BRITISH POLITICS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21360, 13 June 1931, Page 16

BRITISH POLITICS

ANOTHER CHANCE FOR 'LABOUR NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE 1 j ' , LIBERALS SAVE THE • GOVERNMENT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, April 17. Mr Lloyd George and ms followers refrained last night 1 from ' passing the death sentence upon the Labour Government. The occasion was the vote,; of censure on the Government for “having failed to carry out their election'pledges with regard to unemployment and having ceased even to attempt any remedial measures,” Thirty-seven / Liberals voted with the Government, as did also five Independents, while the Labour vote alone was sufficient to give the Government a/ majority ;of 12 over an Opposition combination; which consisted of. 238 Conservatives, 10 Liberals, and 3 Independents. ' , ' Mr Baldwin quoted passages from, election speeches, .of the Prime Minister, Mr J. H. Thomas, and Mr Arthur Henderson. expressing the determination of the Labour Tarty to deal effectively with' unemployment if' returned to office. He said that Mr Thomas was set an absolutely impossible .task and that the Government’s policy was one to save the confidence of the country. Mr Baldwin' /recalled the recent pro-, nouncement of Mr Snowden, in which he stated: “I Bay. with all seriousness.> D can command that the national, position is so' grave that drastic .and disagreeable,, measures will haye to be taken if Budget equilibrium is to be maintained and if industrial progress is to be made.” ... What, asked Mr Baldwin, was reary in the Chancellor’s mind when he mode that speech? • LACK OF CONFIDENCE.; ; :

If the Government were taking any steps to deal with the problem of reorganisation of industry, the House should bo told what they .were doing. Ho (Mr Baldwin) had a suspicitSL that they were doing, nothing, . ' Proceeding,-he said: Whatever the Government may have done or may. not have done, at all events they have not fulfilled their pledges and promises on unemployment held 1 out to the electors two short years ago, . ■ There is one intangible, imponderable thing that is absent in the industrial world to-day, and that is confidence. Confidence is. lacking for one reason because the, country as a whole has lost qll faith in the ability of the Government to deal with unemployment. People have lost confidence through seeing expenditure incurrred when business and trade required that no fresh commitments should be undertaken until trade is bstisr* * They as' a consequence resented taxation at a time when industry needs, relieving to the utmost possible extent of its burdens. THE ELEVEN PLEDGES. The Liberals had agreed to reserve their decision until after the new Lord Privy Seal (Mr Tom Johnston) had spoken for the Government. “The House will, perhaps, forgive me. said Mr Johnston, “ if I do not seek to follow the righ hon. gentleman in the humorous commentary which he made upon certain selected oratorical efforts at the time of the last general election. Fortunately, we are in possession of the printed programme upon which the Labour Party appealed to the electors two years ago. Into every house _in every division where a Labour candidate stood there was placed a copy of this document, ‘ Labour’s Appeal to the Nation, and finder the heading of ‘Unemployment we said there what it was we hoped and promised to do if we secured a majority. —(Ministerial cheers.) We said in' so many word that we wanted a majority but the programme which, we set out as our. programme for dealing with unemployment was divided into 11 specific points. Of these 11 specific points .or pledges, eight have now been attempted in this House. One of them failed because it was assassinated in another place. (Ministerial cheers.) One of them failed because the dominions were utterly unable, in the present state of trade, and industry, to take further migrants to their shores. That accounts for 10 out of the 11 pledges. I propose to'-go over them now, and I propose to ask some succeeding speaker in the light. of the facts which are provable, to justny the terms 'of the resolution which the Uppositio'h have moved.” LITTLE DETAILS. ’

To judge from the new Minister’s first essay (writes the parliamentary correspondent of the Morning Post), a native caution and a love of little details are the dominants of his nature. The _speech reminded one of Mr Thomas’s early and desperate struggles to make a show; in reciting what the Government have done, his successor omitted not even the erection of washhouses and repairs to sea walls, and the tale of what the Government intend to do comprehended even the pushing of bathroom equpiment in south A Mr Lloyd George, after holding His Head for some time at an attentive angle, y back and seemed to be -calling on gods. As the Third Privy Seal went his measured way, a numbness fell on the House; figures and facts entered in at the ears, but ceased to lodge in the brain. There were, it must be admitted, plenty of extra promises—more hous es, in country districts; • a determined attempt to extract oil fuel from British coal.; the encouragement of tourists; a hint that credits are to be granted yet more loosely to Russia; a glorious plan to eiectnty railways at vast cost during the next years; and an alarming project of , growing spruce trees over our open moorlands and hillsides until the country looks like a back-scene of the Canadian Rockies. As soon as the Minister finished the leader of the Liberals sprang up and marched out with Chief Whip and general staff. The rest of the party fell in and followed. The had gone to confer.

MR LLOYD GEORGE’S ATTITUDE. Mr Lloyd George, on returning, outlined the attitude of the Liberal Party in the debate. He said he did not Hun* he would be justified under present conditions in moving a motion of that kind. He was not going to pretend that ilie was satisfied with the progress of the Government in dealing with the problem of unemployment. Liberals, he declared, were prepared to support the Government in any scheme which would lead to national reconditioning and reconstruction, and there was a vast amount of work to be done. He could hot support Mr Baldwin, and he thought at the present moment it was an unfair and unjust motion. The Prime Minister said the motion was one of the oddest and queerest votes of censure ever moved upon a Govern ment. . Dir Mr Baldwin really think tha' the Liberals were such simpletons that they would turn out King Charles to put in King James in his place? THE LIBERALS’ CHOICE. Mr Chamberlain said the debate had been interesting not so much because of

any new or valuable contribution which had been made to the. of unemployment as because it had indicated, the. attitude of various sections of the House towards the position of the Government. They had not heard very . much from Labour members of the disappointment, disillusionment, and resentment which ■ many of them were known to be feeling. Everybody had known for days past that > the real arbiters of the fate of the Government were to be, found on the- , Liberal benches. They had not wanted for advice as to the course they should take. A few days ago an eminent., member of the Liberal Party whose’ name was received with respect far beyond the con- - fines of his- own party gave them advice not to do anything to turn out the present Government. But he did so oh . the ground that the Chancellor of the Ex-. chequer i had put his foot down against any further expenditure, which, he said, the country could not afford. On the other hand, the Lord Privy Seal Had based his reason for Liberal support, on the ground •-v that he was going to: embark on . new ex- . penditure. It, would seem therefore if there. were any Liberals who would desire to sup- - * port the Government on this occasion it • would not 5 be difficult for them to find a reason for doing so. They could even find -opposite reasons for-taking the same ’ '• course.— (Laughter.) -Everybody knew that the'fight between the Liberals: and the Government was only a sham fight.(Cheers.) When Mr Lloyd George got . up to speak none of them had any doubt as, to what, conclusions would- be arrived at; the only thing that filled them with intense curiosity was to know what we're the reasons which would be given. The; right hon. gentleman described, the Government ;as. fighting- Jor . thenr,.-' lives, , although he knew .that he . himself .had , . already insured them fully, ,■ Mr. Macdonald said-that:,if the,Governmerit were defeated they would be glad. to take up iMr Baldwin's challenge and” give him an admirable chance of proving - : the correctness of his opinion that a policy of food taxes' would lead to the defeat; of the Conservative Party. The division resulted as follows; For the motion .. .. .i,...:260Against .. 305- . .Majority ... , C 5 "Just a* 'Man never is but always A* be blest,’ ” comments, the Daily Telegraph, “so. the really novel inspirations . of this Government with respect to unemployment are always just about to be ._ born but never arrive at the actual Birth. How wiH such an inchoate programme entender confidence? r lt l will:not excite.a ope or stir a pulse. This 1 Governments ::■= is only good at destruction;--its genius is - shown in-putting men out. of employment, not in finding new work for the unemployed.” .. ' , , ■- ' : ———a. ' it