Mr. Bonar Law is evidently as conscious of the dullness of his political programme as any of his critics will be. There is really nothing in it which Mr. Lloyd George might not have fathered. The former Government's policy in respect of Ireland, India, Franc. Germany, the Dominions, trad development and the farmer is. taken over practically lock, stock and barrel: whether - performances will be happier in these respects than in the past is open to doubt. The abolition of the Ministry of Pensions, a singularly unpopular department all round, is a distinct bid for votes: the extensiveness and cost of bureaucracy is a common cause of grumbling. And it it is interesting to observe that affairs connected with the League of Nations are to be transferred to the Foreign Office: one likely effect at least of that change wil! be to reduce still further the efficacy of that organ. But the dullness of Mr. Bonar Law's manifesto is no barrier against ite power to attract voters. On the contrary "peace and quiet" appears to be the prevailing wish of every heart and the cry of every paper, and there is no harm in the electors' fancying that they are Being to get The chief: cause. of misgiving lies in Mr. Bonar Law's allusions to the Near East and his declaration that he does not want to make the Straits a second Gibraltar. But that is precisely what they must be if they are to be kept open. The question is whether French policy or British, as crystallized by the events of the past six weeks, is to take the lead. If the ultimate cause of peace and quiet is to be secured, as contrasted with the fancied' advantages of the moment, the gateway of the Dardanelles must ibe kept out of the Turks' clutches.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.