Triumph of Pink

In their vast but cozy Palace of Westminster, the Lords and Commons resumed session (see col. 1) but their thoughts were not on the business of their Houses.

One third of all municipal Councilors in England and Wales are elected each year for a three-year term. Last week in 300 cities and towns voters marched to the polls. The seats they had packed with Conservatives in the "National Government" landslide of 1931 were now up for election. How would the pendulum swing? If it rebounded toward the Labor (Socialist) Party, which has cast out Prime Minister MacDonald and fights his National Government tooth & nail, who could say that the Empire's political equilibrium was still safe? There need be no British General Election for members of the House of Commons until 1936, but last week's verdict on municipal Councilors could be decisive, fateful, ominous. It was.

Issues, of course, were local but the general issue of National Government (i. e. rule by Conservatives under an outcast Laborite Prime Minister) was well to the fore. From the standpoint of the Briton in the street there is something tricky about the "National Government." He had a chance last week to approve or reject the able trick that has given Great Britain a balanced budget, revived her industry by tariffs and made bankers and blue bloods feel safe. What would be the verdict?

It came as a crashing landslide to Labor. For the first time in history Labor candidates won all 42 seats on the London County Council. Throughout the country sweeping Labor gain: more than wiped out the losses that, in 1931, seemed to "destroy Labor."

From such a verdict there could be but one conclusion: If the National Government were to dare a General Election tomorrow the Empire's present leaders would be forced at the very least into coalition with Labor, much of their work would be undone and James Ramsay MacDonald would stand a magnificent chance of vanishing into limbo.

But the Conservatives who dominate the National Government have many a trick still up their well-pressed sleeves. Not needing to go to the country until 1936, they may by that time have produced another Zinoviev Letter to thunderstrike Britons "who always vote Conservative when they are scared."

Paradoxically the Labor or Socialist landslide last week snuffed out the Communists. They took the worst beating Britons have given them in years, proved by their utter downfall that King George V's proletariat is not going Red but resolutely pink.

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