The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND MONDAY, MARCH 10, 1930 MILLIONAIRES SURRENDER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 917, 10 March 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND MONDAY, MARCH 10, 1930 MILLIONAIRES SURRENDER

A SHORT life and a foolish one is virtually certain to be the fate of the new United Empire Party in Great Britain. Already it is dissolving like a castle of sand built by ingenious and ingenuous children within reach of a besieging tide. Indeed, to change the picture, the party’s millionaire inspirers and leaders have succeeded merely in butting their heads against several kinds of hard walls. If the impact has knocked more political wisdom into their alert business brains, the temporary bruises will have done no harm to the great crusaders and should do much good for British politics. There is to be no financial loss in and about the BeaverbrookRothermere adventure. Their enthusiastic supporters who donated £94,000 to the party’s funds in record time are to receive their money back together with a note of personal thanks from Lord Beaverbrook. This, so far, is the best thing the party has done. Perhaps a portion of the ready contributions will be transferred to the Conservatives’ coffers, for many of the donors may now believe that, in politics, it is better to have the amiable devil one knows than aggressive twin devils one does not know. Even Lord Rothermere now inclines with a sort of l'esigned favour toward Mr. Stanley Baldwin, though the director of the “Daily Mail,” in saving face, has put more into the Tory statesman’s compromise on the question of Empire Free Trade than the majority of Conservatives in tlie United Kingdom will find in it. For example, a few weeks ago Mr. Baldwin plainly said: “I insist on facing the facts, and the facts tell me that Empire Free Trade cannot be put into practice.” Later, the Leader of the Conservative Party wilily suggested that Empire political questions should be taken out of the arena of party politics, and that the only way to that ideal state was by means of a referendum. Further, if returned to power at the next general election, he would summon unconditionally a conference of Empire representatives to discuss economic problems with the hope of having something done. These announcements, which really mean very little, and promise nothing, ha/ve been accepted by Lord Rothermere as representing an official adoption by the Conservatives of one of the new party’s objectives. Clearly, the noble lord is easily satisfied. A referendum on a food-tax in Great Britain would serve only to reveal the inherent prejudice against anything of the kind. And only Simple Simons would expect much nowadays from a conference on proposals to abolish Protection in the Dominions, or on almost any other subject. The conference craze ought soon to he brought to an end. A multitude of conferences during the past decade has created more confusion than constructive politics within or between nations. But a conference always is a pleasant way out of a difficulty. From the outset of the Rothermere-Beaverbrook crusade, its early doom was written on the Dominions’ tariff walls. Although in mutual admiration and that affection which draws millionaires and famous publicists together for ’a special purpose, the newspaper magnates were as David and Jonathan, they also, on political questions, have been as Cain and Abel without the murder. For a time they hailed each other in terms of the highest praise. One possessed “the most acute political brain” in England, and the other was told by the brainy one that he, the other, was '‘the greatest trustee of public opinion seen in the history of journalism.” And so on, until the editors of their respective journals must have squirmed in unutterable agony and disgust. Now, the great men differ more in sorrow than in anger. Of course, they have differed all the time, but the latest difference in opinion demonstrates the hopelessness of their crusading combination. Lord Rothermere, the greatest trustee of public opinion, surrenders on Free Trade, but will continue to fight for a high tariff against imported manufactures, for ruthless economy, and no more surrenders to India. Quite enough to keep him busy, though possibly not out of mischief. Lord Beaverbrook, the most acute political brain, merely notes his friend’s departure from their party’s original aim. Doubtless, they will find diversion later in battering one another.