Sept, 11.
Yesterday Mx. Philip Snowden Was to Rave unfolded' to. the House of Commons the plane of the National Government for Balancing the budget. Details of these plans may or may not be briefly available before this issue goes to press. It is clear from the fighting speech of Mr. Ramsay Macdonald on Wedn day—a speech to which the new leader of the Opposition seems to have made but a poor reply—that the Government's mai object Is to maintain British credit and, so, to ensure favourable an economic condi tion as possible for the eventual work of rehabilitation, The Trade Union Cong: h shown its hostility but not it hand, There may. be an intel tion to invoke the strike weapon fo enforce, opposition to, the Government plans. ing at the the several the new administrations Me. roUups composing
Henderson, who is no mei judge of tactics, arfiamentary methods.
ational Government are pr posing, let it be assumed for the moment, to effect certain "cul national expenditure, by orders-in-council or ordinary legislative enactment.
Once those "cuts" have been effected and the budget balanced: t is hardly open to a new party ernment coming £19 ofice as the resuit of the imminent General Election to undo that work. If such a Government were Conservative it obviously would not ire t0 do, on the other hand, Mr, Henderson swept poll, he would have to be sure of a complete majority over all other parties to be physically able to cancel the National Government's retrenchment. point of fact he would probably not attempt to do anything of the kind, He and his party would rather gratefully accept the security created for them by Mr. Snowden, free as they themselves would be of any odium on its account and endeavour to proceed to the working out of their own proposals which might or might not undermine that security in due course. For it is apparent that the return of a certainty. The purged Labour Party are certain to make a great bid for renewed power In times of acute economic stre: it is not easy for the Conserv tive point of view to gain ascendancy. Although Mr. Baldwin's plain intention to go to the country on the proposal to put up a tariff wall for wwe purposes" accords with the views fof the Trade Union Congress itself, it may be suspected that the free trade heritage will be strongly exploited by. the party to which Mr. William Graham has given his support. Moreover, on the tariff issue, Liberal opposition to. the Conservatives likely to be intensified.
Mr, MacDonald's revelation on Wednesday may, however, bring home forcibly to the electorate
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.