NEWS OF THE WEEK T HE Government's volte face on conscription
is as astonishing a political performance as most people can remember. It is, of course, not a question of whether eighteen months or twelve months is the right period for compulsory service. On that there may well be two opinions, and Government apologists are already hard at work making a case for the shorter term. But the Government itself was convinced that the lohger term was right. It must have been considering the conscription question ever since it was elected. It has certainly been considering it for months past in consultation with its military advisers, in relation to commitments abroad and the needs of defence, in relation equally to the economic situation and the need for man-power in industry. Having done all that, it decided without hesitation to bring in a National Service Bill on the basis of eighteen months compulsory service, and for two days last week it defended the eighteen months without a suggestion of departing from it, except for Mr. Isaacs' very reasonable explana- tion that the eighteeen months' period could be reduced by Order in Council and that if it should prove practicable such a course Would be taken. No one could suppose that that referred to any- thing but a relatively distant date and to a change made possible either by a large increase in voluntary recruitment or the advent of more settled conditions in the world. What is inconceivable is that between Tuesslay night, when the Minister of Defence, as spokesman for the Govethment, was declaring "we must have this Bill" (with its provision for 18 months' service) and Thursday afternoon, when the Government suddenly announced that 12 months would be quite enough, any material change of any kind had taken place in the general situation. One thing, of course, had happened— that the number of Labour Members who voted against the National Service Bill or abstained from voting was considerably larger than was expected. It is idle to suggest that capitulation to a minority is democracy. Democracy consists in the return of a Government to power by a free vote, and of the assumption by that Government of full responsibility for whatever policy it is convinced is right. If the twelve months period to which the Government has_now shifted is right, then the policy by which it has stood month after month was demonstrably wrong, and the Cabinet stands self-condemned
regarding it. If on the other hand the eighteen months was right, as the Government was contending down to the end of the debate on April rst, then the sudden reversal can be explained only as a patent political manoeuvre completely unrelated to any practical consideration. The result must be a serious blow to the Government's prestige both at home and abroad.
