WHEN SHALL WE BE GOVERNED?

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 281, 23 August 1919, Page 9

WHEN SHALL WE BE GOVERNED?

; PERTINENT QUESTION IN ENGLAND. j "The Prime Minister is a man of genius, but were he ten times more nblo than he is he would still be unequal to the task- which he is attempting to shoulder," says the "Observer." "For six months almost continuously he has been engaged in Paris upon tlio pacification of tho world. To the affairs of this country he has been constrained to devote no more than an occasional backward glance, an occasional telephone message, an occasional hasty visit. Meanwhile a mass of problems, Which last year waited on.victory, now' waits on peace, and is steadily piling i up. The Time Has Come, "Under the strain of their load the country becomes anxious and fretful, and the atmosphere is one of tlireaits and complaints. In a word, affairs hero , lire urgently in need of attention and " regulation, and they cannot be attended j to or regulated from Paris, either by I tho Prime Minister or by anyone else, t The timo has come for him to take in . hand tho pressing business of govem- , ment at home. * "We use tho word 'government' advisedly. Everyone is expecting to see , re-established, with the signing of tho peace, our historical system of Cabinet j government. The business of conduct- . ing a great national war is simplified by . tho singleness of its object, which is vic- , tory, and the readiness of the people to t give unasked to that object tho whole of - its energy and enthusiasm, In such con- ; ditions there is scope for the play of a f single personality to focus and intensify > tho national effort. Moreover, in corres- .. pondencß with the changing fortunes of i tlio national arms drastic short-cuts in > government must often be taken to meet - emergencies and strange expedients call- - ed into boing. All the need for such t, shifts is now gone. ' r No System. "Real and industrious teamwork, under ' a leader who lias to tho full the talent • to combine without restricting the operaF tions of his colleagues, can alone rct store to'our polities tho solidity and ! reality for which everyone is waiting. 3 Our normal system of government is in J abeyance. lit fact, wc live at present " under no system, in the true sense, of ! government at all. In this unhealthy at--1 mosphere it is not surprising to mark the growth of a tendency to distrust and despise the parliamentary system, and even lo overthrow it in disgust. Yet 1 that system is our most distinctive inf volition and the surest guarantee of I'rce- , doin mankind has yet discovered. With 1 the signing of peace ils full restoration [ the country's most Urgent need." t ■