The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATES The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10. 1922. MR. LLOYD GEORGE RESIGNS

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 249, 20 October 1922, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATES The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10. 1922. MR. LLOYD GEORGE RESIGNS

For the cav*e ihnt lacks assistant, For the wrong thai needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

i So Mr. Lloyd George has resigned. 1 There is no public man in the world 1 whose retirement would mu-lve a greater ' «tir. For seventeen years ho has been a member of the I'ritieh Cabinet, and for the last six years he lute !>eei> one of the half-dozen best-known and most talked of men in the world, lie survived so ; many crises that many men came to I think him invincible, but circumstances I have proved too strong for him. The ; heterogeneous party that he led to vie- ! Tory in the elections of I'JIS has split from top to bottom. The Conservatives, who form the largest part of the Coalition, are divided into "Die-Hards" and Moderates. The "Dw-Harde" cannot forgive Mr. Lloyd George for many thingsIreland, Egypt, and India among them, and especially Ireland. They and probably many Conservatives who do not call themselves "Die-Hards" wish to get back to a Conservative party that stands on Conservative principles. They are tired of sailing under the command of a Liberal. So Mr. Lloyd George has I resigned, and the King, acting no doubt on hie advice, hae cent for Mr. Bonar I Law, who was the leader of the Conservative party until he broke down In health some time ago and gave, place to Mr. Chamberlain. It is a striking transition for the country, from Lloyd George to Bonar Law—from brilliance to respectable talent, from fame to a condition of being "well-known," from a fiery, elusive and fascinating temperament to a prosaic equipment devoid of surprises Mr. Bonur Law hae accepted the task of forming a Ministry, but if he succeeds there ie no guarantee that he will hold office long. The position is that, on paper, the Conservative party has a majority in the House over all other parties. The Coalition Unionists (Unionist, by the way, is a dead term, and should be dropped) number about 300 in a House that, with the Irish members excluded, totals about 630. ]f, therefore, Mr. Bonar Law can keep the Conservative wings together and chooses, with the party's consent, not to have an election immediately, he will be able to carry on until the life of Parliament comes naturally to an end in a year's time. It remains to be seen -what the choice will be. There ie probably a strong demand in the Conservative party for an immediate election; on the other hand, both the "Wee Frees," as the Opposition Liberate are called, and Labour will welcome an appeal to the country, and for that reason the weight j of Conservative opinion may be in' favour of dela}-. The political situation is most complicated. The Coali- ! tion Liberals in Parliament number well over a hundred, but their outlook is not happy. They have allied themselvee with the hereditary political enemy of their party, they lent themselves to the assassination of Mr. Asquitli and other Liberal leaders in the elections of 1918, and they have compromised on the question of free trade. For these and! other reasons the "Wee Freee" will have nothing to d o with them. On the other 1 hand the Coalition Liberals have Mr. j Lloyd George. Xor are the prospects; fox the Asquithian Liberals rosy. They ' are a, small party in the House, and outside they have to meet the growing competition of Labour. An English ! Liberal paper remarks that the suspension during the past few yeare of the usual Liberal activities has almost dried j Up the source of recruits to the party, and numbers of voters who would ' under ordinary circumstances have i come under the. Liberal banner on \ reaching the age of citizenship, have i gone to the Labour party. The two ! parties have much in common, but no arrangement for co-operation h«a been! made, and unless something is done in ■ this dirr-c-tion, they may lose a large ' number of scats to the Conservatives j through split votes. The instance in ] our cable news this morning is i only one of many during the | past two or three years; a Conser- j rathe candidate po"s 13,515 votes' against a combined Laibour-Liberal vote i of 20,2fi6 (in this case the Liberal wtus \ indirectly supported by the Govern- i ment), yet wins the seat. It may be j that the advantage given to them hy I the defects in the electoral system and j the absence of an understanding between ; the. Liberals and the Labour party, will ! sway the Conservatives in the direction - of an immediate election. | There may be just a*iead a period—i perhaps a long period—of uncertainty in j British politics, one in which the balance, of power will be less stable than it has; been for years past. That conditions , will be materially different is certain.] It is well-nigh impossible for Labour toj win so much at once as to put it in I power independently of the Liberals,' but it is agreed that it will come back from tiie next elections a much stronger party. The Conservatives may reap an ! undeserved advantage from the faulty electoral system and the unwisdom of! their opponents, but we cannot doubt that British public opinion is much less conservative than it -was before the war. The breaking-up of the Coalition will put an end to a combination that was at bottom fissured by fundamental differences, and will restore to politics a wholesome measure of tinotrity. '