Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-26

the forthcoming British election. When,
on Decoration day. John Bull, Mrs. Bull
and this time "Flapper" Bull as we'll
go to the polls. they will have to de-
eide whether the good old-fashioned
two-party system, American as we'll
Britain is. for the moment at least
to join the ranks of the continental ma
tons employing the bloc
In point of fact. if you measure the
situation by the voting strength of the
three parties none constitutes a ma
iority Roughly, the ratio is 1853,
representing Tory, Labor and Liberal
voting strengths respectively. Under
the proportional representation system
which is employed in Germany, it
would never be possible for any party
TO have a majority in the House Of
Commons. yet because Britain. like the
United States. chooses its members by
districts, the Tories were able IN 1924,
while polling less than half the votes,
to carry more than two-thirds Of the
seats.
AS it stood in the old House of Com
mons, just dissolved, the Tories num-
bered just 400. the Laborites $50 and
the Liberals As. Thus while the Tories
may lose nearly hundred seats and
yet retain the 30S which constitute
majority, the Laborites must prac-
tically double their present quota while
any considerable gain of the Liberals
will, of itself, make any majority i'm
possible.
Can Be No Ma iority.
On the basis of practically all of
khe forecasts so far made, the pros
pect of a majority whether Tory or
Labor. seems slight in the extreme.
What is generally looked for is that
the Tories and Laborites will divide
$50 seats fairly evenly and the Lib
erals will about double their repre-
sentation, thus capturing nearly 100
seats.
In any such situation the Liberals
would obviously hold the balance of
power. Oddly enough they would sue
coed to the position of their old allies,
the Irish, whose votes in pre-war
ParliamentS more than once enabled
"a Liberal cabinet to dominate a House
of Commons. But the difficulty is that
while the Irish were in the main the
natural political allies of the Liberals.
arated from the Tories and from Labor
The fact of the matter is that
present-day Britain can no longer be
divided into two natural political
groups. There is Enthusiastically a right,
left and center, just as there is in
continental countries. Between the Tory
and the Liberal the gulf. which has
existed for more than half a century,
has widened rather than narrowed, but
between the bourgeois Liberal party
and the Socialist Labor camp the di-
vergence is equally broad
On questions of foreign policy. in
the desire for closer relations with
the League of Nations and better re-
lations with the United States. Lib
eral and Labor policy is Identical And
both parties are more friendly to Ger
many than to FRANCE. Both repudiate
the Chamberlain policy, which is, after
ALL the traditional British continental
policy of balance of power Thus a
''Lib-Lab" coalition in foreign affairs
would be natural. simple and consistent
with the tradition of both parties.
Liberals Fear Socialism.
But the Liberals share the Tory
distrust of the Socialist faint in Labor.
Economically the Liberals are at one
with the Tories in resisting all pro-
grams of naturalization, but con-
comitantly they share with Labor a
dominating determination to resist any
shift from free trade to protection, even
to the disguised protectionism of the
safeguarding system.
This confusion is increased by the
patent fact that within the three parties
there are profound differences. The
Tories are manifestly divided between
the old Die Hard" faction and the
more progressive elements. The Liberals
are torn by two forces. one of which
is moving toward the Tories, the other
toward Labor. Finally Labor is split
between the men who, like Macdonald,
are old Liberals. and the extreme social
list school, the wild men" of the Clyde
side.
AS consequence. while it would be
an easy matter for the Liberals to join
Labor in turning the Tories out, if the
Baldwin government failed to gain a
majority in the new house, it would
be excessively difficult for the Liberals
and LaboriteS to work together for
any long period. Labor is sure to have
more seats than the Liberals, and Mac
Donald has announced in advance that
he will make no combination. leaving
the Liberals to follow him without re-
ward or preclpltate new election, as
they may choose.
In France no such difficulty would
arise, because in that country there are
not three but nearly a dozen parties.
If the election resulted in a sweeping
victory for Labor, which carried many
new seats although not a majority, a
government would be formed by Labor
Britain no such adjustment is likely
because party lines and discipline are
too rigid. After election, as before,
Liberals would remain Liberals, all of
them. In Germany, in a similar situa-
ton, if the Nationalist had made large
gains, the Center, the Peoples Party
and possibly even the Democrats would
turn to the right and make a coalition
while if it were the Social Democrats
who had prospered, the turn would be
to the left and the new coalition would
center about them.
More Like Continent.
In Great Britain. like the United
States. an election is struggle between
parties, between two in the United
States, three in Britain. On the CONT
nent the battle is between two sets OF
ideals. radical and conservative. These
ideas are the political programs of a
number of parties stretching from the
extremists at each end to the moderates
In the center. When the vote has shown
the will of the people, when it Is clear
that the ma iority of the nation is II
either a progressive or reactionary
mood, combinations quickly form to eX-
press this will. Thus, while there IS
vast amount of immediate confusion
and cabinets tend to be short!iVed, CO.
alitions are familiar detail
we and the British have been accus-
toned to think in simple terms, Liberal
and Tory. Democrat and Republican
Occasionally we have had temporary
break to a third party Roosevelts Bull
Moose movement was an example. but
the movement is shortllved, the party
habit is too strong Nor are VIC able tc
think politically in shades and degrees
The subtle distinction between Repuh-
lican of the left, OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES