The Daily News TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1933. MR. HENDERSON’S RETURN.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1933, Page 6

The Daily News

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1933. MR. HENDERSON’S RETURN.

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Not for the first time in his political career Mr. Arthur Henderson, at one time leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party in Great Britain, has found a “safe” seat in the House of Commons. The Clay Cross constituency remained staunchly Labour when the National Government swept almost all before it in the general election of 1931. Mr. Henderson had been Foreign Minister in the Labour Government which ended so disastrously earlier in the election year, and as such had been the representative of Great Britain at the Disarmament Conference at Geneva. When he refused to join the National Party and resigned his office he was allowed to retain the chairmanship of the conference. Though as leader of the Labour Party at the general election he bitterly opposed the National Government, and lost his seat at Burnley in the process, it says a good deal for the high standard of politics in the United Kingdom that even the loss of Parliamentary status was not allowed by his opponents to interfere with Mr. Henderson’s efforts on behalf of disarmament. He remained president of the conference,’ and his efforts towards the maintenance of peace had the active support of the National Government. For many years it has been the unwritten law in Great Britain that foreign affairs must never be influenced by domestic political party exigencies. In peace and war the foreign policy of Britain has been consistent, no matter what political party was in charge of the Treasury benches in the House of Commons. It was this tradition that made it possible for Mr. Henderson to remain president of the Disarmament Conference, in which position it is generally admitted he has rendered yeoman service. Unfortunately the results attained have been disappointing, but his bitterest political opponent has never argued that lack of ability or continuous effort on the part of Mr. Henderson has been the cause of the failure to bring about general disarmament. This being the case, it seems rather ungenerous that when his election was assured Mr. Henderson should speak as though only the Labour Party had really approved of. his efforts for the preservation of peace in Europe. Those efforts could not have been made by him except by the warm support of the National Government with Mr. Henderson’s former leader, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, at its head, and no one knows this better than Mr. Henderson. It is probably appreciation of his work on behalf of disarmament that has led to a diminution of the anti-Labour voting at Clay Cross. At the election in 1931 the Labour candidate obtained 21,100 votes. Mr. Henderson has increased this by 800 in the recent by-elec-tion, while anti-Labour votes fell from 11,000 in 1931 to 9000 last week. To maintain with Mr. Henderson that this denotes the growth of dissatisfaction with the National Government, or that it is a call from the nation'for the Socialistic policies the Labour- Party has. announced and supported is to take up a very untenable position. The Socialistic experiments of the last Labour Administration went nearer to wrecking the economic stability of Great Britain than even its most ardent adherents were aware of. Mr. Henderson more than any Labour leader in the 1931 general election contest prophesied the early breakdown of the National Government. Yet it has survived and maintained its strength in the face of difficulties that would have proved almost insuperable to any Ministry dependent upon party support for its strength. Sacrifices have been asked of the community that exceeded many of those demanded when military dangers were most acute. They were accepted because it was known that they were necessary, and that no political gain lay behind them. Today the country is beginning to feel the good effects of the unpleasant “medicine” it was required to take. The turn of the tide has come. Trading is on the upward plane, and confidence in themselves, in their public institutions and in the Ministry is once more an attribute of the people of Great Britain. To say that a small increase in Labour voting in a district overwhelmingly Labour in its sympathies denotes general dissatisfaction with a non-Party Ministry is to talk nonsense. Mr. Henderson’s undoubted ability and his experience as a Minister and as chairman of the Disarmament Con-

ference ought to add considerably to the critical faculties of the Labour Opposition in the House of Commons. But if he is to oppose everything the Ministry suggests in the hope of thereby obtaining party gain he is likely to lose the reputation of having some of the qualities, of a statesman, qualities, which transcend very considerably those of the mere politician.