21 JANUARY 1938, Page 3

The National Labour group have had the good fortune to

secure the adhesion of two eminent publicists, Mr. Harold Nicolson and Commander Stephen King-Hall. (It is a pity that the latter has not yet found a path to West- minster.) They stand for what the Socialists would call " capitalist planning " and the prospect of constantly increasing State regulation causes them no alarm. Their weakness lies in the fact that none of their Members of Parliament except Mr. Malcolm MacDonald and Mr. Kenneth Lindsay were prominently connected with the Labour movement before 1931. The Liberal Nationals can at any rate produce a fairly respectable list of names that have been associated with Liberalism. But the National Labour cause has no roots in Trade Unionism and there is nothing markedly proletarian about its supporters.