11 JANUARY 1935, Page 24

Back-Bench Brains

Conservatism and the Future. By Lord Eustace Percy, W. S. Morrison, K.C., Captain F. A. A. Heilgers, Captain J. de V. Loder, P. Emrys Evans, Hugh Molson, The Earl of Iddesleigh, E. Thomas Cook. (Heinemann. 7s. 6d.)

IF one of the functions of Conservatism is to maintain a jealous watch on the British Constitution, the article by Mr. Hugh Molson in this interesting and suggestive volume will- considerably reassure any who question the capacity of the rising generation of Conservatives to discharge that function.

For Mr. Molson is as conscious of the necessity for a wise evolution as for the maintenance of our constitutional tradi- tions in all their essentials. Parliament, he realizes, is over- worked. The services of experts must be more and more invoked, but the expert is only safe when held in check by the plain common sense of -ordinary men. That is one justi- fication, as Mr. Molson points out, for the maintenance of our territorial system of representation, and it provides him with- a strong argument for the constitution of a number of Parlia- mentary committees, not with authority over Ministers, but charged with the task of scrutinizing closely in advance statutes and regulations drafted by experts.

An increasing concern by Parliament with the structure of industry is inevitable (e.g., the cotton industry wage agreement Act of H)34) and disaster in that sphere can only be avoided by the right adjustment of the relations between the expert and the layman. But that -very fact makes the quality of representation in the House of Commons more important. Mr. Molson emphasizes the obvious anomalies resulting from the present system of voting, advocates the adoption of proportional representation, and in the matter of the House of Lords goes boldly for a reform in personnel through the abolition of the hereditary system without any increase in powers. His contribution is in many ways the most valuable

of the seven or 'eight which make up a singularly valuable volume.

Though the authors happen to belong to the young Con- servative group, they have written independently, each of them professing to voice no more than his individual views. But one clear line of thought runs through them all—the principle of the creation of order, economic and political, national and international, as a framework within which the fullest development of the individual may be made possible. That is not so distinctit-ely a Conservative doctrine as some of them suggest. When, for example, Lord Eustace Percy describes as essential Toryism a belief which " finds the motive force of human progress, not in the compulsory authority of the State, but in the individual's conscience and sense of duty," he is defining a principle which might equally

well be described as essential Liberalism. The question, of course, is where the limits of centrally-imposed order are to be set. Captain Heilgers, dealing with agriculture, praises Mr. Walter Elliot's scheme generally but very rightly con-

demns the hop scheme as creating a monopoly through which the brewers are held up to ransom, and sounds a timely note of warning that the same thing may easily happen in the case of potatoes. As to the rest of the agricultural schemes, it has still to be proved, as Captain Heilgers would no doubt admit, whether a reasonable balance has or has not

been struck between imposed order and normal commercial freedom.

Through the essays, as a whole, there breathes a genuine and intense desire for a gradual modification of the social order which shall, as Lord Eustace Percy says, give every individual a status, consisting of the assurance of sufficient economic independence to confer on him some freedom of choice regarding his way of life, or, as Mr. W. S. Morrison has

it in his essay on economics, for a wise and equitable diffusion of the national wealth in the only way in which that can properly be achieved, viz., by the payment of adequate wages for work done. But both Mr. Morrison and Captain Heilgers reconcile themselves too-easily to the idea of the permanent atrophy of international trade, with an inevitable movement towards national self-sufficiency as consequence. The chapter on foreign affairs by Mr. Emrys Evans and Captain Loder stands rather apart. The writers reject summarily the im- possible ideal of isolation, but their ultimate conclusion is a little hesitant. They advocate support of the collective system, sound the reminder that the price of peace is sacrifice, insist that this country shall support the League of Nations and the Locarno Pact with its full force and authority, but at the same time draw a distinction between the duties imposed by such an agreement as Locarno and those arising from the broader obligations of League membership. But in the main the policy outlined is well in advance at any rate of what the policy of the Conservative party generally might be assumed to be before the despatch of British troops to the Saar. The general aim is admirably stated—" to set up an international order in Europe so.strong that it would be dangerous for any power to stand outside it, and fatal for an' aggressor to. defy it." It is observed with justice that though that may be a slow process, it will be accelerated • in proportion as this country displays initiative.

' The volume as a whole is a valuable contribution to eon-- temporary political thought. Some brains at any rate on the back-benches are productively active. H. W. H.