Evening Post. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1931. ELECTION ISSUE IN DOUBT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 81, 2 October 1931, Page 6

Evening Post. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1931. ELECTION ISSUE IN DOUBT

A week ago we were led to expect that Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald would announce the dissolution of Parliament on his return to ■ London, but now it seems that he.will have to leave London again before doing so. The most specific prophecy last week was that of the "Evening Standard," which fixed the 30th September as the date 6f the announcement and "an immediate election on a policy of tariffs and Empire" as the subject of it. Such an announcement would, of course, have been highly satisfactory from the standpoint of the enthusiasts of "Empire Free Trade," but prophets who were free fr3m that kind of bias were nevertheless in agreement about the date. It is neither surprising nor regrettable that they have all been disappointed. The matter is one of such immense difficulty and importance that Mr. Mac Donald was wise not to be rushed into a decision and especially into such a decision as that which his Conservative allies had prepared for him in complete accord with their own recently found convictions, but in equally flat contradiction to those which he and his two Labour colleagues have held for a lifetime. Instead of bringing the expected announcement, Wednesday passed with the issue still in doubt. Cabinet had further considered the question without deciding it, but the Prime Minister may have something definite to say when he addresses his constitu ents to-day

The latest approach to a settlement appears to be as unpromising as attempts to compromise contradictions usually are. We are told that '" ■

An agreement .apparently is being sought among the Conservatives and Liberals upon the broad- national programme with which the Prime Minister would be prepared to go to the country and which would leave him unfettered in the choice of the means for dealing with any economic situation which may arise.

A national programme broad enough to empower the Prime Minister to cope with the adverse trade balance by imposing such duties as he thought fit might conceivably be agreed upon by Protectionists and Free Traders in the Cabinet as an emergency measure. But to submit such a quasi-dictatorship to the electors as the basis or the instrument>of a permanent fiscal policy seems to be a sheer impossibility. What a wealth of invective and ridicule the submission of such a confidence trick would evoke from the invalid it cheers if his convalescence had progressed far enough! It would be even more objectionable than, the attempt which Mr. Baldwin was making eighteen months ago to dodge the responsibility for a definite decision on an issue that threatened to wreck the Conservative Party by means of a referendum. To "trust the people" is a common device with politicians who are unable to trust themselves, but in this case the people are to be asked to trust the dictator. What else can be the meaning of "the broad national programme" which is to be so broad that it will leave Mr. Mac Donald "unfettered in the choice of the means for dealing with any economic situation which may arise?" Moving the second reading of the National Economy Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Reading admitted

that but for the emergency which existed it would bo indefensible to ask the House to pass a Bill -which was of an almost unprecedented character and gave the Government power to act by mean's of Orders in Council which would have the effect of Acts of Parliarr.cnt. The Budget, however, must be balanced.

Necessary as the power is in view of the extreme gravity and urgency of the matter, it has given the Labour Party a handle of which it is likely to make the most at the General Election. If to this were added an appeal by the Government of thekind above mentioned, an appeal, in the words of another report, "as a National Government without any programme," and a mere request for

a free hand to deal with the crisis, neither specifying nor i excluding any particular measure,

Labour's denunciation of Mr. MacDonald and his colleagues as despotic reactionaries and enemies of the people would become much more formidable. The stand which in the interests of Free Trade the small Liberal minority in the Cabinet, with the help of Mr. Lloyd George, is making in favour of limiting and defining the terms of the proposed mandate may therefore also serve the interests of both the Government and the country. In claiming an unchartered freedom to deal apparently with the tariff and everything else- the Government would, as we have argued, be taking a great risk, and even if the risk did not provi-

fatal it would then have to face the 1 risk of dissensions among its own members on the use to be made of the mandate. From every point of view it is desirable that the Government should make up its mind at once instead of asking the people for a blank cheque and hoping to settle the inevitable quarrels about filling it in without the necessity for another appeal. A fortnight ago the natural course for the Government to take seemed to be to pass an emergency tariff to adjust the adverse balance of trade, leaving the more contentious problems of the tariff for future settlement or controversy. On this narrow and urgent issue it could probably have relied on the support of the Liberals, especially as it would have avoided the necessity of the General Election which they have good cause to dread. The argument of the Liberal "News-Chronicle" which is quoted to-day seems to put this beyond a doubt.

An election, it says, is unnecessary, as the Government has a sufficient majority to enable it to carry on. Even the tariff question should not present an obstacle.

And a message which comes to hand as we write shows'that the Liberals are officially prepared to agree to

an objective examination by the present Government of tariffs in a mitigated form as a possible emergency measure. Though the Conservatives have, on the other hand, been inspired by their faith in "a policy of tariffs and Empire" to press for an early election, it is quite clear that the "Evening Standard" was wrong when it said that the Government was adopting this policy. Even the "free hand" for which the Government is thinking of asking would not include such a possibility, for yesterday's message in which the phrase appeared added that

this would involve the Conservatives' sacrificing their plan of fighting an election on a full tariff issue.

The hope of an emergency tariff's being passed this session is precluded by the announcement that it will close on Wednesday, but it may still be possible for the National Government to agree upon the terms of such a tariff and to appeal to the country upon it. j . .