VERY COMPLEX SITUATION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 115, 28 February 1950, Page 3

VERY COMPLEX SITUATION

ELECTION RESULT MAIN PARTIES TO MEET (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) LONDON, Feb. 27. Britain’s three main political parties Labour, Conservative, and Liberal —will meet this week to define their attitudes on the complex situation that will face the new Pariiameifc when it assembles next Monday. The Conservative Party’s consultative committee, the highest authority of the party, will meet to-morrow. On Wednesday the Parliamentary Labour Party and the national executive of the Labour Party will decide the issues on which a defeat in the House of Commons will mean the resignation of the Government. Some decisions on the King’s Speech at the opening of Parliament may also be made.

The Cabinet’s view is that defeats in snap divisions should be ignored. The Liberal Party has so far made no statement on its intentions, Iput will formulate its policy to-morro,w. The King’s Speech will be the real key to the situation. In this, the Government will have to lay before the new Parliament an outliffe of its business for the session. This will show the party attitude on nationalisation in the present situation. Amendments tabled by the Conservatives and ■Liberals will indicate whether any major issues will divide the House and threaten the Government with an early defeat. Gloves Off Although the Left Wing of the Labour Party" has been depleted by the election, the Government will . probably be pressed to proceed with its nationalisation programme. The Labour Party’s general secretary (Mi\ Morgan Phillips) gave a hint of this at a Socialist jubilee meeting in London on Saturday, when he said that no Labour Government which accepted the responsibilities of office would be weak. “We are determined to go along the path we have set,” he said.

If the King’s Speech foreshadows the new nationalisation measures during the present session, the Opposition would accept the challenge and would fight, with its gloves off. The present session may be a short one, and the speech would have to cover less than six months. During the greater part of this period, the House of Commons will be kept busy by the Estimates, the Budget and the Finance Bill.

“Mr Attlee will make as few*changes as possible in his new Ministry,” says the Labour Party’s newspaper, the “Daily Herald.” He will announce this next week.

“The Big Three—Mr Herbert Morrison as Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons, Mr Ernest Bevin as Foreign Secretary ,and Sir Stafford Cripps as Chancellor of the Exchequer—are likely to keep their present posts.

“Two Ministries ,the Colonies and Town and Country Planning, have lost both the senior and junior Ministers, but since the Government remains in office, the two senior Ministers, Mr Arthur Creech Jones, who was defeated, and Mr Lewis Silkin, who failed to find a constituency, can temporarily retain office. The successors to the four junior Ministers who lost their seats are likely to come from talented back-benchers who served in the last Parliament.”

VIEWS OF GENERAL SMUTS EARLY WAY OUT NECESSARY (Rec. 10.20) CAPE TOWN, Feb. 27. General Smuts, in a statement today on Britain’s election result, said that lack of a strong Government at this juncture was a matter of concern and anxiety to the whole world. “A stalemate government can inspire confidence neither internally nor externally,” he said. “Its decision today may be upset to-morrow. An early way out of the impasse is necessary in the interests of the world. A weak British Government can only add to the general European confusion, and the absence of policy can cause a drift toward chaos.”