LLOYD GEORGE MEETS NEMESIS

Maoriland Worker, Volume 10, Issue 447, 1 October 1919, Page 4

LLOYD GEORGE MEETS NEMESIS

British Government Sinking

INDUSTRIAL ACTION PARALYSES CABINET

Turn of the Political Tide

The following letter, written by a I 30th August, and gives a good ace and the results of direct action. The last week has been, on thwhole, one of triumph for Labor. Politically, of course, tho big thing has been tbe by-election—first East Swansea, with its Government majority reduced from 4130 to 1092, and now the smashing blow at BothweW. where a Coalition majority of 332 has been turned into a Labor majority oi 7168.,. In all there have been six by-elec-tions since this Parliament began its career. All six seats were held by the Coalition at the general election, c.nd ilio Government has lost four of .hem. and Ik._ held ihe two only by \_Mly d___.'.ini;.hed majorities. Thi. iota' vO'.o_; arc extraordinarily significant. In November in these six constituencies 63,_59 votes in all were cast for the Coalition, 30,616 against it. At. the by-elections 39,657 votes were cast for the Coalition, 50,945 against, it. That it was a turnover quite without, parallel in our political history, and I believe it is a pretty fair index of the change ol" opinion throughout the country. The plain fad is that the Government is already discredited, and tho country already disillusioned. .-Jr. Lloyd George was returned to power with his enormous majority not merely because the war had been -won, but because he promised a good peace, rapid demobilisation, abolition of conscription, and a vigorous, if vague, programme of reconstruction. PROMISES UNFULFILLED. Eight months have gone by. We have had a bad peace, slow demobilisation, continued war in the East, tbe menace of conscription unremoved. And from the glorious promises of radical reform nothing has materialised; it grows plainer every day that nothing will materialise, and that the Government is too completely in the hands of those vested interests oC which last winter the Prime Minister vowed he was not afraid, but to which he has consistently capitulated ever since. The Government seems to be bankrupt .both of policy and of energy. It is faced with a host of difficult problems, and every one of them it handles in an uneasy, nerveless manner that is losing the confidence of men of all political shades. Its military policy, _jts financial -rsviicy, its Irish policy, its attitude towards high prices, housing, transport, the land, the mines—and a host of other questions; all these—do not exist. No man knows what the Government thinks or intends from day to day, for its intentions, in so far as it has any at all, vary from hour to ii i_ facing a period of extraordinary complexity and difficulty with an ii'iespoii-ibfe opportunism that seems i,_ think oi nothing but of evading unJi to-morrow the troubles cf to-day. PAMIC-STI-iiCKEN GOVERNMENT. One thing tempers that opportunism. It is panic; panic fear of the big unrealised, industrial forces of Labor. Ln Parliament the Government is happy enough. Ministers understand the forces they are dealing with and they know how to meet them. But outside, they do not understand, they are afraid. They know how deeply rooted popular discontent is, and they find it expressing itself not through the political machinery they have learned to control, but through a trade union machinery right outside theiy grasp. That is the real meaning of the outburst of anger over the use of "direct action." The Government and their allies are simply afraid—afraid of something they cannot understand, cannot estimate, and, above all, cannot control. And fear, after its manner, is leading them from folly to folly. In the delusion that they are countering a Bolshevik plot, they are taking step after step to irritate organised Labor, when their one desire is to re-estab-lish an industrial peace that will leave their own power untroubled and secure. DISHONEST AND INCAPABLE. Their handling of the coal disputes has been an amazing revelation of their mentality. Thsy have seemingly got it into their heads that the Miners' Federation of Great Britain is the most dangerous, revolutionary force in the country. Robert Smillie has impressed himself on their imagination. ■You would swear that they dream of him o' nights. And, therefore, whenever they think of the coal industry they seem to ask themselves one question only. Not in least; "How can we facilitate the increased production of coal?" but always, "How can we dish the Miners' Federation?" That is why on the morrow of the Sankey Report they announced that the granting of the miners' demands would necessitate an increase of 6/per ton in the price of coal, and warned us that this meant the crippling of all our industries. It was not true. Sir Auckland! Geddes's figures have been analysed and exposed by Mr. Stanley Holmes, who is a distinguished accountant as well as a member of Parliament. He has shown that the 6/- estimate is entirely unjustifiable, arrived at only by the ignorance of some essential figures, the falsifying of others. There has been no defence. And we are apt to conclude either that the Board o. Trade cannot do simple arithmetic or that th-:: (-.t.-v-ernirienc de.!ib«-__tc.y faked its estimate in order to stir up public opinton against the miners. So, too, in the Yorkshire coal dispute. Tho whole thing arose from, sheer bungling and ignorance—again on the pari ol Sir Auckland Geddes. It could have been settled in a day by a frank acknowledgement of ttip .J_l_-i-L<y:» . ■■■- - j

labor journalist, is dated from London, omit of the political situation there But that would have been to "capitulate to the miners." Perish the thought! So instead we had a great outbreak of melodrama. Wo were warned that the Yorkshire men were plunging the country into chaos and anarchy. Factories would close down, | industry would come lo a standstill, trade would be ruined—all because o': a week's stoppage in one coal area. At all costs the miner had to be painted as the villain; the public must be made to suffer so that they might lay tne blame for their suffering on the Miners' Federation of Great Britain So train services were reduced, gas was' rationed, coal was rationed, exports wero prohibited, food rationing was threatened; sailors were dramatically sent to save dry mines from flooding. The Government spent the days that mi„ht have settled the strike in staging their melodrama. And their longing to give us all a lesson of the evils of "direct action" must have cost the country a good million tons of coal. However, the ruse failed; the whole business was too clumsy and too obvious, and the chief result of it all was to irritate the general public still more against the Government itself. But the biggest event of all the week—entirely outweighing in importi ance both the by-elections and the Yorkshire dispute, has been the capitulation of the Government to the threat of a Triple Alliance strike. For months past we have been trying by political action to compel the Government to withdraw from Russia, to abolish conscription, to abandon the policy of using troops as -black-legs, and to release the conscientious objectors from prison. They have taken not one scrap of notice, but have gone merrily on with their plans. GOVERNMENT SURRENDERS TO LABOR. Then at last tho Alliance moved. The ballot papers w.ei-e prepared. The issue of the ballot was a foregone conclusion. And within a few days the Government surrendered, and promised 10 fulfil every demand. Mr. Churchill has pledged himself to complete withdrawal from Russia before the winter, and to the abolition of conscription at the expiration of the present Act. He has declared tbar the secret circular has ceased, and that the conscientious objectors have, all been released. These pledges are, of course, only pledges, and nobody has any particular confidence in the Government's promise. But the probability is that they will be kept, if only because of the manner in which they have been obtained. Even the Government, short-sighted as it is, must realise what will happen if they attempt, when the immediate danger of a strike is past, to go back on their promises. If they do I after their protestations retain tr .ops [in Russia next winter, or if they try to i-impose conscription, they will discover that organised Labor in this country will not have the promises mad 3 to it disregarded.