NEWS OF THE WEEK
TIKE date of the General Election is now definitely fixed for November 14th, and though for ourselves We regret an election at this moment nothing is gained now by cavilling at what is finally decided. The National Government will inevitably be returned, as the general situation at home and abroad requires that it should be, but the loss of a hundred seats or more will ;eertainly not strengthen this country's international 'Position, even though the Opposition parties support the Governthent in its international' policy. The voters be more than usually confused by the issues before them. The 'Government is apparently to link support .or the League with an extensive rearmament programme, ft.%:hile the Opposition will claim, with some justice, that )10 political capital ought to be made out of a League Of Nations policy, which is common ground, and that 911 questions like unemployment, the means test and the treatment of distressed areas the Government stands *Pondenmed. The average elector, moreover, must be Xiivided between the desire to see a National Govern- .inent maintained and the desire, equally sound, to see in the House of Commons an effective Opposition that is pot exclusively Socialist. That may result in the return of more independent Liberal members than has hitherto seemed likely.
