The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1932. BRITISH POLITICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 January 1932, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1932. BRITISH POLITICS.

The discussion of national policy on which the British Government nas ivon,' engaged ior some time past, states the Auckland Star, has produced a strange and almost unprecedented situation. The Cabinet has 1 oeen con si timing the report of a ■special committee on the Balance of ’J rude, and it has been unable to ( teach unanimity in its decision. The of the Committee according to the “Times” include u proposal for a 10 per cent, general tariff, with certain exceptions. lnn> project is naturally unacceptable to those members of the Government

who still cling to the Free Trade tradition, and these dissentients have reserved to themselves the right to speak and vote as they please when the question comes before Parliament. It is not surprising that in England, where Free Tiade has so long been the dominant fiscal policy, many public men should still refuse to abandon its principles, But under ordinary conditions such differences of opinion between individual Ministers and the recognised head for the majority of the ■Government could only have been followed by the resignation of the malcontents. In this case, certain Ministers may vote against the Government and still retain office. What, then, has become of that sacred but entity, “the collective responsibilty of the Cabinet,” which has been so long treasured as the crowning glory of the British Constitution? The answer To this question obviously is that collective responsibilty has been for the moment jettisoned, and That the desperate position of the ship of State demands this, sacrifice. As Lord Haihsham, now war Minister, has said, “these are not ordinary times,” and the most striking proof of the truth of this comment is the existence of the National Government itself. Nothing but the strong conviction that the nation and the Empire were facing a crisis of tne first magnitude could have induced Tories and Liberals and Radicals and Labourites to sink their differences and combine to form a joint Cabinet on fu.sionist lines. Just as during the course of the Great War differences on individual questions’were subordinated to the requirements of a national policy, so Ministers to-day, though they may find .the Government and the country accepting a fiscal system with which they cannot wholly agree, will he content to express their views, and will still be prepared to co operate in the great werk of national and Imperial administration- The (principle of the solidarity of the Cabinet has been infringed, but. as the “Daiiv Telegraph” has said, the breach is justified bv the emergency and with this even the most devoted defenders of the sanctity of the Constitution must rest satisfied.