1939-11-15 — Page 4

4

Wednesday.

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

November 15, 1939.

1940

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The

Hongkong Telegraph.

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'Phone 26615 November 15, 1939

Twilight of Ideologies

A conspicuous and significant feature of the present war has been the sudden and spectacular Ferumbling of ideologicut anta- gonism which were regarded as fundamental. The most striking

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the Soviet-German non-aggression part, which proved in practice to be il mutual aggrtission pact, directed against unfortunate Po. land.

For years anti-bolshevism had been n cardinal tenant of the Nazi faith and anti-fascism had been the leading article in the Com- munist credo. Yet, as thoughtful observers with first-hand know-. ledge of the two regimes recogniz

al, there lnd been 1 stendy increase in points of similarity between Germany's "brown bolshe- vism" and Russia's "red fascism." The temptation to despoil a weaker neighbour proved the final factor in bringing about a rapproche- ment, if not an actual alliance, between the two countries.

Equally striking was the abrupt turn for the better in the relations between the Soviet Union and Japan. There was a long tradi- tion of bittor hostility between these two countries, and there, had been perlodic outbursts of border fighting which sometimes brought Into action tanks and airplanes as well na less formidable weapons, But it is perhaps as easy for the Soviet Union and Jupan to come to an understanding at the expense of China as it was for the Savlet Union and Germany to strike a bargain for the spoilation of Poland.

The sacrifice of ideological con- siderations for the sake of selfsh national interests is nu new thing. During the Thirty Years Wor Cardinal Richelieu leagued himself with Protestant states in order to push the French frontier cantward to the disadvantage of 2 Roman Catholle Emperor. King Francis 1 of France made an alliance with the Mohammedan Turks against his Jmmediate enemy. the Emperar

Charles V.

WHO'S A FUNK?

→ Gentlenen

GENTLEMEN!

ADOLF THE IMPRESARIO: "Not a very promising audience, Rib., old boy."

Something to

be proud of

ment.

OT the least striking resuit of the last few weeks has been the renovation of Parlin-

arc

It has become, in a pivotal way, the focus of national attention and interest in, a fashion that has hardly been the case since 1931.

It is not merely that the vital ministerial pronouncements

It is not merely, made there.

the either, that

debates have reached an extraordinarily high level.

It is, above all, because Parliament I criticismA has found itself again. of administration have been neute and direct. Ita ability to formulate grley- ance has been prompt and incisive.

To what is this renovation due? Above all, I think, to two things.

First, I in the response to a wide- spread pubile demand that the war should intensify and not diminish the strength of democratic in- stitutions,

The electorate is not willing to wage a war for freedom and to lose that right of freo discussion which is of freedom's essence.

It is due, secondly, to the fact that the Labour Party is a real Opposition, free to criticise and attack,

At no point in our history has the value, as a political instrument, of His Majesty's Opposition been more clear. IL han been able to reflect popular doubts. It has been able-Mr. Green- wood's famous challenge of September is the supreme instanco-to volco Irresistibly popular demand.

Moro: it is clear that a Government so ciresimalanced must show excep- tional energy and exceptional ability if it is to survive. Ministerial reputations, closely examined in debate, will not survive the discovery of inespacity.

There are many examples of this. The success of Evacuation was due to Opposition pressure. So, too, was the important decision that youths under 20 are not to be sent to France. So, also, was the ogreg- ment to reorganise Dr. Burgin's narrow and bureaucratic decision about the Ministry of Supply.

The rapid reorganisation of the Min- istry of Information has been the out- come of the fact that its ineptitude could not face the barrage of Parlia mentary criticism.

The country is in no mood for the complacent confidence of the pre-wr daya The House has become aware of this. It realises that the Gavern. ment is on trial, and knows that its own future depends upon its ability to return a verdict in accordance with the view of public opinion.

It la impossible not to contrast this situation with that in Germany.

No steps Hitler may take, no measure upon which he may decide. has to run the gamut of criticism.

There is no instrument in Germany to-day through which opinion may. make itself felt or through which inter-grisrance may seek its appropriate remedy. The whole population rO mains the inert recipient of order which it must obey without scrutiny and without explanation,

The recent spectacular shifts in international relations must have brought bitter but perhaps ultimate- ly Balutary reflections to certain pasalonate partisans In national affairs who have persisted until very recently in regarding the Soviet Union as the shining knight in red armour who would put the decadent democracies to shame and save wenker peoples from the onslaught of Nazi Gor-

Above all, it is notable that in Ger many a change in the Government would be equivalent to a revolution; the whole fabrio of the State resta upon the power of the Nazis to main- tain

or their hantly apparatus coercion.

For the open opponent there is the Similar confusion must have been scaffold; for the critic there is the brought into the ranks of equally

many.

passionate partisans in Far Eastern champion of China against Japanese affairs who have persistently ad-aggression. Chiang Kai-shek, when Vocated the conception of the he is able to do do, will probably- Soviet Union

ля the chivalroun tell ʼn very different story.

By HAROLD

LASKI

concentration camp. Tu Bay of Goebbels or of Goering what Mr. Greenwood has said of Dr. Burgin would, in Germany, have been equivalent to a prison sentence.

With ourselves, this is not the A case and cannot be the case. major fallure on the part of the Government #lil lead to its recon- stitution as casily and as painlessly as Mr. Asquith gave way to Mr. Lloyd George in 1910,

One has only to read the questions in the House of Commons, or the com- monta in the publie Press, to ace that the nation retains its self-respect by aceing that the process of govern- ment is submitted to examination.

The Government's le depends upon its response to criticism and warning. It has not the power, it dare not take the power, to black-out public opinion.

It governs a body of free citizens. more aware than in any previous Lime that the maintenance of their freedom is the fundamental condition of their victory.

Parliament is an old institu- ilon, with nearly seven hundred years of accumulated tradition as ita foundation. What it has re- vealed in these five weeks of crisis and of war is its capacity for self- regeneration.

Its exercise of its function re- markably filustrates the difference between democracy and dictator- ship. In the one, citizenship is a positive function; in the other has ceased to be a function at all. In the one, the silministration must make lis way by ellelting consent; in the other, it must make its way by im. posing coercion. In the one, what touches all must be decided by all: in the other, the basis of the regime is a denial that the people bave a right to decide.

Democracy demands, in its Farlin-

mentary form, the co-operation of its citizens as the basis of its effec- tiveness. Dictatorship is driven to refuse that co-operation-sinen its own inherent logle is incom- patible with its exercise.

The life of Parliamentary democracy is, therefore, the life of reasoned discussion. But the te of a dictatorship is, in its public aspect, one in which reasoned dis- cussion is necessarily fatal to the end a dictatorship has in view. Unlike democracy, it cannot afford the luxury of citizens who find their self-respect in freedom.

*

The British people has only begun to tread a long road, the end- of which is not yet in sight. There are going to be trials and dim- culties. The one thing to which it must cling fast is the realisation that in a free Parliament, func- tloning in a free democracy it has forged the basle Instrument of victory.

It

must not allow itself to be diverted from that understanding.

The higher the stature of Parlia- ment in this crisis, the higher also will be its own stature.

The more it insists upon the full performance of Parliament's func- tion, the more profoundly it will secure the perpetuation of its own freedom.

And it must, above all, remem- it watches the proceedlugs ber as In Parliament, that Its heart les in the duty of the Opposition fear- Icssly to analyse the operations of the Ministry.

Criticism in war time is even more the sovereign duty of the Opposition than it is in peace. These weeks have already demonstrated the power of the Labour Party, as that Opposition, to concentrate the mind of i'arliament, and, through it, of the nation, upon the pivotal things.

One function. in the days that le nhead, is to reinforce that power with all the energy we have. In the degree that we do Bo wo make certain the success of the great ends we hold in common with one another.

GRIN AND BEAR IT

"Who took my atom?"

By

John Blunt Opposes

INCOME TAX

IF responsible public' opinion counts for anything in the British Empire (and of course it does) the Inconie Tax proposal for Hongkong cannot be support- ed. The Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council presum- ably represent the public. They have cast their votes against the proposal, and have given cogent reasons for their objections. The public may be said to have expressed itself in no uncertain manner through the columns of the Press. There is an over- whelming objection from every section and nationality of the community.

One can readily sympathise with the Fumetal Sceretary in his strenu ous efforts to justify a scheme which he himself has admitted must be largely a matter of guesswork. His speech last Thursday was cleverly conceived, but even his facile mind could not sweep

away

muny | weaknesses and objections which are all too patent in connection with the proposed tux.

The

Through its financial spokesman, Government admits that the existing systems of revenue collecting are not 100 per cent. efficient, but at the same time, is prepared to put into force a measitre which is too vague even to chance an estimate of either ent of administration or yield.

Actually, the Financial Secretary believes, or, rather hazartis

guess. that the cost of collection would be gomething between" $390,000 and $400,000 per annum, although he stated "we expect to draw the ma- Jurity of the staff required from other branches of the Government Service whose netivities will have to be re- duced

·D

come extent and whose Jeave is, under present arrangements, being drastically curtailed, so increas ing the number of available officers.""

Does this mean that the minority of the staff needed, or believed to be needed, would cost from three to four lakhs per annum?

Of

It is, course, claimed that in- [come Tax ensures equity and justice and In most countries, this state- ment is unquestionably correct. In

the

proposal before Hongkong, how- ever, the claim cannot hold good, and the Financial Secretary himseil supplies one of the reasons. He pro- poses to grant special concessions to newly established factories!

If this is not a contradiction to the assertion that Income Tax will not drive capitul away, I don't know what it means.

Lichty Tight dissuade people from in-

Surely it is an admission that the

In the

vesting money in factories Colony, or at any rate, cause them to think twice before so doing.

In order to overcome this pro- bubility, Government proposes make special concessions to newly established factories.

to

Why do this if the tax is 30 serui- pulnusly fair and equitable?

In other words, it is proposed to subsidine people who hesitate to in- vest their money in the Colony, be- cause of the fact that they would be taxed for so doing,

What of the factory already estab- Hshed, paying the tax, and managing to earn a reasonable return? The new. man would start off with pie- ferential treatment tantamount to being granted a subsidy, enabling him to undercut his established compe- tilor!

Much Too High

If this high Bnance, it is so high. us to be beyond my reuch,

1 am sorry to be caustic, but jí n Government Offelal announces that he proposes to be caustic (at the tax- payer's expense, and I am a tax- payer) then why should i not be caustic in return?

I certainly resent the Imputation that Europens British people. must pay until it huria, because it is their PLEASE Turn To Pago 5.