For ourselves, though we think that the secrecy attaching both
to the subscriptions to party funds, and to the uses made of those funds, is always unsatisfactory, and some- times most demoralising, we are bound to express the opinion that there is little possibility of any reform taking place. When the two Front Benches are agreed, as they are in this case, there is no hope. Upon the minor issue whether it is customary to put special pressure upon a man whose election expenses have been paid out of party funds, we accept the assurances of the Leaders of the House and of the Opposition. We do not suppose that a Whip, pleading with a Member to back up the Government, would ever dream of reminding the recalcitrant Member that his election expenses were paid for him. Human nature being what it is, however, and the sense of pecuniary obligation affecting men's minds as it does, we doubt whether a man Whose election expenses have been paid, and who knows that the fact is in the Whip's mind, ever feels quite happy in refusing an urgent appeal to vote for the party.
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