TACTICS IN THE CRISIS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 765, 14 March 1910, Page 4

TACTICS IN THE CRISIS.

The cable messages of the past few days make it 'tolerably clear that the British Government has determined to embarrass its opponents and the nation by plunging the national •finances into the utmost confusion. Pending the settlement of the two main political issues, the Budget and the authority of the Upper House, it was plainly tho Government's duty to keep the machinery of government running quite smoothly by adopting temporary financial measures. Unfortunately— from the Ministerial point of viewsuch a course would meet with the approval of the Opposition, and it would never do to let Mb. Balfoub or the Lords appear as people ready to meet the. convenience of the nation in a'businesslike way. Accordingly the Government decided tc avoid the obviously proper course pi fixing the income tax and of bringing, in a Bill continuing the othei existing taxes. Instead it has beer carrying on, at a great loss to the nation—amounting, perhaps, t<: £2000 a day—by the issue of Treasury Bills. Although these tactics may greatly assist in the creation of a chaos that will embarrass the Unionists _if they take office, they cannot. fail to damage the Government's credit, since he will be a verj dull; elector, or a very biased one, who will not conclude that the Government sets its party needs above the interests of the public. The electorate is very tolerant of man : oeuvres in the House of Commons, but there is a line at which the tacticians are generally wise enough to stop; and it will be surprising if the nation does not resent the trespass of the Ministry beyond thai line. Ministers, to be sure, .are ready enough with an excuse. I! the Government, Mr. Lloyd-Georgi d-eclares, were to send a Bill for a single tax to the . House of Lords it would thereby surrender the "right" gained in 1861. Such a contention cannot be established even as a point in, abstract theory, bul the nation as a whole has never cared much for the .quarrels of constitutional dialecticians, and Mr. LloydGeorge's excuse will hardly go down with' the public. ' ; That the Chancellor himself hai some doubts on this point is fairlj clear from his attempt to give some thing like a real and practical reason ior his refusal to take nesslike course. The House of Commons, he said, would disapprove oi the submission of the income tax resolutions by themselves. This, oi course, is unsound. If the Government were to bring in such resolutions they could carry them by a majority of over 400—since nobodj in such a case would have any rea son for voting against them save th( Labour group and the Nationalists, But if what Mr. Lloyd-George says were true, or if he believed it were true, would he not jump at the chance of a defeat which would pui his enemies as far wrong with the nation as, by refraining from the correct course, he has put himself i There' is left, of course, the hope that the exasperated nation may at tribute all the chaos and the loss oi money to tho Lords. It is this hope presumably, that is. sustaining Mini isters, but it would be an' extremelj small, feeble and : inarticulate Opposition that would not be able tc show that the responsibility rests with the. Government for refusing tc listen to' any entreaties to take the simple steps that would have avoided tii-e financial imbroglio. The olive branch may or may. not be "shol from a catapult," as Lord Crewi says, but all that the public will can about is that the olive branch was genuinely offered and was refused. Lord Crewe's phrase was by nc means a happy one, for it emphasises the point which it is not to his party's interest that the public should be allowed to see, namely, the fact that it is pique and temper which are behind the Government's action. Confronted with the choice between protecting the Ministry's dignity and protecting the financia! order of tho nation, nobody not ai extreme partisan would have anj hesitation in putting the nation first. There is much to be said for the Government's action in asking for only, six weeks' supplies, in the Estimates. Me. Lloyd-George was on sound enough ground in urging that it was desirable to keep the Executive thus subject to the , control of the House, but the ensuing debate showed that the Opposition had no_ doubts as to the real reason foi this curiously-timed remembrance oi i virtuous principle, and Mr. LloydGeorge himself, in a later speech, showed that it was party spirit and not statesmanship that was inspiring bis action. For ho incautiously showed his hand by saying that "it ivouldbe a very good thing if the Opposition had an opportunity of bearing up the difficulties which they bave created." Such an attitude is the one least likely of all to conciliate moderate men, and least likely, therefore, to prevent a furiher loss of votes when the next ap-peal-is made to the country.