“A BAD DECISION”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27212, 15 October 1949, Page 7

“A BAD DECISION”

Delaying Of Election British Press Comment NZPA—Copyright Rec. 11 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 14. By deciding to stay in office, the British Labour Government has challenged itself, says The Times. The uncertainty about the election has been dispelled only to show, looming larger and nearer, uncertainty about the Government’s policies. The weary sequence of reviews, inquiries, talks, and disputations is still going on throughout the Government, and indeed throughout the Labour movement. The Government can only give meaning to the Prime Minister’s refusal to ask for an early dissolution by putting an end to all this. The Labour Party’s Daily Herald comments that Mr Attlee’s decisipn that Parliament shall not be dissolved in 1949 was the right decision. When the election comes, it will be fought on the. calm comparison between parties, and between their past deeds and future intentions. That is the sort of comparison the Tories are desperately anxious to dodge. They will not be allowed to dodge it. The independent Right Wing Daily Express describes Mr Attlee’s decision as “a bad, bad decision.” It adds that it condemns the country to an undefined period of electioneering. The argument that might have been settled by the end of November will drag on possibly into the late spring. .The Daily Telegraph says the delay now will not end the uncertainty in which business conducts its affairs. There will be tension continuing over many months. The Manchester Guardian comments ■that Mr Attlee’s decision is probably a profoundly mistaken one. We are condemned to a prolonged bout of election fever, good for nobody.