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Otago Daily Times, Issue 19311, 24 October 1924, Page 6

LABOUR AND THE ELECTIONS. The Labour Government at Home is basing its appeal to the constituencies on the double ground of achievement and intention. As regards achievement, the claims of successful foreign policy naturallv take a prominent place-. Within limits these claims are not illegitimate. Apart from the- question of the AngloSoviet Treaty, it is widely admitted that Mr Ramsay MacDonald has been a capable custodian of British interests and has exercised a quieting influence on the course of international affairs. Lord Curzon, perhaps a reluctant eulogist, is constrained to bestow a-measure of approval upon some phases of the Foreign Secretary’s diplomatic activity, though the Russian proposals have upset whatever degree of confidence he may have entertained. Whether foreign issues will affect next Wednesday’s voting to any great extent can only be a matter of conjecture. In domestic concerns the Government achieved little during the parliamentary session, and indeed proposed little of outstanding consequence. Some allowance has to he made for the exigencies of a minority situation, but the vigilance of the Opposition parties was not untouched by a quality of sympathetic fairness, and, to mention a single point, any bold and honest attempt to grapple with the unemployment problem would have been likely to meet with an impartially helpful reception. At the same time the colourless nature of tho specific programme, which stirred the resentment of impatient extremists, did not preclude a suspicion that Ministers were letting “I dare not” wait upon “1 would,” and that more radical proposals were held in reserve. The intentions of official Labour, rather than its mediocre achievements, will be engaging the minds of tho electors at the present juncture. Even now the Labour manifestoes are couched in unheroical terms. The “ca’ canny” note is still observable. ’The capital levy slogan is not sounded, and other features of the old propagandism are astutely kept in the background. But there are some proposals

of a drastic character calculated to arouse the apprehensions of economic orthodoxy. There are signs of a general leaning to the doctrine of national ownership of enterprises and industries on the part of the framers of the manifestoes. The particular suggestions are enforced by a strain of platitude, not to say cant, as jexpressed in the “appeal to the people to support Labour’s steadfast march towards the transformation of the existing economic and industrial system to a genuine Socialist commonwealth.” Cheap plausibilities of this kind are, it may be granted, common to all the political factions. Mr Ramsay MacDonald, in inverted circumstances, might describe them as “tramped up stunts.” Labour’s electioneering programme, taken as a whole, contains few arresting features, whether regarded from the Socialist or the anti-Socialist point of view, —though, reading between the lines, it may bo possible to detect disturbing ideas. It is mentioned in this morning’s cables that The Times comments pointedly on “the almost complete silence on Empire subjects.” While acknowledging the fairness of this reflection, we are not disposed to endorse Lord Curzon’s bitter stricture upon Mr Thomas’s attitude and policy. sfc is surely going beyond the mark to say that the Colonial Secretary’s speeches have “boiled with froti ? patriotism, while the Government has pursued a policy apart from and contemptuous of the dominions.” Lord Cordon himself has been unjustly censured, and perhaps he is suffering from an attack of recriminatory spleen.