PREMIER RESIGNS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 249, 20 October 1922, Page 5

PREMIER RESIGNS.

COALITION ENDING. j i BONAR LAW SENT FOR. I £ WILL FORM A MINISTRY. < i tß y Cable. -Fra- A.MCLUOJI.-Copjrrtel.t.) . _—— ( (Beccivcd 1C a.m. , 1 LONDON. October 19. ' Mr , Lloyd Oaorgc handed in his resig- J ■ n of'the Premiership to-day. | m< Majetftf the King immediately , iied , Wγ. Bonar L«.-(A. and X.Z. Cable.) BONAR t-AW ACCEPTS. iUPIENCE WITH THE KING. .RproKed 12.30 p.m.) LOXDOX, October in. The King gavo audience to Mr. Bonar t« who it is underetood. aoceded to ■ i? \» ioctv's reourst to form a OovBEFORE THE RESIGNATION. CHAMBERLAIN'S EXPLANATION BONAR LAWS ADVICE. t deceived 10 a.m.. LONDON, October 19Mr ~ Chamberlain, at the Car I,ii Club explained the position of him«el£ and his colleague, in the Cabinet. He was riven a patient hearing, but it was obvious that his explanations did not gatisfv tho meeting. jlr. Bonar U*« advised the meeting to declare in favour of independence aa L surest wav of preventing cleavage fa the Unionist party. The speech made * profound impression. Earl Balfour spoke in favour of the Mr Stanley Baldwin (President of the Joard of Trade) and Sir A. GriffithBoscawen (-Minister of Agriculture) Kgretted that they uouW not follow Mr. Chamberlain's leadership. Mr. E. G- Prctymnn moved that the tnioniste should 'tight the elections ac in independent party under their own programme and their own leader, with a proviso for a Coalition with the Liberals if the Unionists were so advised by their leaders. This wag carried. It is understood that Viscount Peel (Minister of Transport), Mr. f>. Baldwin, Sir A. Griffith-Boseawen, Colonel Leslie Wileon (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury), Col. L. C. M. S. Amery (Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty), Major Sir J. L. Bai'rd (Under Secretary to the Home Office), und Sir P.-Lloyd Graeme (Parliamentary Secretary to the Department of Overseas Trade) have resigned from the Government. —(A. and X.Z. Cable.) GREAT POLITICAL EJSOORD. Mr. Lloyd George has had nearly lixteen rears of- continuous Ministerial office, including nearly five years as Prime Minister. But," in spite of the fact that he was the head of a Coalition Government, which has been in office for four years and a-half, he was for the whole time a leader without a party. Sow that he is out of office he can collect around him only a score or so of the 130 Coalition Liberals who supported his Government. The majority of these Coalitionists will return to the Liberal fold, of which Mr. Asquith is the head. Although Mr. Asquith'b little band of Liberals, known as the Wee Frees, number only 30 in a Parliament of 707 members, the Liberal political fund, the party machinery and the electoral organisation of the Liberals, are controlled by that section of the Liberals which Mr. Asquith and his little band represent in the House of Commons. In the country the Wee Frees'are much the stronger section of the Liberals, though, owing to having been outmanoeuvred at the general elections in December, 1918, by Mr. Lloyd George, they are an insignificant party in the House of Commons. Although the Coalition Liberals outnumber the Wee Frees in the House by more than four to one, it is the Coalition Literals, and not the Wee Frees, who feel that they are exiles from the Liberal fold. It was only by consenting to suspend their adherence to some of the old faiths of British Liberalism that the Coalition Liberals were able to continue to support the Coalition Government. And *ith the dissolution of the Coalition most of the Coalition Liberals will eagerly seize the opportunity to profess an unimpaired faith in the fundamental doctrines of British Liberalism. All the efforts made to create a new party by the fusion of the moderate elements among the Coalition Liberals jujd the Coalition Unionists failed. These efforts were made mainly on behalf of Mr. Lloyd George. Both the Coalition Liberals and the Coalition Unionists refused to coalesce and form a new party, both intending to return to their old party allegiance >J the end of til* Coalition on March i? last year. But 'the Coalition Unionises, who number 360 in the House of Commons, and are therefore not merely the dominant party in the «mcc, but possess an absolute majority "I members, were as weary of the Coalition ac are the Coalition' Liberals. The Unionists believed that it was their Political destiny to take charge of the affairs of the country when the Coalition ended, and therefore they awaited yhe end with some impatience. This 'mpatience was increased by the fact that they disapprove the' compromises Which represented much of the policy ™ the Coalition Government. Mr. AUrten Chamberlain took over the leadership when Mr. Bonar Law retired "om office in March last year, owing J? a breakdown in health, but Mr. 'hamberlain's association with Mr. .yd George has been so intimate Wing the present crisis that he has Probably dec-lined to attempt to step wrectljr i n t o tlie ot - , lis late c]s { e^ "a has personally recommended Mr. " on ar Law as head of the next THE RETIRING PREMIER. Lloyd George is the son of a -wtarian schoolmastpr of Liverpool. . "° died in 1865, wtven hie eon was but *» years of ago. His mother then ? n , Ted to South Carnarvon where his j«» • *' 10 *' a3 a shoemaker and was H?* mcd - Pfatlv ns.ietod in the up'»ie£2r ? of t!l - fatuil - r - Dav ' :d earl - r dc ' fcclij-/ P ass '°" i° r reading, and hie w » tild a]] in hk power to develop his

talents. At sixteen he left school, having previously passed the solicitors' entrance pxamination. He spent several years nt home after leaving school, and was then articled to a solicitor at Postmadoc. He remained in this office till he was 21, and :by the time he was ready to set up an oSicc of his own he had cost his uncle between .£7OO and JCSIX). He liret came into prominence during a dUpitp o\*t the burial of a suicide in unhallowed groundj which he won on a technicality. He was asked to stand at a by-election for Carnarvon ac Liberal candidate, and won by eighteen votes. I For a year or two after his election not much was ht-ard of the "little Welch solicitor." who found English a more difficult tongue to addrrsa the House in than the Cymric, but it was not long before he began to make a niche for him- , self, chiefly as the champion of Welch i disestablishment. Jir- Gladstone made a I heavy attack on him during this period, bur. lie showed that he could look aft«r himself. The general election of 189-2 saw him n-flcvted with a strong majority, mid in 1895 he further increased his hold on the scat. His fight against the Agricultural Rating Bill showed that he was a political force to lie reckoned with, while '.iis um-ompromieing hostility to the Boer War in 18!W earned him a great deal of hatred, the Queen's Hall being I wrecked when h,> spoke there in defence of the Boers. After the burial of tiic hatchet he led the Nonconformist attack against Balfour's Education Bill, which he fought tooth an.i nail both before and after its passage. After tm> sreneml election of MiOii, when th<! Liberals vpre returned after being in Opposition for 10 years, Mr. Lloyd George -\\ as given the ' important office of President of the Hoard of Trade. Hbre he showed great ext.outive and administrative ability. From the Board of Trade Mr. Lloyd Oeorgc wont to the Treeeury. where be reigned for seven stormy years. Hid Budget of 1909, which increased taxation by £10.000,000. created a tremendous stir, the central feature being the imposition of a duty on ■ the unearned increment on land. It was . during this campaign that he made ihc .i famous Limohouse speech full of biting ; epigram. The House of Lords rejected I the Budget; the Government went fo the country upon it. came hack with ; a substantial majority on it, and the i Budget wt'nt through". The National ! lnsurar.ee Act was one or" his greatest pre- < war successes, while hia attitude in the Morocco crisis of iSHI, when he plainly > warned Germany that she must not go too far, disclosed him ac a firm upholder » of thp Empire's rights. ' THE WAR YEARS. Throughout the war Mr. Lloyd George| showed unwavering steadiness, great j driving force and a wonderful capacity s to sum up the possibilities of every j situation. He left the Treasury in , 1913 to head the newly created Ministry a of Munitions, a department which he r organise;! with marvellous suocchs. For a year he worked here, and then on Kitchener's death transferred to the War j Office. In December. 1!)1«, a crisis arose i '" *j>? , Ministry uhieli ended in Mr.' j resignation. Mr. Uovdj B George beMine Premier, Mr. Bonar Law . refusing office. lie immediately trans- ' t formed the %vl,ole methods of Cabinet, r calling in "men of push ana go" to i assist the politicians and gen-rally inB rusing new life into the conduct of the j j At the Peace Conference. Mr. Lloyd i George was the outstanding figure, and i --ince then he has be ? n involved in con-1 tinuous controversies over Russia, Iret land, the observance of the peace troatv. j the reparations and the Near Eastern s I crisis, the last named being the precipitant which brought about his ' resignation. g Mr. Lloyd George is now writing his i r war memoirs, and the profits of hisi work are estimated at £100.000 but he ; hag decided that he will ~ot accept a > ° cnl,T of tIl!S . 't will go to war charities. _ He. teels that he cannot take personal ! T advantaee of the story of tiie struggle , and suffering of the nation during the s great war. The decision reflect* honD our upon him when it is r-emembered B tnat he has always been a poor man. t Beyond the £2000 a year left him by Mr 1 Oarnegie his resources are small." and - there is no retiring pension for the c Prime Minister. E { AFTER THE ELECTION. c _ * ANOTHER COALITION NEEDED. 1 LONDON. October IM. ? Sir L. Worthington Evans, Secretary of State for War. speaking at Colchester, said that the foreign situation | required an election. Xo British Mm ister could go to the Near East Peace L Conference unless an election first dej cided the nation's policy. "Personally."' g he continued. "I would stand as a Conn servative. That does not mean that I ~ would tell Conservative-minded Liberals j who agreed with Conservatives on the a main issues at the election that T did I not want their help." s It was likely that no party would i\ have a clear majority, in which event he would certainly choose a Liberal-Con-tr servative combination.— (A. and N.Z.)' * BY-ELECTION AT NEWPORT. c BLOW TO COALITION. n LOXDOX, October lf». v The by-election at Newport. Mon n racajhshire, cousecj Vy thp death of Mr. i- L. F'aslam (Coaliti. ( i Liberal), resulted: te Clarry (Conservative) 13,510 •c Bowen (Labour) H. 42."> c Moore (Liberal] 8,841 y None of the candidates was officially i- supported by the Coalition, but the c Liberal candidate was indirectly sup:r ported by Downing Street. M.r. C'larry's ie victory is regarded as a great blow to i- the prestige of the Coalition.—(A. and d N.Z. Cable.) ig I The poll at Newport at tlie general f s election in 191S was: — r Haslam (Coal. Lib.) ... 14.080 ,c Bowen (Labour) 10.234 ;d Tliomas (Independent) 647 [ g r- SICK OF OPPORTUNISM. te 18 PEOPLE AND THE COALITION. 'P r. (Received lv a.m.' ft LONDON, Octobor 19. Mr. Clarry, winner of the Newport bv-eleetion, is of opinion that the decir sion of the industrial constituency proved ►1. that the workers had no confidence in it Labour's Socialistic ideals. Newport >n signed the death certificate of the Coali--13 tion and the birth certificate of the ls L'nifpd (onsenativc party. The contest p. showed that the people were utterly sick c-1 of the Coalition's opportunism, and ie plumped for Empire and restoration of is trade—i A. and N.Z. Cable.)