Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-12
The British Labor Party.

| SchiSm, not yet disastrous, but never
F.: theless significant, has definitely split
the ranks of the British Labor party.
This weeks Punishment of Sir Oswald
Mosley, hitherto one of Prime Minister
MacDonald's millionaire Socialist"
supporters and until last year min
lister in the Labor cabinet, marks q
cleavage for all the world to note.
Sir Oswald and his part-American
wife, Lady Cynthia Mosley, who has
also been a Labor NJ p, recsntly form
ed the New party" as a protest against
the Macdonald organizations tactics.
! The immediate result was manifesto
on Tuesday last formally ex-communi-
eating Mosley for Ibis act of gross
disloyalty to the Labor party" To
date five supporters in Parliament have
joined the mutinous Mosleys in the
I New party"
1t was in Midsummer, 1880, that the
fomenters of the present breach in the
Labor phalanx signaled Sullen dissatis-
faction with the Macdonald govern
ment. They accused it of failing mis-
erably to deal with the paramount issue
before the British people-unenploy-
ment. Instead of coming to grips with
the problem on some of the Utopian
lines dangled before the country when
they regained power in 1899, Sir os-
| valid Mosley and his allies accused
the MacDonaldises of pursuing glory in
fields far remote from the critical bust
ness they faced at home.
That is exactly what the Labor gov
eminent has done. 1t has accom-
plished, in the domain of foreign af-
fairs, three major achievements, on. any
one of which in ordinary times a British
government would justifiably plume it
self. The Macdonald cabinet brought
/ off the London Naval Conference and
the three-power treaty. Only a fort
night ago the Labor government per-
formed the miracle Of persuading
France and Italy to bury the Ratchet
and enter the limitation pact of which,
because of their parity differences, they
would not hear at London last Winter.
Then, to cap the sheaf of his triumphs
In the domain of external relations, Mr..
Macdonald came to terms with Gandhi
and paved the way to a bloodless peace
in India.
Meantime, economic conditions in the
British Isles are going remorselessly
from bad TO worse. The dole is Labor's
only antidote for mounting unemploy-
ment. The exchequer is reduced 10
actual borrowing TO pay the jobless
bounty. Already, according to the
London Daily Mail, q dole debt of be-
tween $3.50, 100000 and ss75. 900 900 has
been incurred. Something like 2,65O.ooO
men and women are on the unemployed
register, while the unemployment fund
is rising at the rate Of S5,o00,0 900 q week.
Labor calls the dole unemployment in
sursnce" and argues that realm whose
present gross national capital is esti-
mated at 1926, oO0, 900 can easily
afford a weekly benefit of eight dollars
q. week to a family Of man, wife and
three children.
The Labor party seems blessed with
an elephantine hide, for criticisms Of
its inability to graphic with the crush
ing burden of unemployment rain upon
it without effect. Mr.. Macdonald re-
mains tenanted at No. 10 Downing
street through no fault, or default, of
his own. He Is fortunate in the bifur-
Gated character of His Majesty's
loyal opposition" While Mr.. Baldwin's
Conservatives and Mr.. Lloyd Georges
Liberals remain within their respective
ranks houses divided among themselves,
Labor, in our Yankee idiom, sits pretty.