11 AUGUST 1923, Page 2

There have been strong rumours during the week that Mr.

McKenna will not, after all, become Chancellor of the Exchequer. It has been pointed out—though the statement may have been made with a certain guile— that the banking interest cannot well spare him for politics. Those in the City who " cannot spare " him may, of course, be the very men who do not want to see one who has for many years been a Liberal added to Mr. Baldwin's Cabinet. If that be their view they are making, in our judgment, a great mistake.. We want to see the basis of the Conservative Democratic Government broadened, not narrowed, for much the most important domestic issue so far as we can see ahead is that between Constitutionalism and disruption.