Sept. 28.
When the next general election in Great Britain comes it will be! fought on very severe lines, with Labour putting up the fight of its life. That at least is the interpretation to be placed upon recent developments in the programme of} that party, which, according to the latest reports, is taking Time by the] forelock, and preparing an offend sive which it is hoped will land) Labour in office, if the results at, the last municipal elections are' followed to their ultimate conclusion. There is no doubt that the: success then achieved has heartened not only the rank and file, buf also) the leaders of the party, and there: is every possibility that the minor: differences which are still reported to exist will be healed in time for, the presentation of a united front.' In this connection Labour is preparing for a big push at the next General Elections on a scale such as it has never attempted before, and preparations are being made to appeal to the annual party conference for no less a sum than, £100,000 to provide the war chest) with sufficient funds to meet all] demands which are likely to be made upon it. The arrangements. provide for a great deal of prelelection work. Courses of instruc: tion are being given to Labour election agents, and a qualified man. is to be placed in charge of each constituency. In addition a huge-scale distribution of literature is] iboing planned in the course of! which scores of millions of leaflets, which are being prepared, will be used to flood the country advocate ing the introduction of a complete: system of Socialism. Officials from the party's head offices are holding' conferences in each constituency at} which all Labour committee-men, local chairmen and secretaries are being carefully coached in their work, the tactics and organization of the Party, while hundreds of men and women are being trained who will become the "shock troops" in the election battle. Not only; that, but attention is being paid to those areas where minor differences. exist between sections of the Party, special conciliators being sent down from London for the purpose of, straightening matters out and securing a unison which at the present moment is by no means, complete.
Labour leaders have made up their minds that the next General Election shall be the most important one in the history of the country, and they intend to spare neither expense nor effort in an) endeavour to make it a success for their Party. A. preliminary test] will take place in the municipal elections which will be held throughout London and the provi ces on November 1, in which it is hoped, when the full strength of the Party machine is brought to bear, and especially so in London, thatthe victories of last year will be repeated and, perhaps, even extended. These are high hopes, for it is quite apparent that importance of the next general election in the history of the country is derived from the fact that a determined attempt is to be made to secure a victory at the polls, by the return to power of an out-and-out Socialistic Government. At least there is one comforting thought about the whole matter. The attempt is being made along constitutional lines, and though there may be some consolation in that, there must be also the dread that the Labour Party, having thus secured power, will proceed so_to change the constitution of the country, that what might at first appear to be only a reasonable change in the composition of the House of Commons, might in the Nang run become a total subvert sion of the traditions by which Great Britain is governed. A successful general election from the point of Labour, which is becoming increasingly identified with the purely socialistic movement, would inevitably mean the enactment of legislation calculated to prevent the return of its opponents to power, along any such lines as would have given it office. The danger, then, ies not in the general election itself but in what might follow.
There is not a great deal to indicate what the other parties are doing about this latest threat. It is likely that they do not find it ne~ cessary to take the country #0 com~ pletely into their confidence because fof the condition of their party funds, which in all probability a as they always have been, in a much more healthy condition than those of Labour. But, unfortunate ly, or fortunately as the case might be, the fight may not be won by money alone. The present government suffers from all the disabilities of its success, It is a coalition, which has not always pleased its constituent members. Tt has been kept in power largely by the persuasive abilities of its lea~ ders who have managed to maintain some semblance of unity amongst their supporters, who are, however, patently restless and clined to irk under the restraint that has been placed upon them. What is more important is the disability under which the government in power always labours at the polls, a fact which has been demonstrated time and time again in English Parliamentary history, Even more imposing is the dissatis—faction which is freely expressed amongst so many of its supporters the country, chiefly because of a failure to appreciate all the facts about which they complain. The present government is being taxed With failing to fulfil all the glowing promises which contributed so largely to its return to power. The criticisms for the most part are {l-founded, chiefly because all the conditions prevailing in the world have not been taken into proper consideration. Yet the record of the Government is a good one, Tt has brought increased prosperity back to the British Isles, It has restored domestic industrial nor~ ality, and the present heavy load of unemployment is due, not to any failure of the Government, but to the general world-wide conditions which have not permitted that ex~ pansion in export trade which Great Britain is ready to partake of, when once the moment arrives. Its failures are not of its own fault, but due to force majeure. That, however, is not likely to appeal the man in the street who can only judge results by the effect they have upon his own living, Thus Labour gifted with an opportunity of being able to preach the gospel of discontent, is furbishing, up its weapons for the purpose of secur ing the reins of power and also to pave the way towards that revolu~ tion to which success at the next general election would be merely a preliminary.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.