MR BONAR LAW’S WATCHWORD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18730, 7 December 1922, Page 8

MR BONAR LAW’S WATCHWORD.

“FREEDOM FROM ADVENTURES.” LONDON PRESS COMMENT. DIEHARD EXCESSES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, October 27. Lord Curzon presided at the meeting of Unionist members who elected Mr Bonar I,aw as their leader. ” This was a formal preliminary to Mr Bonar Law accepting tho invitation of his Majesty to form a new Ministry. Tho new Prime Minister announced that the treaty with Southern Ireland must be carried out, and hinted at the need for providing financial assistance, but ho reserved his general statement of policy till the meeting he addressed at Glasgow- yesterday. He w-as satisfied for the moment with setting up again for his ideal, as he did wiieu first called to the leadership of the party in 1911, Burke’s standard of a statesman—“a disposition to preserve -and an ability to improve.” The country, in Mr Bonar Law’s opinion, desires tranquility, ‘‘freedom from adventures and commitments both at home and abroad.” It would be necessary, he said, to abstain from attempts at improvement which at another time would be very desirable and very necessary. ‘‘What we want is quiet and as little interference as possible either. By legislation or administration.” The meeting sympathetically heard and acquiesced in Mr Bonar Law's stipulation that, should the state of his health require it, ho must be free at any future time to surrender the office he was accepting. Comments on this meeting by the London dailies are interesting. They indicate to some extent the intensity with which the coming elections will be fought, but they also present these great journals in the amusing position of trimming v their sails for a wind they have not yet felt. “For months and years,” says The Times, “the argument has been used by partisans of the late Coalition Government that its continuance in office was- inevitable since no alternative Government could, lie formed and no other than Mr Lloyd George could fill the Prime Minister’s office. We trust that those wiio so long and so thoughtlessly sought to hang this certificate of political and intellectual poverty round the neck of Great Britain may soon find cause to revise their estimate of' the nation’s capacity for looking after itself. The speeches at the Unionist meeting were simple and to the point. The spirit that animated them is, w© are convinced, widely shared in the country. If Lord Curzon and Mr Bonar Law were sparing of allusions to policy, they said enough to indicate the general tendency of the new Government. Lord Curzon’s statements that the Prime Minister wishes, like him, to keep foreign affairs, as far as possible, above and free from party; and that ‘we want to re-estab-lish peace, and it can only ho re-established by acting with others and not against them.’ will, we believe.” command the support of Liberal as well as of Conservative, politicians, s, DUKE OF PLAZA-TORO.

The Daily Mail has quickly found ground,, to adopt its accustomed pose of saviour of the country. “Vague phrases will not do,” the journal affirms m largo headlines. “Mr Bonar Law is understood to have intimated that he must consult his colleagues in the Cabinet before submitting a programme. This state of mind reminds us of that eminent but prudent warrior, (he Duke of Plaza-Toro, who ‘led his regiment from behind’ because he ‘found it less exciting.’ Wo should have thought that a prospective Prime Minister and the Loader of the most powerful and imited party in the State would not have had to turn so much to others before making a clear and emphatic declaration of the principles on which he proposes to govern us. " The principal reason why we refrain from hastily extending definite support to the new Government until we know more about it is that the last Government came to grief over the Near East, and Mr Bonar Law’s Government seems likely to follow its example. Mr Bonar Law talks of curtailing our commitments in these regions. Curtailment will not suffice.

“It must further be pointed out that general statements about reducing taxation will carry no weight with the electors. They want chapter and verse, for they have been fooled too often by vague promises. Our view is that Air Bonar Law has still to prove to The country that his Government is any better than the old Coalition with a new label, bent upon carrying out the Coalition policies to which so many Alinistcrs who remain in office are pledged.”

The above quotations are interesting as they show that now that the controlling hand of Lord Korthcliffe has gone The Times and The Alail will not necessarily chant in unison.

PROSPERITY AND TRANQUILITY. “The Conservative Party,” says The Daily Telegraph, “has chosen to assert an undeniable right in withdrawing from formal association with its partner in the Coalition, and in undertaking, through its leader, the high responsibility to which its strength in Parliament and in tho country entitle it. That it does so without misgiving. and with a grateful sense of tho situation having been relieved, was evident enough in the temper of yesterday’s gathering. . . . What Air Bonar Law evi-

dontly intends to convey is merely the sound old maximum that we must cut our coat according to our cloth, and attempt no more than Tn our present circumstances it is possible to carry to a conclusion. If that be reaction, then of a surety the people of this country are reactionaries of tho deepest dye. But if it bo prudence, common-sense, and the practical philosophy to which wo must look for tho bringing back of prosperity and tranquility, the nation will wish him success in the practical application of the principles he has laid down.” SWAPPING HORSES.

Tho Daily Chronicle: “The word with which Mr Bonar Law soothed and charmed his Diehard audience was ‘tranquility.’ The country needs ‘quiet.’ the quiet that can he given by ‘Conservatism in the broadest sense of the word,’ with little interference from, legislation and administration. It did not, apparently, seem strange to Mr Bonar Daw that. a. country so greatly in need of quiet should at. the same time be in need of a change of Government if only for the sake of a change. It is sometimes a real advantage, he said, to make a change, ‘even though there is no improvement in the change.’ At anv rate, a change has been effected, and the impulse to swap horses in crossing the stream has been obeyed, not. indeed by a united Tor- partv, but. by a majority of the party. . . It is to the country now. and not to the Carlton Club, or the victors in a party cabal, that wo look for a .verdict!. The emergency, rightly understood, is certainly one of the gravest that has confronted it: for if Diehardism really gets the bit in its teeth it will fake a stronger hand than Mr Bonar Daw’s to control it; and if it is uncontrolled. its excesses must excite counterexcesses no less perilous.” “RUINING THE COUNTRY.”

The Morning Post: “It is a tradition of the two groat historic parties in tho State to preserve courtesy and magnanimity in controversy. Both Lord Curzon and Mr Bonar Daw referred politely to the unfortunate terms Mr Lloyd George permitted himself to employ at Leeds. Nevertheless, lot, the Conservative Party make no mistake. When a demagogue announces that • he throws himself upon the people, we know what to expect. Mr Llovd George has indeed announced, as if lie wore proud of it. that he is thirsting for buttle. With whom? With a party which is simply desirous of restoring prosperity after disaster, and which supported Mr Lloyd George himself in pursuing what he said was the same object until it became dear that he was ruining the country. It does not seem to have occurred to tho ex-Primo Minister that, having failed, tho

least he can do is to stand aside and give other men a fair chance. Mr Lloyd George might take example from Mr Chamberlain. who, perceiving that what he regarded ns the right method for uniting the party was unacceptable, quitted the stage.”