OUR BRITISH LETTER

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 1, 3 January 1923, Page 2

OUR BRITISH LETTER

Sent by. EVELYN BMA ; BF."'for '".the Foreign .Editor oFtlie **»&% fieialij,' , • London. '..' NOVEMBER 1, 1922. Since my last letter Parliament; has been .dissolved, and Mr. Bonar Law's Cabinet has -been* completed : with the additioa of four.more peers and a notable Die-Hard in the person of Mr. Ronald McNeill, who, ,however, in View of the new Premier's pledge to stand by the Irish Treealy, must have decided that the Under-Steretaryship of Foreign Affairs was worth his abandonment of the extreme UlsterProtestant position—worth, in fact, a mass, as Henry IV.* (he ,Protestant King of France, said of Taris. ■ ,

If. hardly seems worth while, to form a Ministry at all, since, in Mr. Bonar Law's own words, he does not know where he is, and at best has only a negative policy to offer in his manifesto to the electors. Alter King Stork, Kins Log, as the .'ne,W. .Labour. weekly says. Nor does the new\Chancellor of the Exchequer," Mr,, Stanley Baldwin, hold out much hope that the party, which has been loudest in its demands for economy during the late Parliament, is going ; to cut down the burden on the taxpayer. In a recent speech, he said as much, adding' that his belief was that the Government could do very little tor agriculture or for any other industry-in Hie country. In the fact of this do-nothing pol'cy, Mr. Bonar Law and his now Ministers (those at least who are not ill the tlou.se of Lords) should soon discover where they are, and find that it is not inside the House of Common's. But, of course, elections are not entirely.ruled by reason, and personalities threaten to play rather more pan than usual in this one.

MR. LLOYD GEORGE ON T THE FENCE. The lale Premier is au adopt at .balancing, but bis first tentative move towards putting one leg on the. Tory side of the Coalition fence on which he is still silting has not been frar.ght with marked success. It was a pity that he once called Sir George Younger' "a cabin boy,"' for that gentleman is now ruling the Tory headquarters, and,he is by no means anxious to carry out any secret pact rumoured to have been made between the leaders of the new and the old Cabinet. It is unavailing for Mr. Bonar Law and Mr. Lloyd George, followed by certain ot their immediate friends, to hurl compliments at each other from their riva* platforms, if in the constituencies, always met halfway by Sir George Younger at headquarters, the Tories

refuse to make a pact with the so-

called "National" Liberals (Mr. Lloyd George's trumped-up party) and lv-

'■■ sis't on running then , own blue-blood ! Tories against them. . Certain Liberal neyspapers are calling- upon the lato Premier to abandon all hope of reviv- : ing the Coalition and to throw in his lot with the genuine Liberals —Inde-

pendent Liberals, so-called, or " Wee

Frees/ as they are better known—• ; who will have as many candidates in j the field as Labour, and nearly as i many as the Conservative Party. But I for the awkwardness of accepting the co-operation, if not the leadership, of \ Mr. Asquith, whom he turned out of : ofllce in IOIC, this is probably what I Mr, Lloyd George would have done by j now, and it is still what he may have >to do in the end unless he consents to \be crushed out of existence between tho Tory and Liberal wings of the ' anti-Labour forces. Compliimjnta I about his late services to the country ; aro not votes, nor is he gaining ad- ; herents by his delay, alone among the j leaders, in issuing his election niani- ' festo— because he has not I yet made up his mind whose proj gramme lie is going to-borrow.

LABOUR'S SIMPLE DIRECTNESS. I Meanwhile, Labour goes ahead with its appeal to the real people of the country, undeterred by any of these personalities or indecisions. . Alone of i all the parties who are contesting this I election, it knows what it wants'and J what it means to work for, .and it Js not deceived by any party labels into believing that, as far as tlia workers are concerned, there is any difference ?>etween Mr, Lloyd George, Mr. Asquith, and Mr. Bonar Law. All three have from time to time denounced the ■'Labour Party as a party of reyolutiqnary extremists, and a more misleaeiinV I description of tho Parliamentary LabI our Party of Great Britain could i scarcely be invented —as the workers know perfectly well if they take the trouble to look into the accusation. It is like a breath of fresh air to turn from the confused and negative manifestoes of other 'parties to that of tho Labour Party, issued as early' as October 25. Affirming that "a OonserV&tive Government has been formed to carry oiit a policy of naked reaction,"

the Party Executive appeals to "the men and women of the country "on,a policy of International Peace and National Reconciliation. , ' • -, ;. •«' -

Quite simply and categorically, the ixianifesto, sets forth Labour's inten-

j tion to work for the revision of the i "Peace ■ Treaties and the reduction of J German, reparations to the limit of ; Germany's ability to pay; for an all- \ including" League of Nations with dis- ; armament as its goal; for the real mii dependence of Egypt, and the right of j India to self-government, and for the ; acceptance of the new Irish Constitution. In industrial and agricultural matters the policy of Labour is outlined as already well-known, the" Trade Boards being strongly supported, as well as the reorganisation of rural and urban industries, and. the nationalisation of mines and railways. The Labour Manifesto alone includes 'the removal of all civil and electoral disabilities of women; and it declare.-; for real economy as against paring down expenditure on education, hous-. ing. and health a characteristic econof the late "Anti-Waste" Cfoverni'ment. Financially, the .Labour Party I stands for direct rather than indirect taxation, which falls heaviest on those \ least able to pay. and boldly adopts the capital'levy. Ami thereby" Jiangs a tale. '