• * * Altogether the National Government will have to
make up its mind very soon if it intends to continue its present policy of keeping Left. If it does decide to do so—and there is every reason to suppose that it will— it must act with a greater sense of leadership and, which is even more vital, with more active appreciation of the arts of publicity. At present its showmanship is lament- able. Two important suggestions emerged from the report of the Commissioners on the Distressed Areas. One was the necessity of strengthening weak bridges and the other was the urgency of nationalization of mining royalties. For weeks the Government were attacked for not accepting these proposals, and then suddenly in a speech of Mr. Hore-Belisha, and in a speech on the Christmas adjournment by Mr. Neville Chamber- lain, it appeared that they had in fact decided to adopt both. But they 'did so in such a hesitant and hole- and-corner way that they have received no credit and few realize even that they have accepted them.
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