Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-05
CRISES HARMLESS
TO LABOR CABINET
But Feeling There viii Be COL
lapse During Present
Year Is Expressed.
BY Radio to The Star.

By Radio to The Star.
LONDON, July 4.-Threatened men
proverbially live long. and IL this
nroverb holds true In political life, no
group should enjoy greater longevity
than the present Labor cabinet. Crises"
without number have arisen, only to
dissolve finally upon the fact that the
Socialists are better buffers than their
Liberal allies and that they do not
shirk the prospect of election as much
as do Lloyd Georges followers.
Yet, euriously, just at the moment
when there seem few apparent obstacles
to the continued cooperation between
parliamentary majority, the feeling Is
growing among politicians that the
present year may witness its collapse.
Those who hold this view frankly adj
NIT they are arguing from underlying
tendencies rather than from imme-
diately appfaisable issues. They pre-
dict that by Autumn at least three
difficult political situations will have
reached crucial stages.
First. and most important OF all,
there is the question of trade and en-
ployment. This issue since the war
has been paramount one IN British
politics; 1t has bulked large behind
every change Of government and every
major movement OF policy. BY all
criteria presently accepted as SOUND,
Britain simply cannot indefinitely con-
tinue financing unemployment reiief on
its present scale, TO say nothing OF the
dimensions 1t may eventually assume.
By late Autumn, on the one hand, the
final report of the royal commission
on unemployment will have been hand
ed in and the cabinets last excuse for
procrastination in tackling the dole re-
form will disappear.
Budget Short Of Balance.
simultaneously 1t will have become
apparent that this years budget will
fall far short of balancing, and that
the chancellor of the exchequer, who
introduces the 1892 budget, will al
most certainly have to incur the un-
popularity of increasing taxes. Final
~, there will be the necessity for ap-
proving the final settlement Of the
Indian auestion-and such settlement
as now appears inevitable will certain
" be hailed by the Conservatives as
surrender.
Meanwhile there has transpired one
of those personal incidents which
sometimes profoundly alter the course
of British politics. 1t is the growth
Of the keen personal dislike between
Lloyd George and Snowden. TINS
arises from the recent incident over the
land-tax negotiations, In which Lloyd
George deemed the time oppertune to
crack the whip over the Laborites by
way of showing that the Liberals re-
tanned their independence. But Snow
den Is q peppery person who does not
like to have whips cracked over him.
and instead of participating in the love
feast in the House OF Commons when
the undetermined crisis collapsed, the
sardonic and sharp-tongued chancellor
of the exchequer made pretty plain his
views as to the desirability of such vic
tories. Indeed, so pungent was his
satire that Sir John Simon and some
other Liberals formally cut loose from
the Liberal organiBati ton. declaring they
no longer were able to stand being held
up for ridicule.
Not Ssething 10 Lloyd George.
This did not in the least help to
soothe Lloyd Georges ruined temper,
and the Liberal chief is now understood
to consider himself no longer on speak
ing terms with the chancellor.
The obvious solution for Premier
would be the jettisoning
of Snowden. But the chancellor is a
far too valuable member of the cabi-
net to receive such cavalier treatment,
and anyhow 1t is becoming more and
more questionable whether the Labor
leader is really keenly DESTROYS of re-
in office and dealing with
which, however handled. are