ONE-MAN COUNTRIES

Hokitika Guardian, 4 March 1929, Page 8

ONE-MAN COUNTRIES

(By SIR SIDNEY LOW, formorl.v

Lecturer in Constitutional HistoryKing College, University of London) So Jugoslavia lias also gone over, or gone Imdc, to- absolutism! The King of the Serbs, Croats, end Slovcncc, in a very straightforwarc proclamation to his people, has inform cd them tiiat liie has dissolved the Ski pditina, annulled the Constitution ant: proposes for the present to ruk through Ministers who will be responsible only to himself.

And Jugo-'davia, siiias Serbia, is thus added to the group of nations in Europe and Western Asia which, during tin l last few years have abandoned tin- parliamentary system, or placed ii in abeyance, and reverted to dictator, ship or some other form of personal government.

It i- a numerous and interesting collection, which includes great European kingdoms like Italy and Spain—the once-famons empires of Turkey and Persia, with Poland, Lithuania, and for a time at feast Greece. Portugal and Bulgaria, not to mention Soviet Russia.

All these countries tried parliament arisnrin some shape, for even Russ in had its Duma and Persia the Mejiis. all found the experiment so unsat is factory, that most of them were quit< relieved when some “strong man” ; Mussolini. Kemal Paslio, Primo do Rit era, like the -Shah, made an end of th> business and set up a benevolent despotism instead. The countries took the coupes dotal calmly, in fact, they welcomed the change. They had grown tired of hi iug the plaything of cliipics of soilseeking politicians, sometimes dishonest and usually incompetent. Parliamentary Government, it <’p peared, m,.ant an endless contest lot office and emolument between party leaders too busy with, their quarrels and intrigues to nton-d to the nntionil interests. A dictator c.r an auto cratic sovereign could see that publi: arliairs were properly conducted. Witness the regeneration and reconstruction of Italy under Mussolini, and in a less degree of Spain and Turkey. Parliamentarism/ says King Alexander,” lias always been my ideal, ft really was the ideal of most of the peoples who tried ft during the present century. They wanted to adopt the best Western political institutionpreeminently those ol Great Britain. They forgot that our constitutional system lias grown up under exceptional conditions are specially favourable eircnmsnt.socu tli ses sescc vcvevove circumstances. “Blind political passions.” according to tin- King, have brought about fatal confusion in -Jugoslavia. We also have our political passions, but they have not been quite blind.

Our party leaders do not- shoot each other, and they know how to compromise and give away. Englishmen, it has been sniel, regard polities as a gameone of their national sports.

But the parliamentary machine will not work without friction unless it is handled with a good deal of the ing spirit. 'The performers must he able to win without vindictiveness, and to keep their temper under defeat. Wo have learnt better than some of these impatient, quick-thinking peoples of the south and east.

All the same, their experiences have a lesson for us. They have thrown over parliamentary government liecause of its incapacity. Tlu-y find that it is a bail manager, fails to provide sound administration, does not meet the nation’s urgent- econmie and social needs.

Might not the same* indictment lie nearer homo? Does our parliamentary system, even with the full paraphernalia of Western democracy, give us alia that an intelligent, hut hard-hit and economically depressed nation is entitled to ask of its rulers and guides? And if it does not, might there not even in the sacred products of Westminster itself, he heard a cry for a clrasite change of methods. ].t. is a grave cjuostiou ; one worth considering by those who have no love for dictators and dictatorship on their merits.

Meanwhile if is worth noting that the Belgrade crisis is not entirely due to the parliamentary failure. Its ultimate cause is the Croatian unrest which is a consequence of the Trianon Treaty and the iniquitous disruption of Hungary. Croatia, like Transylvania, Inis been attached to the Magyar kingdom for centuries. The Croats are not Serbs in language, religion,. or associations.

To hand over this great block nl trniis-Damibian territory to the .lugo Slav kingdom was nob only a wrung to H.ungary, hut an injury and sot tree of weakness to its new owners. JugoS, la via will never be stable till it i.s relieved of its Croat incubus, nor will south-eastern Ivurope emerge from its chronic tins; fi lenient till this and some other unpardonable error of the Allied diplomatists have been made good.