MR. CHURCHILL AND THE NATION’S PERIL.

Mr. Winston Churchill has sent the following letter to a correspondent:

2, Sussex-square, W. 2,

Jan. 17.

Sir – The currents of party warfare are carrying us all into dangerous waters. The enthronement in office of a Socialist Government will be a serious national misfortune such as has usually befallen great States only on the morrow of defeat in war. It will delay the return of prosperity; it will check enterprise and impair credit; it will open a period of increasing political confusion and disturbance; it will place both the Liberal and Labour parties in a thoroughly false position. The Liberal party will be led into supporting Socialists whom they have just been fighting in hundreds of constituencies throughout the country, and who will still be attacking them and undermining them in these constituencies with ceaseless activity. The Socialist party will be called upon to conduct and administer the business of this immense community, without the reality of power which springs from the will of the majority or the sense of responsibility which arises from the reality of power. They will be invited to cure the distresses of the time on the express condition that they use none of the remedies which they have advocated and in which they believe, and under the threat that if they have recourse to these remedies, they will be immediately dismissed. They will be invited to continue in office on sufferance in order that, if they are violent, they may be defeated, and if they are moderate they may become divided. And this is called “giving a fair chance to Labour.” It is no fair chance to Labour; it is no fair chance to Britain; it is a fair chance only to faction and manoeuvre.

It is impossible that the Socialist party should be so foolish as to be unaware of this position. If they are willing, and, indeed, eager, to form a Government, it cannot be with any hopes of carrying forward a fruitful and efficacious policy according to their lights with reasonable continuity. It can only be because they see in the prestige of office and in the assumption of administrative power the means of preparing and shaping the issues in the near future for a far greater political convulsion than we have yet experienced.

To expect that the Crown will refuse a dissolution to Socialist Ministers who, after two or three months of office, seek to present a far-reaching programme to the nation, is to lay too heavy and too invidious a burden on the august function of the Constitution embodied in the person of the Sovereign. A General Election fought on issues, fundamental to the existing state of society, and presided over by a Socialist Government actually holding the reins of power and the sole guarantee of law and order, will be a formidable event. It is not one from which British citizens, resolute in their Constitutional rights, should shrink if it is inevitable. But it is an event which, while it impends, will cast a dark and blighting shadow on every form of national life and confidence and on every prospect of trade revival. This is, however, the conclusion and climax towards which at the present time the officials of all parties are obstinately marching.

It is astonishing that we should be committed to such dangerous prospects with so little real cause. Although party antagonisms are so active and feverish, there never was a moment in our modern history when there was a greater body of general agreement upon what should be immediately done or attempted in domestic and foreign policy. The great central mass of the nation earnestly desires to see foreign affairs and social reform dealt with by the new Parliament on their merits, without rancour or prejudice, and in a sincere spirit of goodwill. All such prospects will be destroyed by the accession to office of a minority party innately pledged to the fundamental subversion of the existing social and economic civilisation, and organised for that purpose and for that purpose alone. Strife and tumult, deepening and darkening, can be the only consequence of minority Socialist rule.

It ought not, however, to be supposed that the procedure of the House of Commons or the character of the British Constitution renders such disastrous developments and contingencies inevitable. Lord Grey wisely said in the House of Lords yesterday that the best way of escaping from the party and constitutional difficulties in which the country is now involved was by following the simplest and most obvious course which is open to Parliament. What, then, is the simplest and most obvious course? It is surely for the House of Commons to send an Address to the Crown in reply to the Gracious Speech, which Address shall be a sincere and complete expression of its opinion. A newly-elected House of Commons is the supreme tribunal of the nation’s affairs. It is the duty of the House of Commons, representing the will of the people newly recorded at the election, to express its whole mind. It is its duty to relieve the Crown by every means and to the utmost possible extent from difficulty or controversy. The House of Commons will fail in its duty if it tenders to the Crown an incomplete, partial, or misleading Address. The House is entire master of its procedure in this matter, and can readily give effect to its wishes, whatever they may be.

If and when Mr. Clynes’s Amendment has been carried, it is for the House of Commons to say whether it will present the Address to the Crown in that form or whether it will add any further expression to its views. After the passage of Mr. Clynes’s Amendment it will be open to the House… to continue the debate upon any other amendment, and to continue it irrespective of whether a new Government has or has not at that moment assumed office […]

Watching the long series of disastrous and purposeless party follies which have marked and are still marking the progressive degeneration of our affairs, I feel bound to place on record a warning of the dangers into which we are drifting, and to point to a means whereby, in accordance with the wish of the great majority of the electors, and in full harmony with the spirit of the Constitution, these dangers can even at the eleventh hour be avoided. Our difficulties no doubt will not be ended by any single step, but I am sure that by recording a simple, straightforward, and complete expression of the collective national will, the new Parliament will at the outset of its life have established itself on a basis from which the solution… will be rendered far easier. Yours faithfully,

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL.