The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1924. BRITISH POLITICS.

Evening Star, Issue 18533, 16 January 1924, Page 6

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1924. BRITISH POLITICS.

The battle bos begun, in the House of Commons which promises the beginning of a new era in British politics. There is no doubt whatever of what the result—the immedialte result, that is—will be. There has been no eleventh-hour compact between the parties that have divided hitherto the sweets and the responsibilities of office by which Labor might be baulked of the fruits of its endeavors. Nothing, apparently, can prevent 'the passing of the amendment of no confidence which Mr Olynes is to move to-morrow to the Address-in-Reply, and after that a new, untried party will be in possession of office. lit is not an outcome which is likely to fill Mr Ramsay MacDonald with undue elation in the conditions that surround it. The promised land which his party is about to enter, oven sooner than its own guides might have thought possible a few months ago, may well appear to present more 'thorns and thistles than grateful milk and honey, viewed in the closest prospect. “If Labor comes into office,” Sir Donald M'Lean has said, “ it will come in custody,” and that really sums up the position. The difficulties that are before the Labor Leader in tho country’s and his party’s circumstances cannot fail to dash any exultation in his mind at the triumptnjvihich he sees in prospect. Ihe historic parties whoso divisions promise to place him in office, if not in power, will have it in ‘their hands still to put him out of it at any moment that his policy in practice proves too extreme for their opinions. That consideration is as consoling to both Liberals and Conservatives ns ilt is bound to bo chastening to the Labor Party.

For the moment 'there is no war between the Liberals end Labor. Mr Asquith apparently sees cro reason why the new party should not be given its turn oi office, secure in the power which his followers would have, in conjunction with the Conservatives, to tum.iit out again if its administration should threaten danger to the country. That moderation of the Liberal Leader, who in the event of this last development being accomplished might be expected to bo himself the next Prime Minister, is of a piece with his past professions. Speaking some months ago about the prospect Of a reunited Liberal Party, an important statement was made by him as to what its attitude should he to Labor. “ Is Labor,” he asked, “‘to be the common enemy?” and in answer to his own question he declared : ‘‘lit would be strange if it were so.’’ With much reason he contended that it was Liberalism, by its progressive reforms, which “gave to Labor its charter, and unblocked the avenues through which it obtained access to the powers and 'opportunities which it now possesses.” A further statement by him was that “ I for one am not the least akirmed at the Red spectre Which seems in so many quarters ” —and here another Liberal, now in sweet league with him, Mr Lloyd George, may have been in his thoughts—“'to obsess the imagination and shake the nerves. ” Bult a danger in the Labor movement was pointed out by him when he went on to gay that 'the Labor Party was not in ms

real sense, at any rate for constructive purposes, a coherent party. “It is, in laot’, a coalition, comprising in its different sections men of conspicuous intellect and parliamentary ability, and many with convictions which have been burnt into their minds and souls by tip.-it-ha.nd ob--scmition, and even personal experience, of the cruel injustices'of our existing 'ndustrial and social system.” There were Labor supporters 'and Labor opinions with which no Liberals could co-operate, and the risk of those gaining the ascendancy must always be the danger of a Labor Government. But there were other Labor men, and not a few of them, in whom Liberals could find common ideals, and even common purposes, which they believed ■to be of Liberal origin, lie was iheitiore equally opposed to a Tory-Liberal combination and to a declaration of war against Labor. It was unfortunate for such moderate views as Mr Asquith has here declared, that the Labor Daaty should have felt impelled, so soon -after the election ol a year ago, to affirm the faith in Socialism which dismays would-be sympathisers. It is not much of Socialism, -however, which Labor will bo Ln a position to experiment with if it conies into office in, the present circumstances. Even a capital levy should be very easily concluded by it, alike for economic and political reasons, to he 'unsuited to the times. But a pohej of social legislation falling short of these heroics, which Liberals would be able to support, would be unlikely Ho meet with easy tolerance from the “ Die-hards ” of Mr MacDonald’s party, more especially as financial difficulties would set limits to it. Earlier difficulties axe quite certain to beset the Labor Leader iui the formation of his Cabinet. The inexperience of his party is a real weakness, though it can be exaggerated. If a leaven of expeacence is sought by the inclusion of Ministers such as Mr Noel Buxton, Mir C. P. Trevelyan, and Lord Haldane, who have never been identified with the struggles and obloquy of the Labor movement, however they may have sympathised with a Large part of its ideals, the strain that will be imposed upon the Labor Coalition’s unity can be readily conceived. Representation of the Government in the Mouse of Lords forms another difficulty, since the new peers who migUt be made from the ranks ol Labor would almost certainly be as obnoxious to root-and-branch Socialists as those, promoted before 'their conversion to Socialism, who might be chosen for their sympathies with tog party. In all the trials that will beset it, the experience of office that promises to fal now to a Labor Government is not likely to be more tliSn a short one. But the day of Labor is assuredly coming for the control of national affairs in Great Britain, as well as in. dominions where its importance makes no novelty, and the experience and the predtige (if all goes well) that will bo gained from even a brief season df the highest responsibility wall bo nwalimhle to its future political progress.