The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1923. THE BRITISH ELECTION.

Southland Times, Issue 19097, 15 November 1923, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1923. THE BRITISH ELECTION.

Mr Baldwin has been able to close up the Conservative ranks, and will enter the election campaign with great advantages over his opponents. He is going to the country on the fiscal issue, but already it is clear that this will not be a clear-cut issue to the exclusion of other questions, both domestic and foreign. The return of Lord Birkenhead as Lord Chancellor is an interesting event, because he has not spared the Government in recent times on its foreign policy, but he is an adroit speaker and doubtless will get over the little difficulties created by his pungent comment of the last few months. He will be of immense value to the Government, because the Conservatives are not well supplied with good platform men. Mr Austen Chamberlain can return to the fold with more ease than Lord Birkenhead, and he, too, will be an acquisition to the Government forces. The Liberals have some terrible wounds to heal, and it is difficult to see how this remedial work can be carried through in time without some drastic measures. Mr Lloyd George antagonised the regular Liberals, and made bitter opponents of most of them on the fiscal issues raised by the Coalition Government’s departures from Free Trade under the guise of protection for key industries, and many of his old friends will find it hard to forget his sins. From the warmth of the Labour attack it would seem that the party does not welcome the election. Doubtless the financial aspect of the contest will press heavily on the movement and Mr Ramsay Macdonald will scent in Mr Baldwin’s use of the unemployment as an argument for protection a particularly insidious appeal, which will be hard to combat. Mr Baldwin is not to be blamed for proceeding at once to the country. He is committed to a n

protective policy, and if it is going to help the nation it must not be delayed. He has to secure release from the pledge given by Mr Bonar Law before he can proceed, and the election is the only way he can get the freedom he desires. All the same he enters the contest with every advantage. He has a solid party behind him, and his opponents are divided; he has shown more firmness in his foreign policy than any of his predecessors, and in combating M. Poincare he has earned the confidence of his countrymen. The Reparations problem will have an influence on the fight, and so will the issues involved in the defence policy. These things will assist him in the fight which primarily is said to turn on protection. If he is defeated, or if he loses ground, the fiscal policy for which he stands will be the damaging factor, because on other policy questions he probably enjoys the confidence of the vast majority of his countrymen. The campaign is to be short, but it will be sharp, and at the present moment it looks as if the Prime Minister, in the language of the sporting world, will go to the post a “screaming hot favourite.”