IN THE new British House of Commons, with its total mem bership of 615, the National Government has a majority of about 500 ? some 550 against 50. And in this majority probably 450 are men who, quite apart from the special condi tions of this year's crisis, have long desired to see protection an integral part of the British economic system. Of the remainder, some have been converted to this view, others are prepared to support such tariffs as the emergency may seem to require with out prejudice to the more permanent policy. It is obvious, there fore, that the British parliamentary position in regard to tariffs is substantially different from what it has been during the eighty years or so in which Great Britain has been (with minor devia tions) a free-trade country and the leader of liberal economic policies throughout the world. To say so much, however, and no more, would be most mis leading. The election certainly does not represent a sudden and complete conversion of the British electorate to the view that pro tection should be the basis of the country's economic system. The issue on which the electors voted was not, though many tried to make it so, that of tariffs versus free trade. One thing is abun dantly clear from the campaign in the different constituencies, and from the results. The voter ? especially the voter insecurely attached to any party, whose action decides the change of govern ments ? considered quite simply that there was a national crisis, that the country was in danger, and voted for those who seemed to him most likely to concentrate upon dealing with this danger, by whatever means might be appropriate in priority to any other consideration. The weakness of the pound, the danger of its losing its value very seriously if either the budget again fell out of equilibrium or the balance of trade remained substantially adverse, the consequences that would follow not only in the loss of investments and savings but to the structure of the real wage level and social services ? these were what concerned him. The mass of the balancing electors did not mean to prescribe, nor did they mean to exclude, any particular measure whether of tariff or other policy. It happened that most of the candidates