LONDON CHAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12419, 14 November 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON CHAT.

[from OUR own correspondent.]

London, October 2. If people imagined that in Mr. Balfour's great speech last night at Sheffield, they were going to be told anything about the Ministerial crisis, the reason of its long protraction, or the nature of its prooable outcome, they must have been grievously disappointed. Nothing of the sort was mentioned, or even hinted at. Certainly the present Ministry has been either singularly skihul or exceptionally lucky in its evasion of awkward matters. Ml. Chamberlain, by springing on the country his preferential tariff policy, effectively shunted off public interest from the War Commissioners' report and evidence. Mi. Balfour last night by annuoncing as his sole subject the policy of his Government regarding free trade, and by sticking persistently to that topic, averted with equal efficacy all inconvenient queries as to the reason, of the extraordinary delay, now of more than a fortnight's duration in the reconstruction of his Ministry, and the curious circumstances connected with the resignation of some of its members. But this last diversion at any rate has had but fleeting, if sufficient, effect. Those present at last night's meeting might have forgotten to ask Mr. Balfour why bis Administration took so long to reconstruct, or when and how it was to be reconstructed. But to-day everybody is asking those questions. And still nobody can obtain any reply. Apparently the very definite information on the first of these beads .which I was able to forward to New Zealand readers last week has not yet reached the newspapers of the Mother Country, although some seem by slow degrees to be getting an inkling of the truth. Perhaps they may have been specially induced to suppress all reference to the fact, although that seems hardly likely. However, this may be, the position remains that the King has insisted upon a satisfactory assurance as to the adequate reorganisation of the Imperial forces, together with a. full explanation of the proposed modus operandi as an indispensable condition of his assent to Mr. Balfour's proposals for the reconstruction of his Ministry, and His Majesty has-takeu this step in the strictly constitutional assertion of his Royal prerogative as the supreme military authority of the Empire. Up to the time 1 write the Premier, so far as I can ascertain, has not been able to satisfy King Edward upon this point, and hence the astonishing, the unparalleled delay in the completion of the process of Ministerial reconstruction. There have been comments of some severity on the strangeness and unfortunateness of the fact that at the time of the most serious financial situation known for some years, England should be without any Minister of Finance, the Chancellorship of the Exchequer being still vacant.

I have leason to believe that another point upon which the King expressed very decided views, and bore himself with resolute firmness was the filling of Mr. Chamberlain's place in the Colonial Office. It is rumoured that so far the only names suggested for the Colonial Secretaryship which found favour in the eyes of His Majesty were those of Lord Milne and Lord Cromer. Either would doubtless be an excellent choice, but would bo subject to the serious objection of involving the leaving of an important work not yet entirely completed. The departure of this week's mail leaves the whole question still unsettled.

But as regards the future of the present Ministry, provided Mr. Balfour can reconstruct it to the King's satisfaction, a prognosis is not a very difficult matter." The intention unquestionably is that Mr. Balfour shall lead the way with his policy as declared last night of renouncing all adhesion , to free trade as a dogma or article of politi- j cal faith. Mr. Chamberlain, meanwhile, as a i free lance, will persistently stump the coun- I try, demonstrating that while his late chief is undoubtedly on the right track, he is yet only on tin threshold of, the new departure, ! and that the forward course must be con- | tinued on his own (Mr. Chamberlain's) more j advanced goal of Imperial reciprocity shall j have been reached. The chief Government j Whip has definitely declared that Ministers ' do not expect or intend to have a general j election for at least two years, perhaps i three. It is fully expected by most Conservatives, and by man;- Liberals as well, that j by that time Mr. Chamberlain will have j talked over the constituencies, and the Minis- j ters who still remain in office, and Mr. Bal- ! four himself, into entire acquiescence in his (Mr. Chamberlain's) policy, and that the general election will result in the return of i majority pledged to the support of such j policy. In that case another Ministerial reconstruction will take place. Mr. Chamber- j lain will become Prime Minister and Mr. Balfour, still remaining a member of the Cabinet, will retire to the House of Lords j with an earldom. Such is the programme ! and such the forecast. Time alone can show how far it is founded upon an accurate I appreciation of the trend of political eventj. ! It is devoutly to be hoped that during the j present period of financial stress and military | unpreparedness, we shall not find it neces- ! sary to plunge into another war. And yet a I certain class of agitators will not be happy j until they have precipitated us into this disaster. Just as the denouncers of "Bui- j grocities" ant J Armenian outrages and Russian oppression of Poland could they have had their way, would successively have committed Great Britain to a course of action whose only possible outcome must have been war, so at the present time a 'lumber of wellmeaning, but unduly excitable and over-ex-cited persons are doing their utmost by means of clamour and shriek to bully Mr. Balfour and his colleagues into attempting what is self-evidently impossible. When Mr. Gladstone for the last time emerged from his retirement, and started a pro-Ar-menian agitation which caused Lord Rosebery to sever the last link that bound him to his treacherous and disloyal party, Lord Salisbury on being implored to intervene on behalf of the Armenian's, made one of his characteristically caustic replies, intimating his perfect willingness to do so, provided the agitators could explain to him how a British fleet was to be navigated overland to the scene of action, that being the only possible way in which England could intervene, namely, by a naval demonstration. The situation is very much the same to-day in relation to the pro-Macedonian demonstrators ; they roar blatantly that the British Government ought to "do summat," but they always most carefully avoid attempting to give the faintest indication of any " summat" that could possibly be done with the slightest hope or prospect of success that would not even have the undesirable effect of aggravating the shocking situation which everybody. Liberal and Conservative alike regards with horror and disgust.

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