A POPULAR FRONT

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 119, 16 November 1936, Page 8

A POPULAR FRONT

NEEDED IN BRITAIN ?

SIR JOHN SIMON CONDEMNS

'OUR OWN TRADITIONS'

A leply to those who have been suggesting a "Popular Front" in Britain was made by Sir John Simon, the Home Secretary, at a Liberal National demonstration at Perth in support of the National Government recently (says the "Manchester Guardian"). The National Government, he said, represented the greatest measure of broad agreement for promoting the progress and safety of Britain.

"In some of the greatest countries of the world," he said, "the Parliamentary system has ceased to function, and democratic institutions have given place to quite a different kind of Government. Not only have dictatorships been established in different forms, but they receive the enthusiastic adherence of at any rate a large part of the populations concerned, and these foreign countries are working out their future along lines which are quite inconsistent with British notions of Parliamentary democracy. This is a development of tremendous significance.

"Does it betoken an inherent weakness in the democratic system from which we shall suffer in turn? Or is the explanation to be found in the failure of those countries which have abandoned the democratic system to work it properly? Whatever other countries may do, is there any reason why we should abandon the faith and practice of democratic government in our own land? I am most firmly persuaded that Parliamentary self-govern-ment is not only the system which in the past has given to this country its full development and its position in the world, but that it is the system by which, if we work it properly, we shall best conserve our strength and promote our further progress. Whatever may be the right course for other countries, the right course for us is to hold firm by our Parliamentary traditions and to justify to mankind the ways of modern democracy in the land of its birth. THREE CONDITIONS. "Three conditions must be fulfilled. One is that citizens should be well educated, so that they may form a fair judgment. The second is that the work of active politics should be felt to be an honourable career worthy of all that the best citizens can contribute instead of being considered, as it is in some other countries, as a dirty business devoted to intrigue and wire-pull-ing and private advantage from which decent people should hold themselves aloof. The third condition is that mere party squabbling and opposition for opposition's sake should not be carried to such lengths as to make stable government impossible, or to impede the effective working of the Parliamentary machine. In essentials there must be a measure of agreement. There must be reasonable cooperation in the national interest. These, I think, are the conditions under which Parliamentary democracy will survive in our country. "Whatever reforms of the system may be needed—and I do not deny that reforms will continue .to be needed—democratic government in this country, exercised through a freely elected legislature to which the Government of the day remains continuously res-ponsible, will not be overthrown. We will resist all who attack it, from whatever quarter they come. "There are, however, small bodies of people amongst us who are busily engaged in recommending to us quite a different system. The Communists preach Communism and the Fascists preach Fascism. They rave at one another, and give the police a great deal of trouble. But they both want the same thing. Both want to get rid of democratic self-government in favour of a dictatorship of one sort or another. Both seek to establish domination over those they don't like. "FOREIGN PRODUCTS." "The first thing to observe about Communism and Fascism is that they are both foreign products. They are not the natural products of British soil at all. Britain breeds many kinds of men, but British soil is a very bad breeding ground for dictators. Who is there fit to be a dictator in this free country? Who is there that the British people would accept as a dictator? For one thing is certain about a dictatorship—whether Communist or Fascist— that it will need a dictator or a group of dictators. I know of no potential dictator in England; I do not believe even Wales could produce one; and the fellow-countrymen of Robert Bruce and Robert Burns and John Knox and Jenny Geddes will no doubt be able to decide for themselves whether a dictator is likely to come out of Scotland. "We have no quarrel with "other countries because they adopt either of these systems, but the plain fact is that Communism and Fascism are equally opposed to democratic self-government, and are therefore equally repugnant to British ideas. And when we see the violence and confusion which the clash between these doctrines has produced in some other lands, we are determined to give them no sort of encouragement here. "These views, I am glad to see, are shared by the Trades Union Congress." "Meanwhile there is a new and particularly futile effort to embarrass the Government by the creation of what is called a Popular Front. So far as I can see the conception originated in one or two Opposition newspapers and in a minute section of Opposition Liberals. 'There is a Popular Front in France which carried the French Government into power,' so runs the argument, 'and there was a Popular Front in Spain which was also on the Government side; therefore let us form a Popular Front in Britain of various remnants of the Opposition and thus we shall become the Government in this country.' MISLEADING ANALOGY. "Analogies of this sort are very misleading, and the authors of this precious proposal have not had long to wait for their answer. In this combination of discordant elements tho Labour Parly would have to provide the largest contingent, and the Labour Party have firmly stated that they will have nothing to do with it. The Popular Front of many colours has begun to crumble almost before its sanguine authors have begun to wear it, and this curious specimen of political haberdashery won't wash. "Britain's strength at home and abroad depends on stable government which enjoys widespread confidence and is based upon the firm foundation of social justice and sound finance. The history of the last five years is the history of the rebuilding of Britain on a basis of unity which transcends party. "We look abroad and we see iiow the rise of Communism on the one hand and of Fascism on the other and the growing hostility between these rival forms of dictatorship threaten to overwhelm democratic governmentthroughout the world, if not to throw Europe into war. In the face of these dangers Britain has a vital part to play. She must be able to defend herself, and by her power of defence sho will help lo maintain peace as well as lo guarantee her own liberty. Without a stable Government, backed by a great measure of national unj.ty, we cou'd-not adcauately play our. part."