IN THE "ENGINE-ROOM."

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 286, 3 December 1915, Page 4

IN THE "ENGINE-ROOM."

The ta,sk of the British National Cabinet is not by any means an easy or enviable one. and there have beoii occasions when its administration has tiillcd forth very severe criticism. Taken as a whole, however, it must be admitted by ail fair-minded people that Mr Asqijitlj and his colleagues

from both sides of the House have done a large amount of invaluable work. This view is also held by ioreigners, whose opinions are not likely to be tainted by any "party political bias. A generous tribute to the services rendered by the National Cabinet, by a neutral student of politics, was recently published in the. London Daily Graphic. The writer said:—^"So far as, legislative work is concerned, the big tasks ot t\v.t Coalition Government have been the War Loan, the Munitions Act, the National Registration Act, the Coal Prices Restriction Act, and the Budget. All of these have, been presented arid handled very skilfully by ■the Ministers in charge; notably the measures for which Mr McKcnna and Mr Waller Long were responsible. The Budget, curiously- enough, has itself thrown it very instructive light upon the ngr'epable,-relations which have on the whole marked the Cabinet, in spite of those differences on compulsory service which undoubtedly promised trouble at one recent stas^e. When import duties were seen to be part oi" the financial [ machinery .Tor ' the double purpose or I raising revenue and. discouraging the purchase of non-essential goods from abroad, suspicious—and ■'perhaps even non-suspicio'iis—Free Traders at once concluded that the credit was due to the Unionist element in the Cabinet. But the Unionist leader has corrected this misapprehension, and incidentally made Mr McKenna's task with the complex Finance Bill all.the easier. 'This particular duty,' s<aid Mr Bonar Law, referring to the one on imported motor-cars, 'was 'suggested by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Cabinet; none of us, so far as I know, had my previous conversation with him on the subject; and personally I ,-;beJieve myself" that these particular duties would have'been imposed with ecmal certainty if there had not been Unionist members of the Cabinet.',:"' In speaking of administration "the writfer- says that the success of the Coalition has been very gratifying, in spite of incidents like the failure of the Munitions Act in-the face of the Welsh strike, and:' the slowness in interning alien .enemies. It is gratifying to know that what Messrs Asquith, . Bonar Law, and the other members of the Coalition have done is appreciated at its true worth by others besides their own countrymen. "The onlooker sees most of the game," and in the great ' 'game" of conducting the nation's affairs • efficiently and economically in the face of the bloodiest struggle of the ages is a task that would tax the brains of the most gated statesman.