TOPICS OF THE DAY.
CONSTITUTIONAL PROPRIETIES.
MR. ASQUITH'S Special Register Bill, which was in- troduced on Tuesday, and debated at some length on Wednesday, ought to satisfy the more reasonable of his critics. Whether his scheme is workable or not, the Prime Minister has observed the constitutional proprieties by attempting to set up a new register on which a General Election might be fought in the wholly improbable event of a dissolution taking place before the war is over. It appears that some earnest persons have been much distressed by the staleness of the present register. They have described Mr. Asquith as an unconstitutional Minister, almost a despot indeed, because he omitted to provide for the revision of the Parliamentary register last year. In their regard for the constitutional proprieties they were inclined to consider it an outrage that the work of the revising barristers and the party agents should be interrupted by a foreign war. Some of their comments on this matter, in their complete detachment from the great problems of the day, have reminded us of the Punch cartoon of the indignant householder reading the paper in his study, who is interrupted by an excited housemaid crying, "Please, sir, the house is afire "and who replies : "How often have I told you, Jane, not to come into my room without knocking ? " We do not suppose that Mr. Asquith's keenest opponents really attach more importance to a detail of domestic politics than to the struggle in which the future of the Empire is at stake. But their exaggerated complaints have certainly produced that impression. It is, fortunately, only a small section which has for its watchword " Politics as usual." The great majority of the nation are fighting or working, and are far too busy to trouble themselves with problems of the franchise that can have no immediate bearing on the war. If a new register is needed by next spring, they will accept Mr. Asquith's proposal without demur, although he describes it, in a nice "derangement of epitaphs," as "a very halting, lop- sided and temporary makeshift which may or may not be seaworthy." They would be just as ready to wait for the return of more normal conditions, when the problem of the franchise could be seriously faced.
The essence of Mr. Asquith's scheme is that it preserves the electoral rights which war workers possessed. Soldiers, sailors, munition workers and others employed in naval or military work such as mine-sweeping or cable-laying, ambulance attendants, soldiers or sailors who are in hospital, the prisoners in the enemy's hands, and those whose homes have been destroyed by the enemy's shells or bombs or have been vacated at the instance of the military or naval authorities, are all to remain on the new register if they were on the register last year. Further, any of them who were qualifying for the franchise when they left home to engage in war-work, whether they were owners, occupiers or lodgers, are to be regarded as having continued to qualify. For example, if a man took a house in Wimbledon at the June quarter in 1915 and volunteered in July, he would by now be regarded as a qualified occupier with a right to vote in the Wimbledon division, although in fact he may have termin- ated his tenancy. Such, at least, is the intention of the scheme, as explained by Mr. Asquith on Monday, and if that is carried out, a very considerable proportion of the war workers would be retained on or added to the register. In regard to persons who have not left their homes, the ordinary period of qualifica- tion will run to November 1 next, instead of July 15 last, so that the register coming into force from May 31, 1917, may represent somewhat more accurately the sedentary part of the population. We cannot disguise from ourselves the great practical difficulties that 'must be overcome in preparing the register next winter. Mr. Asquith referred to this on Wed- nesday, and Lord Heneage puts the case clearly in a letter which we print this week. The revising barristers have in many cases found other work to do • the party agents and their clerks have been absorbed in Military or Red Cross work if they have not joined the Army ; the overseers are now, as a rule, trying to perform their ordinary duties with much depleted staffs, and will not welcome the heavy task of pre- paring a Parliamentary register. Clerical labour, like all other kinds of labour, is very scarce, and the work of registration cannot be left entirely in inexpert hands because it abounds in technicalities and will, in this instance, involve a great deal of correspondence in tracing the absent electors or would-be electors, for, as Sir John Simon said, the special register will be a register of absentees. Doubtless the work can be done, and will be done after a fashion, but the new register is bound to be very imperfect.
Mr. Asquith took the only possible course in determining not to change the electoral qualification. There is, of course, a good deal to be said for the proposal to enfranchise every man serving his country at sea or in the field. But if the soldiers and sailors are to receive votes as fighting men, and not as owners, occupiers or lodgers qualified for the franchise in particular constituencies' the munition workers who have left their homes and gone to distant factories to work long hours for the State are just as much entitled to the vote by reason of their service. And if the male munition workers are enfranchised in that capacity, then, say Lord Robert Cecil and others of his school of thought, the women who are doing war work must be granted the same rights. Thus the flood- gates of controversy would be opened at a most inauspicious moment. It may be said that there is no logical connexion between the military vote and women's suffrage. But the point is that the advocates of women's suffrage, who are numerous and influential, would seize the opportunity to press their claims, whether logical or not. They must not be encouraged to do anything of the kind. Besides, it is not really worth while to discuss the military franchise when we know that it could not be exercised during the war. It is true that British Columbia, which is holding a provincial election, is allowing those of its soldiers who are stationed in England to record their votes. But this very modest experi- ment proves nothing. The facts are, according to Sir Edward Carson, that at Bramshott Camp one thousand seven hundred British Columbiana polled in eleven hours. Each man had to make an affidavit that he had lived for six months in the province before enlistment, and for one month in an electoral district, and that he was a British subject. He was then given his voting-paper. The extreme simplicity of the British Columbian franchise is no doubt admirable, but we have not got it, and it is idle to suppose that our complex system could be modified just now so that all our naval and military electors who are ashore in the United Kingdom could vote, if they wanted to do so. Mr. Asquith has offered to amend the Ballot Act so as to legalize voting by post in their case ; even then, as any experienced election agent knows, the technical obstacles will deter any but the most ardent and determined voter. Suppose, however, that by some miracle the troops at home and the sailors in barracks could be enabled to exercise the franchise • it would still be impossible to obtain the votes of the millions afloat or oversee. Sir Edward Carson argued in a tentative way that this might perhaps be done. Mr. Churchill, with all his accus- tomed dogmatism, assured the House that it could be done, and that it would be quite an easy matter ; as he has ceased to be a battalion commander, he can contemplate with serenity the plight of an unlucky C.O. in the firing-line who has to collect the votes of the electors, perhaps from fifty different constituencies, in his battalion, and forward them to the fifty returning officers, while enemy shells are bursting impartially over the Unionist, Liberal and Labour voters, and bombs are throwing up the dirt over their ballot-papers. All this talk about the fighting forces taking part in an election is ridiculous. The War Office, Mr. Asquith said, will not hear of it. Moreover, there is every reason to believe with Sir Hedworth Meux that our gallant sailors and soldiers do not want to "be fussed about by the politicians." They are engaged in fighting the enemy, and . have neither the time nor the in nation to engage in party politics.
The debates on registration will not have been in vain if they have shown once for all that there cannot be a General Election during the war. We are glad to see that Sir Edward Carson himself admitted that "this would he an extremely unfortunate time to have an election." He hinted that before next spring, to which date the life of Parliament is to be extended, the circumstances might alter. But it is in the highest degree unlikely that the work of the new armies will be finished by that time, and that the vast mass of electors who form those armies will be free to vote. Surely no one seriously contemplates a General Election in which our best and bravest men are to be disfranchised by the million. The idea is unthinkable. The uneasy politicians who are always trying to raise cabals against Mr. Asquith and his colleagues must abandon the hope of turning out the Coalition Ministry by means of a war election. The agitation has no backing in the country. It is purely the work of a few cliques, and it serves no purpose except to encourage the enemy with the hope of domestic dissensions that might weaken our conduct of the war.
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