Conservatives and the Government
F in view of the general electoral prospect the Labour I Party Conference at Leicester a week ago was marked by a touch . of the academic there was nothing of that about the Conservative Conference which met almost simultaneously at Blackpool. The Conservatives are in office in effect if not in name, and if an issue on which the party chose to vote as a party ever came before the House of Commons it would, with its 470 seats, out- number any combination of the other parties-and sections of parties by more than three to one. While, therefore, we are living Under a National Government it is to the Conservative Conference that we look naturally for indications of what Government policy is to be. But here a vital question poses itself. Must we look to the platform or to the floor ? There was no mistaking the tendency of -the floor at Blackpool. Speaking broadly, and subject:- to many reservations on points of detail, the floor represented the Right wing of the party and the platform the Left, and in regard to almost every ques- tion of importance the difference, not indeed of standpoint, but of emphasis and inflection, • between the two was marked. On the Ottawa agreements there was general accord so far as the agreements went, but a resolution was adopted (in the -course of the debate on agriculture) calling for a tax on foreign meat, which Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Chamberlain at Ottawa firmly refused to_tax. Mr. Churchill's Indian resolution, moved in his absence by Lord Lloyd, by declaring that the attempt to force a democratic system -on' a mainly primitive and illiterate electorate would conduce neither to British nor to Indian welfare, flatly- challenged the whole scheme of constitu- tional reform to' which the Government is pledged. It was only after an -earnest appeal from the Secretary of State for India, Sir Samuel Hoare, that an emollient amendment was substituted and carried by 'a majority vote, and the opinion was generally expressed that if Mr. Churchill had been present himself the resolution would have gone through in its original form despite the platform. On economy there was more identity of view, though Mr. Chamberlain commented a little sardonically on the demand addressed to him for drastic economies twenty-four hours • after the conference had adopted a resolution warning him off any reductions in war pensions or State assistance to the unemployed.
These are instructive symptoms, indicative first and foremost of the Coriservative. Party's virility. It is a party with a definite policy, which is not by any means identical with that of .the National Government (it is significant that the question of disarmament does not appear' to have been mentioned at Blackpool). There is an unmistakeable divergence between the average ConserVative's outloOk and the policies with which, in the past at any rate, Mr. MacDonald, Lord Sankey and Mr. .ThOmas, to say nothing of Mr. Runciman and Sir John. Simon, have been identified. Up to a point that divergence is taken for granted. The whole essence of _ a National Government is that it gathers into loyal co-operation for specific purposes in a moment of national emergency men whose paths have habitually lain apart before. But such a Government can only cohere effectively so long as it concentrates on the questions that unite it ,and aVOids, so far as posSible, those on Iyhich the convictions and' the past records (though the latter need" be no fatal impediment) of its members. _ make genuine agreement impossible. The time must rn coeLLit 'is obviously coming already—when the questions that diiide will obtrnde themselves' irresistibly. India Is one. Disarmament and the League of Nations generally is another—for While many Conservatives believe pro- fouhdly in the League arid have done it great service repeatedly, the natural' Conservative 'tendency 'is to suspect what is 'A-aguely termed internationalism as something necessarily, or at any rate potentially, inimical to the interests of this country. There is Russia. There is, of course, Protection as a fundamental principle, as distinguished from Protection as a temporary expedient to readjust a 'balance that had gone awry. On these and a variety of other issues Conservatives find themielves naturally and instinctively taking one line and Liberak and Labour another—or more probably two others.
That is not at all the result of blind partisanship. It reflects accurately the differing bents of himian minds, and at normal times political alignments resulting from the difference are more healthy and more sincere than any artificial affectation of an unreiil unity.
The present moment is not normal. No such acute crisis faces the country as confronted it in August of last year, but problems enough lie ahead to make the persistence of the National Government natural and right, so long as its members feel they can co-operate in all loyalty in the tasks before them. When they cannot their place is outside the Cabinet, not in it.
Sir Herbert Samuel, Lord Snowden and Sir Archibald Sinclair have conic outside, and while their withdrawal in no sense betokens the end of the National Government.
experiment there are many signs that the Government coalition will. have resolved itself into its component parts before the five-years' tern of the present Partin.: ment expires'. Nothing could be more impeccably loyal than Mr. Baldwin's tributes at Blackpool to the Prime Minister, and no one will question for a moment. the-sincerity of every word he spoke. But his references to 'the National Liberal and National- Labour members of the GoVernment were significant. They must be found safe seats (by the Conservative Party) when the election came, and their position was likened to that of Mr. Joeph Chamberlain in the days of the Liberal UnioniSt defection. The inference as to their future needs no underlining. Another Blackpool resolution, moreover, lost only by the narrowest majority, was noteworthy. Captain Guest. wanted the party to assume permanently the name of NatiOnal or something of similar effect, in 'order to enable electors " to adhere permanently to the National cause as represented by the present Government "—which seems a dexterous expedient for turning to the advantage of a particular party what- ever electoral capital there may be in the adjective National spelt with a capital letter. .
In these and other respects the Conservative Conference dispelled illusions and cast instructive light on the future.. The ConserVative: Ministers are working, there is every reason to believe, in complete harmony with their non-Conservative colleagues. There has been no sign and no rumour of greater differences in this than in any ordinary Party Cabinet. But their followers are growing restive. On such a subject as India Mr. Churchill can muster a formidable following. Sooner or later, and it may be sooner than some suppose, the Conservative Ministers will have to choose between their supporters in the country and their Cabinet colleagues. They will no doubt stick to the former, and there will be no reason for regarding their decision as a calamity. A period of National Government has stood us in good stead, but party government_ has worked well in this country in the past and we can return to it, when the moment comes, without recrimination and without misgiving.
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