr. Ma'cDonald's special' worries'- was over the Wavertree by-election. The Conservative, revolt represented and stimulated by Mr. Randolph Churchill's candidature for Wavertree as an Independent Conservative was proving more serious than had been expected, and it looks far worse today than it did a week ago. It^is true that Mr. Randolph Churchill did not win the seat—which would have been the-worst disaster of all—and that the combined Conservative vote'was nearly 9000 .ahead of the Labour vote in an aggregate poll of about 43,000. ■. On the other hand, Labour was allowed to win one of the safest of Conservative seats, and the fact that of * the 24,300 Conservative votes polled 10,600 went to the Independent candidate was a far more serious matter than the,mere loss of a seat. In its comments'on the Wavertree result the "Daily Express" remarked that VMr. Platt's defeat will probably influence action against the Conservative rebels led by Mr. Winston Churchill." But ' what seemed at the time to be a safe diagnosis is now seen tp be incorrect, The hopes of the rebels are too high, their numbers too large, the general unrest of the party too serious, and the authority of the leaders too weak to admit of the drastic purge that would have been applied under less

critical conditions. We were definitely told yesterday on the authority of die political correspondent of "The Times" ithat "Mr. Baldwin is not prepared to take disciplinary action, preferring to wait and see how the Wavertree situation develops," but he adds that there is a widespread demand from other constituencies for a revision of the party system. Even so, if it were a mere matter of party reconstruction, Mr. Baldwin might reasonably ask for a little time, but the unfortunate man is faced with the apparently still more widespread, and certainly still louder and more urgent demand for Cabinet reconstruction, and in the present temper of the party and the House delay might mean disaster. A very unpleasant turn is given to speculation today by the report of the "Daily Mail's" political correspondent. He says that a "Government, crisis of first-class importance developed during the Aveekend," that Ministers are "gravely per-1 tiirbed,", and that they are "wondering what will be the outcome." But | the peculiar gravity of this corres-1 pondent's report is in the prominence which he assigns to Indian policy as a cause of the Conservative revolt. The' Conservative-Party, the strongest" force in the National Government,' is, he says, completely out of hand. Opposition within the party to 'the Government's policy grows with Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary for India's, every utterance. His reiteration of Dominion status to India was the last straw. In assessing the value of this testimony it must be remembered that Lord Rothermere has long been seeing ;red in the" matter of India, and that parts of his papers which ought to be strictly impartial are apt to be coloured in the same way. But we | are bound to say that Sir Samuel Hoare's revival of "Dominion status" struck us as so serious a "faux pas" that we are not so sure that the "Daily Mail" man's diagnosis is biased as we should like to be. Mr. Baldwin's speech on the Bill will throw some light on what at the best is a very ugly position. 'On the. personnel of reconstruction the "Manchester Guardian" makes some-interesting comments. It believes that Mr. Baldwin, whose loyalty to Mr.- Mac Donald is certainly astonishing, may be reconciled to his resignation if satisfied that "the fate of the National Government under, his (Mr. Mac Donald's) leadership is imperilled." On that point if is surely time • that Mr. Baldwin ceased 'to doubt. The "Manchester Guardian" also states definitely that Sir John Simon has been asked to retire from the Foreign Office and become Lord Chancellor or Home Secretary instead, but that he flatly refused, and threatened to resign and take his followers with him. • Mr. MacDonald-and Sjir John' Simon appear to be the two weak spots' in" the National Government, | and-we trust that they will both be i nationally minded enough to see the point and act upon it Avithout delay. "