LABOUR GOVERNMENT CHALLENGED.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21215, 22 December 1930, Page 2

LABOUR GOVERNMENT CHALLENGED.

SAVED BY LIBERALS. UNEMPLOYMENT DEBATE. SYSTEMATIC DUMPING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 6. The Conservative amendment to* the Address, which challenged the Government on its failure to deal with the unemployment question, was rejected in the House of Commons on Wednesday night, the voting being: the amendment ~ 250 Against 281 Government majority 31 The prospect of a Government defeat b f® n removed by the announcement tnat the Liberals intended to abstain from voting. When the majority did so, five Liberals voted for the amendment, and four against. Lord Wolmar invited the Liberals to support the amendment. This was not an argumentative motion, but a motion for action. Vote for our amendment aad to ' m ° rrow .yon can put your own schemes for curing unemployment before the country. If you don’t like the amendment (addressing the Liberals), propose one of your own. Are you afraid that we shall vote for it? If the GovemStayS j V? . after tO -night, the fault is yours and it is a heavy responsibility.” ? COrge ' in his B Peech, showed that he thinks as little of Freetrade as a fixed principle as of Protection; but in seeking to shift the responsibility for keeping the Government in power on to the Conservatives ho could think of no better argument than that Mr Baldwin put them in power. “ But who kept them m power? came the obvious retort. He compimned that when the Prime Minister bad invited co-operation the leader bad dedined » and said. We want a free hand.” He (Mr Lloyd George) was bound to live in hopes to see what had come of the proposals outlined in the King's Speech. That looked like dropping the Oonservative ,bull. But-he next proceeded to criticise the Government strongly. Even now he feared that it had not made up its mind. If its defence was that it could do nothing because of the capitalist system, why then it ought not to have taken office—a sentiment that pleased some of the Socialist .back-benchers. If its excuse for failure was that limitations had been put on their action, whose fault was that? Not his own, for so far from restricting the Government’s action he had encouraged it to widen its policy. Then Mr MacDonald was observed to be smiling broadly. " The right non. gentleman seems amused,” said Mr Lloyd George. “No, not amused,” came the reply, “ but amazed.” THE TARIFF TRUCE. m B m ldwin P artic ularly criticised the tariff Truce, and from an angle that has not been noted before. Both America and Russia, he reminded the Government, were outside its scope, and one of those countries was deliberately endeavouring by dumping—which was as yet only in an elementary stage—to upset markets and sow the seeds of trouble in other lands. Before many months, he warned, the problem might be pressing. Gould the Government regard the incom ing wheat and timber as otherwise than injurious? Why were Britain’s hands being tied? Reviewing the speeches made in the long debate,-and noting the Protectionist tendencies everywhere disclosed, Mr Baldwin smilingly commented: "Whatever the ‘old gang’ are thinking, the young men are going the way I want.” Of the Socialist Front Bench he wittingly said; “They are in the position of fundamentalists who have begun to read Darwin,” and also recalled Herbert Spencer’s remark; “ The greatest tragedy in life is to see a theory killed by a fact.” DESPERATE PROTESTATIONS. It has been remarked that when the Prime Minister has little to say he says it much louder; and to meet the cry of “ two million unemployed,” which strove to lead Mr 'MacDonald to the heart of the debate, he raised his voice to thundering pitch. Palpably absurd that the Conservatives could have done better—Tory reactionist nations were in a worse state—the gold standard was a handicap—by irrelevancies and desperate protestations such as these the Socialist leader sought to frame some semblance of a case. The Liberals were divided. Five voted for the Opposition amendment— Sir Robert Hutchison (their chief whip), Sir John Simon, Mr George Lambert. Mr Kedward, and Sir Murdoch Mac donald. ■ On the other side were four Liberals— Sir Donald Maclean, Sir Godfrey Collins, Mr Runciman, and Sir William Edge. It was put about by a member with a good sense of humour, that the Liberals had sent out a three line whip, which ended as follows: " Your absence is specially requested.”