Evening star., 1923-03-12
BONAR LAW REGIME
/ HELD IN BAD WAY
England Already SpecuIates
on When Labor Will
Take Control.
DOMESTIC WOES MANY
Ruhr Row Also May Play Part
in Downfall of British
Premier.
DOMESTIC WOES MANY
BY ARTHUR s. DRAPER.
BY Cable 10 The Star and New York Tribune
Copyright, 1923.

BY Cable TO The Star and New York Tribune.
Copyright, 1923.
LONDON, March 12-Three months
after the general election the Bonar
Law government is in a bad, If not
in a desperate, way, even though it
enjoys a large parliamentary ma
jority. Bonar Law succeeded Lloyd
George by promising policy of tran
quillity, but also inherited a series of
domestic and foreign problems which
made that policy utterly impossible.
In the ordinary course of events
the conservatives should govern the
country for five years. but it is highly
significant that prominent statesmen
already are Speculating on the date
when labor will be called upon to
Law has been unable to form a salts
factory government and recently he
has been compelled to see three of
his cabinet ministers defeated in the
by-electionS, where normally con-
ServativeS win easily.
Won in November Election.
In these three constituencies the
conservatives polled an aggregate of
S7,645 votes in November last, but
they got only 26,094 in this weeks
hy-election. The explanation for this
appalling defeat is not difficult to
find. The middle class is soured
against the government because the
latter showed signs of sacrificing it.
Great Britain is frightfully short in
dwelling houses and consequently
Landlords can safely raise rents the
moment the government takes off its
control of the rates.
At the outset the government in
tended to begin to decontrol i'm
mediately, but such a hue and cry
was raised by the workers that
Premier Law was forced to promise
to postpone action on the poor class
of houses until June, 1925. Stimuli
of other dwellings would begin the
coming year. The long-suffering
middle class rose in it's wrath with
the result that the conservative
leaders are almost panicky.
Domestic Questions Troublesome.
Nine times out of ten it is domestic
question which makes or breaks the
British government. The most pro-
found problem in Europe today is
Frances action in the Ruhr, but
though there is a definite amount of
dissatisfaction with the way Bonar
Law is allowing Great Britain to drift
his government will not be wrecked
by the Ruhr situation. In other words,
domestic economies affect the votes
of the people to far greater degree
than the problems of international
politics.
Benevolent neutrality" is a passive
policy and Britons want action, but
they are more interested in the ques-
tion of keeping rents down and re-
ducing unemployment than in wheth-
er the British troops remain in CO.
logne or are removed.
The connection between rents un-
employment and the Ruhr is rather
difficult to see, but 1t is clear enough
to the British cabinet and to the
members Of parliament Consequent
iey 20 lot 80
some modification of the policy of
benevolent neutrality" If only In the
hope that 1t will help the case of the
domestic political position Of the Law
government.
No Alternative Offered.
The opposition, consisting of almost
$50 labor members and almost as
many more Asquith and Lloyd George
liberals, condemn the policy of be
nevolent neutrality" but 1t has failed
to offer any satisfactory alternative
policy. But the conservatives do not
like their policy any more than does
the opposition.
Any reader of the parliamentary
debates since the French entered the
Ruhr cannot have failed to have
noted the profound dissatisfaction ex-
pressed in all quarters. 1t isn't a
whether the British or French pol
Icy shall be predominant.
That is the Fundamental question.
but there are other questions which
stand out more clearly and have
greater bearing on the life of the
average Briton today. Great Brit
aims prosperity is largely dependent
on the free exchange of goods and
the prosperity of other nations. The
dismemberment and the demoraliza-
tion of Germany is not to the inter
est of the British Neither is it an
advantage of Great Britain to have
half of Europe an armed camp.
Coal Men Favor Germany.
The British coal operators would
prefer that the Ruhr mines remain
German rather than to have them fall
in the hands of the French The re-
ports of negotiations regarding the
foundation of Latin bloc and in
timations that the treaty of Versailles
be scrapped are hardly calculated to
strengthen the Anglo French rela-
tions.
For a time the average Briton
preferred that the Poincaire policy
as directed toward Germany would
prove successful. but that phase has
long since passed. Today the average
Brtton feels that he has been chal-
lenged. although it would be an ex-
aggeration to say that he connects
the present economic discomforts
Win tne 1allure OF the reparatlOnS
clauses Of the treaty of Versailles.
1t will be a simple task, however,
for the British policy to point out
their fnter-relations. But the truth
is that British craftsmanship is
ideas regarding breaking the France
German deadlock. Appeal to the
league of nations to act as the ar
bitrator has many disadvantages.
The demand that France commit her
self regarding the debt to Great
Britain might prove to be q boome-
rang. America showed no inclina-
tion to intervene.
British Are Impotent.
In short, the whole catafog of
possibilities has been exhausted and
the British government is as inn
potent as 1t was the middle of last
January. Bonar Law still is casting
around in the hope of finding q way
out. and has gone to the extreme of
taking the opposition into his conf
dence.
Under the circumstances 1t will
cause no surprise IL the government
might take the form Of the with
consist in a formal protest against
what 1t considers a violation Of the
treaty, or might offer its services as
a mediator. Whatever happens the
treaty Of Versailles will undergo
radical changes before the summer.
More bye-elections will be fought
next month, and it is necessary that
the government act quickly.