Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-16
BUDGET PLAN
STARTLES BRITISH PUBLIC
Heavy Odds Against Success Seen, Even
Through Mass Hynotism by
Press and Politicians.

Morning Post had for once the ex-
perience Of finding before them exactly
the same news as in the Daily Herald
and the News Overwhelmingly dis
played articles announcing in resound-
ing tones that Premier Macdonald and
other Labor leaders had decided to
balance next years budget at all costs,
and that they anticipated the collabora-
ton ,of the Liberal and Conservative
parties in this endeavor.
All these papers further added that
It was anticipated the collaboration
would be forthcoming for all reasonable
measures Of reform; and the Evening
Star was so far carried away by this
spirit of harmony that on Thursday 1t
proclaimed: This is not the moment
when any responsible man will seek to
advance the methods OF Socialism or
TO insist upon a slowly arrived at tariff
policy OF conservatism"
To this noble sentiment the only
possible answer of the outside observer
would consist in borrowing q line from
American talkie dialogue it is
lamented, Is becoming too popular here
oh, yeah?'
That next years budget, when pre-
sented to the House of Commons, will
be found to balance is not open to rea-
Sonable doubt But that this process
will be achieved through abandonment
of the basic principles hitherto cher
ished by Liberal, Labor and Conserva-
tive parties and that opposition will
meekly refrain from the use of weapons
always hitherto considered legitimate in
the British political game argues q de-
gree OF self-sacriflce and detachment
which, to say the least has not been
visible here since the war.
Odds Heavily Against 1t.
OF course, nothing is impossible and
1t may be that by the exercise of con-
slstent and unremitting mass hypnotism
BRUSH politicians and the press may
mobilize the nation to extricate the
Labor government from the pit which
1t has dug for itself. The view of the
unpreIudiced observer can only be that
the odds are heavily against Ii.
The whole development of the most
recent crisis" is full of interest for the
student of social phenomena. Any one
reading the London newspapers this
week would infallibly be forced to the
conclusion that other countries had
quite suddenly become doubtful of
Britain's inherent financial stability
and that was the publication of the re-
port OF the Economy Committee-con-
tanning warning of prospective 120.-
O0OoO0-poundS budget def1cit-in July
that precipitated this doubt. Hence
the argument seems to rIn-this sud-
den loss Of confidence abroad should
be countered by equally sudden and
drastic measures Of financial reform at
home
As a matter Of fact. when snowden
introduced this years budget last April
II was then obvious-and scarcely con-
cealed by the chancellor-that some
thing not far short of a miracle would
have taken place if the budget were to
be made to balance without either
drastic economies or fresh taxation
The publication on June Of the
interim report of the Royal Commit
tee on Unemployment dotted the is
and crossed the It's Of Snowdens pes
stmism; yet at that time the press gem
orally accepted with considerable COM
placency the prospect that no dole re-
form would be forthcoming, owing to
the opposition OF the Labor rank and
file. 1t wasn't until the German crisis
became acute and fear began to develop
that British banks had financed Cen
tral Europe not wisely but too wen,
that anything like q run on sterling
began; and It was not until July 81
when International action designed to
Rneliorate the German crisis was wen
on the way 70 compae tion--that The