THE LIBERAL SPLIT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 46, 24 February 1902, Page 4

THE LIBERAL SPLIT.

A COMPLETE RUPTURE

THE PARTY ASTOUNDED

(By Cable.—Press Association.— Copyngnt.}

LONDON, February 22

Lord Rosebery's decision to remain outside Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman's political tabernacle has staggered the Liberals, amongst whom there is a ore at conflict of views. The extreme Radicals and Nationalists are jubilant. The former declare Lord Rosebery has quitted the party. The Roseberyites replj- that he has quitted the Bannermanites.

When Sir H. Campbell-Bannennan entered the. House of Commons the opposition did not attempt to cheer. "The Times" comments on the significance of this, and adds that -the Liberal Imperialists steadily support Lord Rosebery.

The position in the British Liberal party has been for some time becoming steadily more impossible. Onr London correspondent, writing on January 17, throws an interestingsidelight on the strained situation, then existing. He says:

"The meeting- in. St. James' Hall on Monday night to inangiirate the' London Liberal Federation, a new organisation designed to capture the metropolis for the pro-Boer-Little-Eng-lander or friends-of-every-country-but-their-own section of the Liberal party, was a convincing- proof of the impossibility of any real harmony between the pro-Boer Liberals and Lord Eosebery and the Liberal Imperialist^ or patriotic Liberals. It has long- been clear .to Anglo-Colonials who watch the game of partjr politics with an impartial eye that the Conservative party is hopelessly out of touch with the demand of the country for reforms at home, while the Liberal party is from an Imperial point of view "impossible." The crying- need of both the United Kingdom and the Empire a.t large is—as I pointed out nearly a year ago—the formation of a strong Liberal and Imperial party by the coalition of the Liberal Unionists and Liberal Imperialists, whose political views are practically the same. Lord Heneage, the vice-president of the Liberal Unionist Council,'has come to much the same opinion, for in resigningl that office as well as his membership of the Liberal Unionist Association, he expressed his view "that the same patriotic instincts which compelled Liberals in 188G to enter into an alliance with the Conservatives, points in 3002 to the.abolition of an linnecessary organisation, and to cause ' Liberal . Unionists ' either to enter the Conservative ranks as 'LiberalConservatives ' and permeate them with Liberal ideas, pv to assist Lord Eosebery in reconstructing a constitutional Liberal party, which will eschew and repudiate all anti-English and Home Rule heresies, and advocate much-needed administrative and legislative reforms, and thus ensure not only a continuity of Imperial and Colonial policy, but practically prevent any possibility of a Home Rule policy by either of the great political parties in the future."

The London Liberal Federation' if the packed meeting- on Monday repnsented its real sentiments, seems determined to drive the Liberal Unionists and Liberal Imperialists into one another's arms. The following- leaflet was freely distributed at the meeting, and the "Daily News" tells us "had many sympathisers in the hall: "Liberals and Radicals beware! A

conspiracy "is on foot to supplant Sir Henry Campbfill-Bannerman, "the only Liberal leader, by Lord Rosebery— who forsook the butchered Armenians, opposed Cretan freedom, deserted the Grand Old Man. favoured the Fashodu war policy n gainst France, supported the South African war. condoned the concentration camps, has repudiated Home Rule for Ireland—and who is, therefore, supported by the Tory press and the wealthy classes, by Asqiiith, the 'hero' of Featherstone, and Fowler, of the National Telephone Co. Democrats! Defeat the intrigues of the London drawing-rooms; rally round the old nag and prevent its'capture by the Rosebery-Rhodes clique!" The meeting- greeted Lord Ro-se-bery's letter of apology for his absence by cries of "traitor" and hisses, and would hardly allow Mr Benn to read the letter, brief at it was, to the end. ..The London. Liberal Feds, cheered Mr Lloyd-George and Miss Hobhouse to the echo, and they must have been disappointed when Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, instead of cursing Lord Rosebery proceeded to bless him, and to show that the Liberal peer is really a hyphened Rose-

Bery, Bose saying one tiling and Bery) inferring something else, which Sli; Henry (by a biliteral cypher of hi* own), proceeded io prove echoed exactly "C.B.'s" own sentiments^ I« short, "C.8." for the evening played the part of Mrs Gallup to Lord Hose* bery's Chesterfield Bacon. "C.8." was as fatuous as ever. Hera is a sample of his antiments: "This settlement for peace must be by assent and not by force, by negotiation, and not by subjugation." "OB." then quoted Lord Rosebery's opinion that the settlement must be a real settlement and not a sham settlement, and that the two UTiees have hereafter to live together in amity dm South Africa. Well, that is a platitude with which all Britons of every party can agree. Sir Henry repeats parrot-like that we ought to make known our main terms to the Boers. No one knows better than the Boer leaders what the terms are, but ove* and over again they have declared that it is "independence or nothing.". Then "C.8." proceeded to show that Lord Rosebery really agreed with, him about the concentration camps, martial law, and the recall of Lorft Milner, although Lord Kosebery ia his Chesterfield speech expressed his strong disapproval of "C.B.'s" "me thods°of barbarism," and stated emphatically that he would be no party to Lord Milner's recall. But although "C.8." acted as Lord Rosebery's Mrs Gallup, in expounding- what Lord Rosebery meant to reveal in his speech so far as the war was concerned, he professed himself unable to find the cypher to unravel the message wrapped up in Lord Rosebery*& metaphors relating to Liberalism fox; home consumption. "C.8." in acknowledging a vote of thanks trusted that the meeting will have an excellent effect as the start of the new organisation. It will. It will show the Liberal Imperialist* how impossible any alliance with thei pro-Boers is, and help to bring about the much-needed coalition of patrio* tic Liberals, both Unionists and. In** perdalists." j