Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-07
BRITAIN'S MAY ELECTION
OF WORLD IMPORTANCE
Defeat of Tories Would Mean Possibility
of Adjustment of q. S. Naval
Issue.

| would agree to any form Of bargain
with the Liberals. On the contrary, ii
is at least possible that given a situa-
| ton In which the Liberals did hold the
balance of power, that party would split
in the middle, part going to Labor, part
to the Tories.
Their Best Hope.
The best the Tories hope for is a
small majority; the least they expect
to lose is about 100 seats, bringing their
representation down to a little more
than 315. 1t is still true that the great
est weakness for Labor lies in the wide
spread fear of the undertaking Of far
reaching Socialistic experiments were
Mcdonald to take Office. In his previ-
Gus regime the Labor leader had no
| majority and was thus unable to pro-
pose any affirmative legislation. Ger
tainly, with any majority now, he would
be bound to undertake the nationalist
ton alike of coal mines and railways.
On the other hand, the disgust and
WEAKNESS Of Britain with its present
masters IS beyond exaggeration. The
failure of the old Liberal party to keep
Britain out of war or to prepare it for
a war that to many seems to have been
| inevitable, the equally complete failure
consequences of a victorious war-these
stand clear in the minds of rising
generation and of an electorate lately
swollen by the addition of millions OF
young women to the rolls. Moreover,
one cannot fail to perceive the enor-
nous disaster for the so-called upper
classes, from which we're drawn the
leaders in both Tory and Liberal par
ties, incident to the slaughter of the
most promising youth on the battlefields
of France.
Death and taxation have produced a
, revolution in Britain more sweeping
than is yet well appreciated In the
world. The death of hundreds of thou
sands OF the youth, the very pick of the
young manhood, which filled the volun-
teer armies in time for the butcheries
of the Somme and Paschendaele; the
taxation which is compelling the break
ing up of the old estates; the impover-
ishment and even the destruction of the
county families-these in a way have
been more devastating than the guillo-
tine in the French Revolution.
And the new generation which is
coming on in Britain looks with impa-
thence at governments and parties DOM
mated by men past middle age and con-
trolled by ideas and traditions which to
the younger generation seem to have
been responsible alike for the participa-
ton of England in the European calam-
ity and the inability of Britain to equal
even the partial recovery of France
from the general disaster.
Tories Turn Liberals.
As consequence many of the sons
of the older Tories. and even more of
the heirs of the Liberal tradition. have
changed sides. Even Stanley Baldwin's
son has gone over to Labor. The erlor-
nous impassivity of vast masses of the
British people, the instructive, distr,lst
Of programs and elaborate proposals
certainly remain. If there is a great
movement toward Labor, there is lust
as patiently a marked movement within
the Labor party away from the mere
extreme men and ideas.
Disguised as it is, the British democ-
racy is, after all, the sanest and the
most experienced in the world. It is
equally incapable of seeking its RENEE
dies in Moscow and in Rome. There is
supreme steadiness which precludes
violent change. If the country goes
Labor this time, 1t will be because it
believes Labor has already become SEN
sible. If 1t fails to return any party to
fun power, it will be because all three
are equally diStrusted On the other
hand, no one can mistake the fact that
John Bull, big and little, In every CIR
cumstance OF life is disguised and even
indignant with his present masters and
looks eagerly for any possible alterna-
tive.
fCopyright. 1927