A PRECARIOUS MAJORITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20906, 21 December 1929, Page 12

A PRECARIOUS MAJORITY.

The Coal Mines Bill, now under consideration in the House of Commons, represents a compromise by the Labour Party upon its pre-election pledges to the miners to nationalise the industry and to repeal the Eight Hours Act. Its proposals may be said to be those which the party has come to judge to be such as will meet the demands of practical politics. Before the Government brought forward this Bill every effort was made by it to induce the colliery proprietors to join the miners',representatives in a roundtable conference with Ministers to discuss the position of the industry and to draft a scheme for legislation. The owners, however, steadfastly resisted this effort, their unalterable belief being that to, enter into a national agreement with the miners and to consent to a reduction of hours as proposed w6uld have a disastrous effect. The Government has been forced, through the impatience of the miners, to bring down a Bill which provides for an elaborate system of coordinated marketing and for a reduction of the working day by half an hour. On the second reading of the Bill the Government, securing a majority of eight only, has come perilously close to being defeated—a fact'which will doubtless serve as a reminder to Mr Ramsay MacDonald and his colleagues that the Labour Party's tenancy of the Government benches is by no means unassailable. The Government has received a good deal of consideration from the Houso of Commons since its accession to power last June, for it was generally recognised that, in the problems of an international character into which Mr MacDonald, and his principal colleagues unhesitatingly plunged, they required the sympathy and co-operation of the entire House and that as little as possible should be said or done that might tend to their embarrassment. Mr Philip Snowden, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was thus enabled to visit The Hague with the full support of tho country at his back, and to make a somewhat spectacular and entirely successful plea that Britain should receive greater consideration in the redistribution of Germany's reparation payments, .while Mr MacDonald, for his part, in his discussions with the Ambassador from the United States and in his visit to America achieved' what promises to be "a valuable contribution to the cause of disarmament. With the plaudits of the people ringing in its ears, the Government had thereafter to turn its attention to industrial matters, where lofty idealism .must always give way to practical demands, and the result so far has not enhanced its prestige. The Liberal Party, upon which the Government is mainly dependent for its retention of office, has found the Coal Mines Bill not suited to the policy of its members, and.to this fact is due the closeness of the call which the" Government has now experienced. The most important taskthat any Government in Britain can undertake at the present time is that of revitalising the depressed industries and coping with the unemployment evil, and Mr MacDonald's endeavours in this direction have met with a chastening reception which must have its effect in warning him that his Government is in office at the pleasure of a wavering minority in the House of Commons.