NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 278, 18 August 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

With the death of Mr. J. G. W. Aitken Wellington loses a citizen with a record of quiet, unostentatious public service stretching back over the last forty years. In five years, from 1899 onwards, he served it as Mayor; for six years sat in Parliament ns one of its representatives:: and only a few weeks ago he completed a term of office in the Legislative Council. Mr. Aitken wns es far removed as it is possible to be from the trenchant party man, and avoided the acerbities of party strife. In fact, it may bo said that his municipal and political career came really os an enlargement of the religious and philanthropic work that was the main interest of his life. In making the Y.M.C.A. the fine institution that it is to-day he played an important part, and in innumerable other directions his helping hand has been ready in support of

good works, and with financial assistance where it was needed. Mr. Aitken was a man of whom it can be honestly said, that without cant or humbug he seemed never to be weary in well-doing. If by some he was thought ponderous and slow, those who knew him soon realised ths real excellence and worth that lay under that exterior, * * * *

Labour is forging ahead in British politics, and with the vast extension of the franchise made during the war, its future progress is certain to bo zapid. A message yesterday stated that the party is hoping to contest five hundred of the seven hundred seats in the House of Commons. If the Irish negotiations fail tho Government is almost certain to appeal to the country without delay for a mandate on tho Irish question. At present Labour has between 60 and. 70 members in tho House /of Commons, while the Coalition holds nearly firesixths of the seats. Tho Coalitionists are thus in a position to put up a man in every constituency, while it is in-, finitely more difficult for either tho nonCoalition Unionists or Liberals or the Labour Party to do this at short notice. If an election is held at onco, tho Coalition will have a long start. Labour’s chief hopes centre round the fact that 22 millions of tho population are now on tho rolls as against 8 millions in 1915. It is true that Mr. Lloyd George camo back with his present majority on .this same franchise in 1918, but it. was on. a special appeal for a unanimous endorsement by tho country of his Peace policy. Dissension is -growing.-in the Coalition and out of it, and from the point of view of party strategy, Mr. Lloyd George would have everything to gain by an appeal to the country immediately should Sinn Fein reject his offer.

A hundred years ago tho Constitutional tug-of-war in Britain was between Parliament and the Crown. To-day it is between Parliament and tho Executive. Back-bench members have been becoming very restive indeed over the Government’s habit of spending money first end asking for Parliamentary sanction afterwards. This morning the complaint goes a step further. The Government, it seems, has been giving away public property to tho Dominions and t foreign nations without authority from Parliament. The reduction of the control of the House of Commons over expenditure to a mere empty form grew to its present proportions during tho war. Lika tho tiger who has tasted blood Cabinet shows no inclination to return to old-established Parliamentary methods of government unless literally forced there by publio disapproval. .It is one thing to give power, but quite another to take it away again. In tho present case it does not appear that tho loss to the Exchequer in consequence of the Government’s gifts will have been heavy so far as the ships presented to the Dominions are concerned. It is only the other day that 113 surplus warships were sold by the Admiralty to a firm of shipbreakers for £750,060, or an average rate of 50s. a ton, and altogether four times that number of vessels has gone off tho effective list since tho Armistice. It is one thing to pass round warships within the British family circle, but quite another to make free gifts of the taxpayers' property to such extremely doubtful friends as Poland, Greece, and Russia.

Ireland is at the cross roads to-day, and her fato is in her own hands. Upon the British offer Sinn Fein has turned its back. Whether Mr. de Valera’s speech is a final refusal is unknown yet. Everyone will hope that it jo not. It may be that the reasonable element in Sinn Fein cannot carry the extremists with it: it may be that an attempt is being made to bluff Britain into still further concessions. If this is so, it is a dangerous game to play. Whatever happens the negotiations will have been all to the good from tho British point of view. They have represented, a thoroughly honest effort by the Imperial Government to find a way out, and have been marked by offers and concessions that have been viewed with deep misgiving by moderate-minded men and women in all parts of the Empire. If the Irish finally and definitely reject Mr. Lloyd George’s terms they must strip themselves- of all friends abroad save those whoso desiro is to use them as a tool to injure Britain. There are two voices spewing in Dublin to-day, the voice of reason and the volet of pride and hatred, and it is for the Irish people to say whether or not they will part with their grievances and accept the world as tho rest of us do.