The Dominion MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1920. A STAGGERING BURDEN

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 157, 29 March 1920, Page 4

The Dominion MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1920. A STAGGERING BURDEN

TifouGH the news to-day concerning the trouble with the English coal miners holds out hope of - a peaceful settlement, the outlook in Britain' is still overshadowed with threatening clouds of industrial .strife. Mil. Lloyd George seems fated to - liicefc with new difficulties at almost every turn. No sooner is one great task completed or uell ou the road to completion than another arrives to test his strength and courage and resource. The terrible strain of the war might well have exhausted his energies, but he proved the most powerful and resourceful of the Allied representatives engaged on the formidable task of re- • conciling the conflicting views regarding the peace settlement. And his task completed there, he has had to bear the main brunt of the difficulties that have ceaselessly arisen to confront the Allied Governments as the result of subsequent differences oyer the Treaty and the League of Nations. In addition, be has booti.burdened with the involved and far-reaching problems associated with the Turkish settlement; his Government has had to face serious troubles in Egypt and India, while nearer home the desporate and dangerous developments in Ireland have been sufficient in themselves to discourage the boldest and most resolute of statesmen. Yet, on top of all these tremendous burdens; in addition to the multitude of weighty and perplex- :;■ if.ig problems arising out of the peace settlement, the British Prime Minister has been faced continually, almost from the signing of the . armistice, with grave and disquiet- . ing outbreaks of industrial unrest in Britain which have called for the exercise of all his great powers in the effort to save the nation from internal turmoil and. possible disaster. It is an amazing thing and a tribute'to the real greatness of the man that, weighted as he is with > .the terrific burdens of world affairs; harassed in all directions at ■ Home by problems which seem tn defy solution; threatened by dissension within the. ranks of his own • party, he faces each fresh ordeal [ with, to all appearances, the same \ buoyancy of spirit and the same high courage with which he first set out on his great task of winning tho war. Should it prove as is suggest- - ed in to-day's messages that he ban by the compromise proposed averted - another coal strike, he will be > credited with another triumph. He certainly will have saved Britain [ from what might have proved a calamitous economic loss, and pos- . sibly from grave social disorders! . But so much remains to be done, and the political atmosphere is so , unsettled, that Mr. Lloyd George f might well feel, that it necessary r that he should unload some part 1 of the staggering burden of responsibility which he is carrying upon the people of the United Kingdom thomsolves. Although the last general election was held as recently as { December, 1918, so much has hapt pened since then, conditions have changed so materially in many directions, that the Government would be fully justified in going to. the ' pooplc seeking endorsement of its j policy and actions. That Mr. Lloyd George intends to follow this course - is a viow widely held in political circles in Britain. That it would be ' a wise and prudent course seems in the circumstances to be beyond question.