The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1915. COALITION AND HOME RULE

New Zealand Tablet, 22 July 1915, Page 33

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1915. COALITION AND HOME RULE

ijST /KSjfh HEN Mr. Asquith on May 18 announced YvWWyWWa. t° the House of Commons that ‘ step* My are in contemplation which will involve ffiyyjyg. * y the reconstruction of the Government 011 a broader personal and political basis/ he gave not the faintest hint of the reason or reasons which were regarded as furnishing occasion for the momentous course proposed and English papers are not even yet agreed as to the real explanation. In some quarters it is stated that the crisis came as the result of the discovery that the Army at the front was being cruelly handicapped, and that hundreds of lives had been needlessly sacrificed, owing to the failure of the Government at Home to supply the right sort of shells. Others attribute the practical dissolution of the Ministry to friction at the Admiralty between Mr. Churchill and Lord Fisher,, particularly on the subject of the enterprise at the Dardanelles. A third theory is that the cataclysm was brought about by the Government’s loss of prestige and of stability arising from its failure to follow up Mr. Lloyd George’s bold initiative on the drink question. These causes do not appear, either in themselves or in the aggregate, adequate to have caused so tremendous a revolution. The real explanation of the break-down of the Government can be more accurately traced to the dominating and maleficent influence of the powerful and unscrupulous Harmsworth journals. These papers, represented by the Times and the Daily Mail, had for some time made a deliberate and concentrated attack on the Liberal Administration; and in the end Mr. Asquith weakly bowed before the storm. * Whatever the causes of the new departure may have been, the indirect consequences, at least, are likely to be serious and far-reaching. It may be and it is fervently to be hoped will be the case that the enlargement of the Ministry will result in greater efficiency and in a more equitably distributed responsibility in the conduct of the great enterprise in which the nation is engaged. But there are other great causes absolutely vital to the well-being and prosperity of the Empire which, it can hardly be questioned, are gravely threatened by the existing situation. In the first place, it cannot be denied that the very existence of Liberalism and the Liberal Party is now in jeopardy. It is true that both the Prime Minister and the Conservative Leader have definitely announced that the recognised system of party government is to be suspended only till the end of the war. 1 Meanwhile,’ said Mr. Asquith, in a letter to the Chief Liberal Whip, 1 the pursuit of our special aims in the sphere of domestic politics is not abandoned but suspended, and when the national cause has been vindicated against the enemy

:': we shall v take up ", : again a the unfinished tasks to which the Liberal party has set its hand.' Mr. Bonar Law,; at a meeting of his party, made a similar declaration as , to the purely temporary nature ; of the existing, j arrangement. ? But when the war is over and the Government can attend to domestic affairs again,; the ; question naturally suggests- itself, What Government - will it. be ? Where will the Liberal Government be ? Will there be a Liberal Government ? On these points : the .most "trusted exponents of Liberal opinion in. England express the very gravest doubt. * What Liberals .do not understand is why their house should have been burned down in order to . save . the" Daily Mail from being burned on the Stock Exchange,' says the Nation. 'And if that was necessary, they would have preferred, -first, a : less obviously political Government, < and, secondly, a fresher and younger one.' The formation of a Coalition Ministry, writes the well-known ' H. W. : M.' in' the same paper, ' cannot be allowed to exclude an examination of the circumstances under which one party at least has virtually been destroyed and Parliamentary Government placed under a new political order. The existing Cabinet has been formed by a small Conclave of Liberal and Conservative politicians. They have not consulted their followers, and with- one exception, that of the able leader of the Parliamentary,Labor Party, they have tapped no fresh sources of public virtue and experience. . . .. Had the Prime Minister waited, the gust of poison gas which threatened Lord Kitchener would have been swept down the wind, the 'personal trouble at the Admiralty settled " to ; the national satisfaction by the retention of Lord Fisher and the dismissal of Mr. Churchill, and a deficient organisation of warlike supplies changed and extended.' The' Statist, the weekly financial review, takes a similar attitude. We start,' it says, 'with the observation I that it will be very surprising if the reconstruction of his Cabinet by Mr. Asquith does not sooner or later lead- to the break-up of the Liberal Party. Those in favor of what is being done by Mr. Asquith defend it mainly on the ground that the Liberal Party alone is not competent, to do what is requisite : and that, therefore, we need a national Government completely free from party. We know of no statement more likely to - alienate every thorough-going Liberal. . . .• Every real thorough-going Liberal, then, must resent what is put forward as the justification for the new policy. He must feel that, if accepted, it will stop the very process of reforms to which, above everything, he is I devoted. Indeed, it ■ would seem to deny the competence of any Parliament which is split into parties. . ... Sooner or later, then, there will be a break- • up of the Liberal Party. The very name will come to P be abhorred by those who used to be proudest of it. And the leaders they delighted to honor will be rejected by them. How long the completion of so great a change will take it is of course, impossible to foresee. Much will depend not only upon the duration of the war and the .economic troubles that will follow the restora- '■■ tion of peace, but much also will depend upon individual | action.' This may be a somewhat pessimistic view to take;. but it is a clear.duty fairly to face the possibilities of the situation. * In the light of these considerations, it is manifest that : the prospects of Home Rule have not, to put it mildly, been improved by the turn which events have taken. With men like Mr. Balfour, Lord Lansdowne, r Mr. Bonar Law, Lord Hugh Cecil, Mr. F. E. Smith, j and Sir Edward Carson in the Cabinet, it may be taken I as certain that nothing will be done to smooth the path I or secure the position of self-government for Ireland. r All will now depend on firm, strong, united action on the part of the Irish people and their representatives; U and the Irish Party have promptly shown themselves II alive 1 to the danger of the situation. The attitude they -. have-adopted to the new War Ministry is absolutely fair, straightforward, and honorable. At a meeting I of the Irish Parliamentary Party held in Dublin on May 25; the Nationalist attitude .was thus admirably

expressed in an - official statement ; ‘ . The v ©vents ;of ' the last week have created, a situation demanding the serious* and careful consideration, of . the Irish people. ' In announcing his intention to forma Coalition > Ministry the Prime Minister said : ‘ The third and last point—' one of great importance, not only to my friends behind me, /but also of importance, no doubt, to the Opposition 1 -" —is this: Any reconstruction that may -be made will: be v for the purpose of the war alone, and is not to be taken in any quarter as any reason for indicating anything in the nature of surrender or compromise on the part of any person or body of persons of their several political purposes and ideals.’ We accept that declaration, and, so long as the pledge conveyed in it is honorably and strictly observed, we shall be ready to give to the new Government, in carrying on the war, .the same hearty co-operation as has been given by the party to the late Government. This war, as the world has been repeatedly assured by British statesmen, is being waged for the strict and honorable maintenance of treaties,' international agreements, and the pledges of statesmen, and for the right of small nations to freedom, and to the unhampered development of their national life. These principles are very dear to Irishmen, and are of incalculable value to the future of the Irish race.’ But while thus ready loyally to co-operate with the new Government in the present crisis, the Party Leaders wisely set to work to prepare for every, emergency. ‘But, while we feel confident,’ they continue, ‘that these principles will be remembered and acted upon in any future transaction between the English and the Irish nations, and while we accept this action of the Prime Minister, we feel that this is an hour when it is incumbent on us to remind the Irish people that the great achievements of this party and of the movement from, which it sprang have been won by reliance upon themselves and by independent action in Parliament; and we are strongly of opinion that the chairman acted wisely in declining, even in the extraordinary and unlooked-for circumstances of the present hour, to depart in the least degree from the policy on which the great success of this party has been built, and that the old policy should be strictly adhered to until an Irish Government is in actual control of every inch of Irish soil. In our judgment, the great lesson which the events of the last week should impress upon the Irish people is the absolute necessity of thorough organisation and union in the country, so as to be prepared for any emergency that may arise; and we resolve to immediately take every step in our power to perfect the National Organisation in every constituency during the next few months. We appeal to the local leaders in every constituency in Ireland to at once set to work to re-organise the United Irish League in every parish where it is not in active operation ; and we hereby pledge ourselves, each in his own constituency, to devote the coming months to this work of re-organisation,, and to secure that no parish in Ireland shall be without an active branch of the National Organisation/ That sounds the right note ; and furnishes a fresh assurance that Ireland’s interests are in safe and capable hands. Nevertheless, the outlook is undoubtedly disquieting; and it will require all the watchfulness and skill of the great Leader to bring his forces to final victory.