MR ASQUITH’S IMPERIALISM

Evening Star, Issue 18394, 1 October 1923, Page 6

MR ASQUITH’S IMPERIALISM

Mr Asquith is hardly likply to attract many recruits to Liberalism, or to harden up the ranks of those who are sti iving to resurrect its shattered organisation, if he keeps on in the strain in which ho has opened the autumn campaign in its behalf. If what has been cabled is a fair summary of his address it consists of little except destructive criticism, of Governments which have failed to alter with celerity and certainty the most difficult world conditions arising from a war into which Mr Asquith’s Government entered by decision of Cabinet after weighty deliberation. Except for tho League of Nations, there is nothing but blame all round to those responsible for tho tasks of treaty making, of treaty enforcement, of conducting international relations, of administering finances, and of shaping general policies for tho betterment of a distraught, bewildered, and almost bankrupt world. No sign of constructive criticism relieves this unpleasant jeremiad. It ends on an almost phai&aical note. Mr Asquith’s closing sentence, “ thanking God that tho Liberals were not responsible for the transactions of tho past four years,” is far too reminiscent of tho model once held up of what a prayer emphatically .should not be—“ Thank God I am not as other men are.” Tho obvious retort of most loyal Englishmen to Mr Asquith may possibly bo to thank God that tho Asquith Government was not allowed beyond a certain critical point to remain responsible for the conduct of tho war during the preceding four years, otherwise Britain’s status in tho framing and enforcement ot peace treaties might have been very different indeed from, what it has proved to be. There is one point over which tho great majority of people in the Overseas Dominions aro almost certain to differ from Mr Asquith. Some may even resent violently what they may construe as a cheap sneer at themselves and their aspirations. Mr Asquith declared that tho idea of a self-supporting Empire was chimerical. It is not by sayings such as these that British Liberalism will redeem itself from the old reproach of being synonymous with tho Little Englander habit of mind in Empire matters. Tho temptation is strong to recommend Mr Asquith a dose of his ■own famous specific, and advise him to “wait and see” if the homoeopathic dose in which ho says Imperial preference is being administered fails to shako his unwavering belief in Ercctrado and his belittling of the place of tho Overseas Dominions in the scheme of Empire. The preference which nearly all the self-govern-ing parts of tho Empire accord in their Customs tariffs to British goods over those of foreign make is hardly to bo described as homoeopathic. Knowing that their representatives, now assembling in London, aro likely to press for some tangible admission of “ turn a bout’s fair play ” on Britain’s part, tho Protectionists, as Mr Asquith says, have indeed come out into tho open with a challenge. This challenge, ha says, tho Liberals have accepted. It is a trifle pathetic. The Liberals aro at present so puny a force in British politics and so destitute of real, forceful leadership that such swaggering as their acceptance of a challenge, not merely from tho dominant party in British politics, hut from tho whole of the rest of tho Empire (broadly speaking), is mere theatricality. Since trade depression settled like a blight on Britain, many minds have been busy on such constructive schemes as redistribution of population within the Empire, and tho growing of such raw materials as cotton, sugar cane and beet, tobacco, and other things in various parts of it. Mr Asquith in his speech laments tho long prevalence of unemployment in Britain, but his only remedy for this and other ills is adherence to a fiscal policy which has even permitted tho goods of other countries to invade Britain, the stronghold of their manufacture, and throw still more British people out of work. Mr Neville Chamberlain, as was only fitting, has promptly produced a cutting reply to Mr Asquith. His sincerely to bo hoped that no more Liberals will follow Mr Asquith im tho pursuanca’ of irritation tactics towards a body of men who are assembled to attack a scries of tho most complicated problems which have presented themselves for solution in tho history of tho British Commonwealth.