The newspapers to-day are full of reports that the National Government intends to enforce a tariff policy in which case, they say, the Free Traders in the Government will drop out. Exit, then, says one paper, Mr. Snowden, exit Sir Herbert Samuel, exit Sir Donald Maclean, the Minister of Education; exit Mr. Isaac Foot, the Minister for Mines. But if Mr. MacDonald can retain Lord Reading, the Foreign Minister, Sir Archibald Sinclair, the Secretary for Scotland, and Lord Lothian, Chancellor of the Duchy, the ordeal of replacing the Free Traders, with suitable nominees should not be very difficult. Sir John Simon, it claims, is clearly marked out as the successor to Sir Herbert Samuel at the Home Office.
Sir Herbert Samuel has made it plain that he will not accept tariffs, Mr. Hore Belisha, M.P., one of the Jewish members of Parliament (also a Liberal), and a likely nominee himself for the Government, writes in the “Sunday Express”, and his resignation is therefore expected. He is a man of principle and could not compromise his conscientious convictions by adhering to a policy of which he does not approve. By resignation, he adds, Sir Herbert Samuel’s position will become stronger- incidentally, the Government’s position, likewise. So surely is he regarded as the guardian of orthodoxy that several of the most conventional Liberals inside the Ministry and out of it would agree automatically with whatever he said and follow automatically whatever he did.
Lord Reading is not quite so rigid he says but he is a loyal colleague. He would not let Sir Harbert Samuel down.
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