In our opinion it would be wise to close with
this offer.. At the end of the first session of every Government there is always a particularly great slaughter of the innocents, and who can doubt that a Smoke Abatement Bill would go down in that massacre ? The Government, especially if by that time they were very hard pressed, would be in a position to say plausibly, " Well, you see we tried to get through a Smoke Abatement Bill, and we failed. Of course, we mean to try again, but we cannot do so just at present." On the principle that " the best is the enemy of the good " we suggest that Lord Newton should get together a really powerful deputation to visit Mr. Neville Chamberlain and to ask for a definite promise that the Government themselves will introduce a Bill and that they will do so early in 1926. If this promise were given the whole situation would instantly be changed. It is true that we should have to wait for a year, but that would not be a long period in the long and dreary annals of smoke, and it could most profitably be spent in developing public opinion so that when the time came there should be no mistake about the matter.
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