The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1929 AN ARMY WITH TRUMPETS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 635, 11 April 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1929 AN ARMY WITH TRUMPETS

EARLY this year Mr. Stanley Baldwin attained his service majority as a member of the House of Commons. He has been 21 years in Parliament. On February 29, 1908, he succeeded his father, the late Mr. Alfred Baldwin, ironmaster, as Conservative member for the Bewdley Division of 'Worcestershire and has held the seat ever since. It lias now become a question, however, whether this year he will be able to retain his parliamentary majority as Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party in the kingdom. One of the many prophecies concerning the forthcoming General Election in Great Britain is a fairly confident prediction that a Liberal Ministry, with the support of the Labour Party, will take the administrative place of the Baldwin Government. Confidence in this prospect appears to he based on the shifting sands of Mr. Lloyd George’s nimble platform oratory. The political Welsh harpist recently declared at a Liberal luncheon that “the Conservatives could not he suffered to do nothing; the Socialists could not be trusted to do anything; and therefore the liberals must he trusted to do everything.” Again, observers here at a distance may see that there is a great deal in British politics these days that is similar to the odd political party conditions in New Zealand.

Perhaps the present remnant of the former great army of British Liberals will arise from the ashes of its past and lead the nation into the promised land of prosperity, hut before it could enjoy the full power of wonderful guidance, it would have to multiply its existing strength in the House of Commons by eight in order to secure a bare majority. Of course, the Liberal Party, like the United Party in this country, may not require to obtain a hare majority fox - the purpose of exercising administrative power, but may gain office through the difficulties of rival parties, and if such a chance should offer there is no doubt that Mr. Lloyd George would seize it and trust to fate for the rest.

There are some intei - esting features about the present electoral battle in Great Britain. To begin with the General Election is being brought about, for the first time since the War, by a Parliament lasting until the appointed time for its statutory dissolution. Had the Conservatives been eager to take advantage of opportunity so as to prolong .their administrative life beyond the allotted span of five years, they easily could have precipitated a poll and snatched a certain victory after the disastrous strike in 1926. They preferred, as Mr. Baldwin has explained, to do the right thing and carry out their mandate to the full. Then, for the first time in British political history the forthcoming election will he decided by a record electorate of men and women with equal voting power. Finally, all the parties are confronted with the haggard problem of chronic unemployment on a ruinous scale. Thus, it is not surprising that the Prime Minister looks upon the result of the General Election as an issue of the gravest importance. Naturally, as a canny Conservative, Mr. Baldwin believes that his party alone has by far the best policy for leading his country out of an industrial wilderness. And he wants the election battle to be fought on fact and not on fable. The truth, as he sees it, is that there is no magical cure for unemployment, and no short-cut to perfect prosperity. His Toryism is of the old-fashioned kind, which is not easily confuted and is never confused. It holds that England is not played out, that against the black spots must be set the gleaming facts that lost markets are being steadily regained, that war losses are being made good, that capital is abundant and buoyant, and that national hard work shall pull the nation through. Such wisdom, of course, is neither spectacular nor popular, and it is to he feared that many of the electors will prefer to listen to the softer tones of the Welsh harp. Even the best friends of the Baldwin regime are doleful about its fate. An English newspaper has taken a tally of parliamentary opinion on the result of the forthcoming election, but little heed need be given to such a forecast. The prophets are prejudiced with their own desires. Outside of Parliament there is more than a mutter of national discontent about the flimflamminess of the Tories’ work and policy. It appears certain that the Conservatives will suffer severe casualties in the final battle. What then? Nobody yet knows. Meanwhile, British politicians, with the new mechanical devices of a noisy age, are blaring their panaceas like An army with trumpets, more terrible than an army with banners.