BRITISH STATESMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18297, 13 January 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

BRITISH STATESMEN.

LABOUR'S OUTLOOK.

BY B. T. RAYMOND. Author of " Uncensored Celebrities."

Labour is the dark continent of the political world; and the old rule of Omne ignotum holds. Wherever two .or , three politicians of the older schools are gathered together, there in the midst of them is the terror of Labour. Sometimes it is alleviated by a great strike or some specially foolish speech on the part of a Labour. leader, either event being interpreted as tending to depress Labour stocks by alarming the middle classes. , Sometimes it -is intensified by a sensational bye-election success. But it is always there, more or less. '

Just before the election an exceptional gloom prevailed. In view of the storm of criticism to which the late Government was recently exposed, and the rupture of .the Coalition, the. chances of. Labour were believed to have improved to an extent which the leaders of the older parties found most disquieting. It was not, of course, believed that Labour could secure an absolute majority, but I believe that the late Government was quite prepared for, perhaps, 250 Labour members. Labour will probably never agree again to occupy its position of 1906-14 m the tail of the Liberal Party, and in .view of its successes at the polls discussion as to a possible Labour Premier is not. quite so futile as might appear at first sight. Mr. Arthur Henderson, If he returns to' Parliament would have, presumably, the first claim. He held a most distinguished place in the War Governments; he is most popular with, trade unionists; he is, though " advanced," a thoroughly respectable figure. His chief handicap is a tendency, rather pronounced even among Labour politicians, to confused thinking. He tells in the same breath about perfect freedom for everybody and about almost universal compulsion. He rails against bureaucracy, xvhile urging an enormous extension of national control. He proposes to get revenue from the biggest incomes and fortunes," and in the next sentence declares that Labour policy must aim at making big incomes and fortunes impossible, since the "notion of private gain" must give way to "the notion of public service." The profiteer must pay, but the profiteer must also be eliminated. On almost every question Mr. Henderson wants to eat his cake and have it.

A Good Team Heeded. \ But after all such cloudiness of view is not confined to Labour; we have seen much of it in other quarters of late years; .And there is really nothing to prevent Mr. Henderson going successfully through the motions of a. Prime Minister if he can secure a good team. Tn general ability Labour is much less deficient than many people think. It has no great man. But Mr. J. R. Clynes is certainly fit to compare with the average Minister of the late Coalition; Mr, J. H. Thomas, though So far untried, has shown in other fields a shrewdness, a courage, and a skill in negotiation Which promise well for his success in office j Mr. Ramsay Macdonald used to be one of the best debaters in the House? Mr. Philip Snowden is clever and able in his bitter way; and there are several younger men who would no doubt develop! rapidly: Mr. Sidney Weibb is ah intellectual munition house; and the party need fear no lack of technical 'ability, in tho fields with which it is least familiar.

Tendency to Routine. The difficulty would not! be so much to form a presentable Government as to carry out anything even remotely resembling the programme which Mr. Thomas Was so indiscreet as to elaborate in his book. In the opinion of many acute judges, Labour, ."when Labour rules," will find itself to quiiie an exceptional extent in the hands of the permanent officials. It was generally noted, during the war, that the leading characteristic of Labour Ministers was their extreme tendency to routine. They rarely decided anything " off their own bats," and were always prepared to refer and to defer. In the House of Commons, again, Labour members are rather specially formalists they may protest against the ritual of the House, bub they like it, or, at any rate, they are keenly sensitive that it would be bad form not to appear to like it. :

On the whole is hard :to see any of the Labour leaders -who are at ; all likely to control or form a Cabinet acting.-the part of violent revolutionaries. No doubt they would start on \ some ambitious schemes, fiscal and otherwise. : But they still have to test the enormous.power of } inertia, in Parliament, .in thp public services, in the country arid; if, as -would certainly be the case under the most favourable circumstances, they had to call in a considerable degree of "bourgeois" support, their difficulties as red-hot levelling reformers would be vastly multiplied. It is the fashion to shudder at the vrry words " Labour Government." If the state of the country permitted us tp afford the experiment in other ways, it would perhaps be by no means a bad thing for Labour to have .its trial.. . On the one side a bogey would probably be definitely disestablished, on the ; i other many illusions would be shattered if Mr. Henderson were indeed estaorished for a i year or two at Chequers. ;

Lord Birkenhead. With everybody else the Woolsack is the end of a career; Lord Birkenhead only took it on condition that the House of Lords should be so reformed that his peerage would not act as an extinguisher. Of all men at present in politics he gives, perhaps, most promise of indefinite expansion. An extraordinary capacity is his of getting without apparent effort firm hold of any subject which he wishes to master. His memory_is most remarkable. I remember one occasion on which he replied to a lengthy speech of which he had taken no notes whatever. Not only was he able to deal in detail with every point, but he actually quoted, word for word, considerable extracts from his opponents' arguments. His work of the past three years has done much to dim the legend of fche mere brilliant opportunity. He showed great courage over Irish policy; faced for conviction's sake the charge of apostacy, the certainty of losing friends, and the possibility of followers. But he has still to get rid of the impression which his dislike of pretence and contempt for platitude have done much to fosterthe impression of having his tongue always in his cheek, and being 'still, in ■ spirit, the dandified undergraduate of the Oxford Union. =••.■'■'■.' His chief enemy is himself, or at least that part of himself which insists, at 50, in getting everything out of many kinds of life, and believes that " the best of all ways to lengthen our days is to steal a few hours from the night." Lord Birkenhead has himself said that, while he laments many hours frittered away on work, he regrets none spent in '■ sport. That is a harmless enough philosophy for an unusually vital young man. But the time has gone when Lord Birkenhead could sit up one half the night to justify a legend of graceful idleness and the other half to create one of seemingly miraculous efficiency. There are not wanting signs that he must consider a little more his limitations as a human being no longer quite young. ;;■ If he heeds such warnings, and keeps his brilliance to its proper use, which is that of a condiment, he can hardly fail to be a power. v -