The Date of the Election
The end of the war in Europe marks also the ending of a political phase in the life of this country. It demands at the earliest suitable date the holding of a general election in order to replace the present House of Commons, now nearly ten years old, with a new House, elected under conditions utterly different from those which existed in 1935, by voters who will include millions of young men and women—service men and others—who have never yet had the chance of going to the polls. The only question is—which is the earliest suitable date, namely that on which the country can as soon as poSsible truly and effectively declare its wishes. Both the Labour and Liberal Parties have made it clear that they will go to' the country with their distinctive party programmes, pre- pared. to-contest seats in the traditional way. That is as it should be, but in such circumstances an immediate dissolution, with an election in June or July, will afford little opportunity even to citizens at home to adjust their ideas to the new situation, familiarise themselves with the conflictng programmes of the three parties, and assess their relevance to post-war reconstruction. As for the service men abroad, they would have every ground for complaining that they were being "rushed " into a premature decision. They have had virtually no political education and no opportunities to consider seriously the vitally important issues at stake. They know little of the dividing-lines between parties, and in a large number, if -not the majority, of cases must be totally ignorant of the personalities of the candidates soliciting their votes. In such circumstances there can be no intelligent declaration of the popular will. It is true that a delay of, say, three months would only diminish these difficulties, not remove them, but it would diminish them very considerably, and on these and other grounds as well a postponement of the election is very greatly to be desired. No calculation of party advantages ought to outweigh such considerations.
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