LORD NORTHCLIFFE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIX, Issue 9652, 8 July 1919, Page 7

LORD NORTHCLIFFE.

LLOYD GEORGE'S DENUNCIATION

A feature of Mr Lloyd George's speech in the Commons on April 16, • says the "Daily News," was the attack on Lord Northcliffe. ■ Never in parliamentary history has there been a more terrible castigation. These passages brought to mind Dryden's merciless satire of Lord Shaftesbury in "Absalom and Achitophel" and Junius's indictment iof the Duke of Graf ton. Mr Lloyd George hold up, to derision Lord Northcliffe's belief in his own omniscience, and pictured him waiting to be called in as a saviour of society by the clamorous will of the people. "But not a word, not a whisper, reaches him !"• He spoke of him as a man "labouring under a keen sense of disappointment," because " a very ridicxilous expectation " —his desire, presumably, to be a plenipotentiary at the Peace Congress—had been disappointed. The Prime Minister flung in Lord Northcliffe's face his manifold inconsistencies, and showed' what a wide gulf separates the demands'..- made in 1 the Northcliffe Press to-day from the ceacc terms circulated broadcast all over the, world by this "Napoleon of journalism " last November—in which . terms there was no mention: of any claim on the enemy for damage done to private property "'even at Braodstairs.'' At that time, if the ex-Kaiser was to be brought to trial, he must-be tried by a German tribunal ! Now you must exact everything from the beaten enemy, hang everybody, and insist on all the costs of.the war 1 The same man who is now "hysterically attacking" the great ideals of President Wilson wayS not long ago appealing for British support of them. After, citing other instances of instability, Mr Lloyd George, with a gesture of contempt, declared, amid roars of laughter: " Reliable source ! T would as soon rely on a- grasshopper." From badinage and irony, the Prime Minister proceeded, to accuse Lord Northcliffe of " a black crime," because at a time when the unity of this country and the associated Powers is essential to the future peace and happiness of the world, he uses "The Times" to sow dissension between' them—to make France distrust Britain, to embitter France against America; to incite Italy to quarrel with everybody. Then came a mordant passage saying that here " everybody knows him and nobody takes notice of him; but in France they still believe that ' The Times 'is a serious organ of opinion; they don't know that it is only a. threepenny edition of the 'Daily Mail. 5 " "' '„ , Many sentences in the terrific indictment caused peels of laughter. Others elicited storms of approving ■cheers. It is evident,.from, this speech that the great twin brethren who have used and been iwd by each other have finally broken th^ir partnership; the cleft ha-s widened into an impossible gulf. Politics and journalism will both gain from the break-up of an inglori-, our association. ' Mr Lloyd George's caustic references to "a great newspaper proprietor " who is sufFerinfi: from a form of vanity that is "a- kind of disease" I will cause no surnriso to our readers, iadds the "Dailr News." Mr Wilson Harm, our snecial correspondent at the Peace Conference, gave amole warning of what was hapneninfr in a trWrram published on Tuesday, April 8. He said: Lord Norbhcliffe moved his camp to Fontainbleau some 10 days ago. Fontainbleau is about an hour from Paris by .Rolls-Royce, and telephonic communication is; .excellent. On Sunday week " The Times" and "Daily Mail" Paris staffs spent a pleasant day with Lord Northcliffe. By an interesting coincidence both papers have from that moment exchanged their comparatively consistent support of President Wilson —and therefore, so far as the Conference is concerned, of Mr Lloyd George—for a daily series of veiled attacks on Mr Wilson and blatantly unveiled attacks on the Prime Minister whom Lord Northcliffo created. . . . You will find in "The Times" abundant evidence of the influences being ex orted to fetter Mr Lloyd Georgo in his endeavour to carry through, iii one of the most critical weeks in the history of the world, a settlement that will save humanity from irretrievable disaster. ... The consideration that has finally decided me to write an I have is the unconcoalcd indignation of practically every American I have met at the attempt to paralyse the influence of the one. man who is backing up President Wilson through thick ami thin. '