OUR BRITISH LETTER

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 303, 20 December 1922, Page 14

OUR BRITISH LETTER

Sent : by -the ■:■■'■•':' -\ -HcraWi* , Londoni ; - OCTOBER M. 1922.

Public interest- lias shi|ted : for the moment from/the situation in tho Me»r Sast to the political crisis at home* which is the outcome of, that situation. During the last week we have been-on the verge of a general election, the date of which varied to the speech raads by a leading politician. At the Hipment there! is a lull in pre-, dictions, pending the important Unionist meeting at the Garlton Club to-morrow on the result of which will depend the fate of the Coalition. If Mr. Austen, Chamberlain, following up his last week's- speech, in defence of the present Government, can carry with him ,uf that meeting a sufficiently -large body of" Conservatives, it is still possible that Mr. Lloyd George will so to the country on behalf of a Coalition Ministry. But nothing up to £ac- present lends,support to this theory. THE TORY REVOLT, Two things have clearly emerged from last weeks' meetings ;of -politicians: That there is a serious revolt against the continuance.. of the: Coalition among tiie rank and-sfile Conser•vafcives, ami. that thejtraeasi;. if possible; to.go to the country afra separate party, with a Conservative: policy. It was. at first thought that Lord Derby would lead the revolt, and that, may still, be.the case. Now, Lord Salisbury, the leader of tho 'Bie-Harde, takes the field, .with a speech in which ■he ridicules -Mr. Chamberlain's bogey of Bolshevism in the ranks of Labour, and- affirms the intention of the Conservative i-'arty to appeal to the workers for support'of a Conservative policy oi good government -instead of bad. Mr. Chamberlain, far from uniting -the two wings of the Cabinet by exhoriing tliem Lα present a united front aga-u.sr Bolshevik La]>our, has rather .iad." the "opposite effect. The Prime Minister, Iμ his apologia at Manchester on 'Saturday, carefully'; refrained 'from iaentloniug the Labour Party, iiml is evidently waiting to; see which ■ way-'the cat'jumps before coming out either- for or against the workers of the country, . ; j LABOUR'S POSITrON. All these. sLbrfiis in the'teacups of j the two parties—one wonders rather j whotker the more inspiring hour of! - lea ■ v.-ouM hot alter the- whole course j of our politics for the belter, if our* political .leaders chose tea-instead of luncheon for their pronouncements— j ■leave the position of Labour unassaile<3. They alone of the -political parties iiavo a definite aim, . a definite programme and definite' tactics for attaining both. They do not,.pretend that they..Vr'tint the Coalition to con-! tinuc a day longer; no speech, how-| ever plausible, from the PririSe Minis- ■ tor alters Lheir opinion that it' is time for him to go; they are ready and an-1 iious t-o so to the country with their ! plalfoiiii of International peace and! home reconstruction, and they alone ■ ■can• whole-lieartedly appeal to tliej workers -for'support. II tliey had thefunds Of the "bourgeois" parties they might well expect' to be returned to power by a. large majorit3": as it is,they every right to hope to return to Parliament a strong Opposition, if not a, Labour Government. Tlie country is- sick of the present muddle, and there seems a general disposition-, -except in the most reactionary quarters, to give Labour a chance to prove their case. What will happen to the Liberal Party nobody troubles, td prophesy. The Independent Liberals will probably vote Labour in those constituencies where they do not run a candidate of their own; and the other Liberals will probably distribute themI selves between Conservative and Lab-- ! our candidates. Of course, if the Coalition continues, most of the Lib- | erals will flnd their natural home under its protection. ; THE SITUATION IN EUROPE. ! Mr. Lloyd George's speech in de- ! fence of the Coalition's foreign policy I had a very bad Press iv France, where I M. Franklin-Bouillon, on :his return i from Mudania, stated in a -newspaper ! interview thjat if that policy had been pursued war would have broken out again In the world* He attributes to himself and to .the forbearance of : Kemal Pasha all the credit for having averted that war. What wag wrong in the Prime Minister's speech ;was not so much, what he said as what he left out. For example, he never touched upon liis famoiis, manifesto of September 16* wiiich very nearly plunged us into ;wap -without even th» knoirledge of the Foreign Ofllce or the rest' of the Cal»lnet t let alone Parliament! In -tfife situation is fuither af--fectea i>7 tifcie tentative movement there a new Russian Entente. M. Herriot, the Radical Mayer of Lyons, bas returned from Moscow, BLUfiij, jQleaeed with, Jii» -missioa, whicU

was" id establish commercial relations betweea the two countries; 1 mentioned in an interview •ithat the French policy with-' regard to th& Straits is far more popular; in Moscow, very naturally than, thp British policy,.: which seems .to .ignore the fact that the loss of. Riga/ iais a port renders-it essential to Russia; that she should have an outlet on! tjie Black Sea, and y certainly necessary ithat she should be., represented at the forthcoming Peace Conference/*Nd'tner tjie date nor the place of the Conference •is yet decided, the varying jinterests of tne Powers concerned i Tendering a different .locality suitable-:-Vtoi each.' , REPARATIONS!, i; ■'.■■■ The Reparations .question;, iv ,/vviiicb. haa been slightly (outside Germany) during ; inc. Near East crisis, is back with as ' againv . It, is clear from. Mr. Hoover's speech yesterday at Toledo; Ohio;-"liiati America cannot cancel -war \ debts/toj her without imposing a Mige kiew burden on American taxpayers, , winch'he"; says, no administration \vo'uid dare to' propose. At the same time, ip appeara from • inspired - statements j in. -tho French Press that the[ Frekck Goverament have no intshtidn'cjf.accepting Sir John BradbuiT'3''■'p'ljan of a "disguised moratoi-ium" for Germany, wMcljt he couples with a ; prcii)osal 'S>r the stabilisation of the mart, involving- a certain amount of financial control ovor Germany by th-e Allies. la Berlin, Rudolf Hilderliag,-: «pf the United Social Democrats, has, declared in a speech that-the collapsje'of tho mark, accompanied necessarily by an enorraau& demand for credits requiring industry to pay 120 per cent, yearly for its capital, immediate unemployment, an has not hitherto prevailed *in iTermany.ln France, in.-place of any reconstructive propesxd, it is- suggested that the whole discussion of the* reparations problem bo postponed till iafter the Reparations Conference ha& met; in Brussels m November; ! and simultaneously that the Gohferende'shall bepostponed till after the-settlement, of the Near Bast question T «rninents dilly-dally in this r of .fashion, wMle human lives fare: being sacrificed to the delay, it; is small wonder that the roughly- reactionary Eiovements, like that of -the Fascist! in Italy, should receive the |upport of the people simply because ?they offer security of a kind. • - i UNEMPFbOYMENT. I Our industrial situation-; is rather J worse, if anything, this this j numbers of registered unemployed i having again gone up,'this tinie by i 1317. There has been a k!nd : of riot jin Essex, where the unemployed, being refused an interview 'with the J Board of Guardians, broke into a bakery and seized the bread, there should bo this mild disturbance is not nearly so amasingr as liiat the imderI feeding; and, In some cases; starvation, lof the mass of the .workers jhas not ! already cause real rio.tsf allloVer the I country. The,distress in jtlie coal I fields • alone is a • more • potent reason for outbreaks than have '•often:•been adduced' for making a revolution;. It will be interesting to see ho.w the Conservative party ©E landowners and mine owners propose to catch the votes of the miners at the. forthcoming G-eneral Election. ' \ ; • ' - ■•■ . NEWS ITEMS. \ .; ■ ';.:" Mr, Lloyd deorg© and Warw-In a manifesto issued at the recent meeting of the National Council of the Independent Labour Party,' the Coali* don is accused of being responsible for the serious depression [and unemployment in this country an[d for much, of the ruin in Europe. The manifesto declares that so long - as, Mr. iLloyd George and his colleagues "are allowed to gamble in International affairs the danger of war will remain," and concludes by ctiliing. upon the people to overthrow th& Coalition at the forthcoming General i&ection and return a majority of Labour' members pledged to reconstruction of conditions at liome and -abroad -on the Socialist principle of co-operation for the benefit of all. " ■ .; '• ■' 3lr. McKejina aud Labour.—Mr; Reginald McKenaa has admitted to a correspondent of the "Daily: Herald" that some of the points he- recently put forward in his speech' t& American bankers In New^York were advanced by the Labour Party at the elections of 1918. He added that lie did not think the German Government to blame for the fall bftlie mark, as they had to make external paymenta by selling marks; the fall;' Was therefore inevitable. ' ~ - Dear Bread for England!—A Sigh agricultural authoi'ity pifedicte that the price of the loaf mety "soar to giddy heigttte" this winteii , / as a rfcsuit of the tactics qt the . Coalition Government in repealing |nat section of the Agricultural Act which guaranteed the farmers agstfns't loss iuuH at tbeeune time/ tlirougli tho W»e* Boards, secured to the agrionltoral iaboorer a decent wagfl Thie bas reduced Che «owlng ot whoat to ChewEt and im Uev v& JOift ja&wz *t

i big wheat combines in otherwheati exportingcountries. :■-■;■. V. ' I Moßalltjr end the law«~ Recent cases of "molesting"' and "solicitation , * in the Courts lend point to; the de- | mandu of women's.societies <;hat con- ' victions should only follow upon cvi- ; deuce by the persons annoyed, and ■ not merely upon police evidence. It is ■ stated that every year 3000 women are 1 imprisoned and another 3000 fined on ' charges of "-soliciting for immoral pur*' ■ poses without any other evidence being given against them except that of | the policeman who arrested them, and' to whose interest It is that convic- j tions should be secured. . Prison Asked [For.—lt is some meas- j uro of *the industrial distress now prevailing in Great Britain that a har-ness-maker, charged with stealing a cake from a shop,, should have asked the magistrate to send him to prison for the winter,..',on the -ground that-he was.out of work, and found the workhou&e so degrading. There was nothing else against him, and bore a good character. Cliristianity and ladustrlallsm.— Both an employer of labour and a trade union secretary, speaking on the same platform lately; ; declared that the industrial order, in its outstanding features, flagrantly contradicts our professions of Christianity. 'Jhe subject of the meeting was "The Gospel and Business."