The Auckland Star : WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1923. MR. LLOYD GEORGE AGAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 101, 30 April 1923, Page 4

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

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1923. MR. LLOYD GEORGE AGAIN.

For the cause ihat lack.? assistance, For the tciong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, And tho good that we can do.

It was reported recently from London that the Lahour party was afraid of .Mr. Lloyd (lonrge outbidding it in the auction of votes. Now we learn that Mr, Lloyd Oeorpe lias, in a speech at Manchester "declaimed his social creed with all his old fervour." Our summary does not reveal tho Lloyd fieorge of tlie old days of "Limehousing," but it shows that he dealt vigorously with the industrial problem, housing, the land question, development of the Empire, free trade, and Socialism, which is quite a good start for any campaign that he may have planned. Liberalism needs such a erred and such fervour, for it is In serious danger of being permanently outridden and overshadowed by Labour. Already it has lost, partly, through Ihe disastrous split in its own ranks large numbers of voters in classes that have always been strongholds of the faith. These voters have gone over to the Labour party, and that party is making every possible effort to exploit its success. Labour declares that there is no hope in Liberalism, and there are Liberals who say that unless the party shows more enterprise and energy it will never recover the ground it has lost. It is not that Liberalism has no declared programme. The manifestoes of the Independent Liberal party and the Manchester Liberals put forward nt the last, election form n very tine programme of pence abroad and social reform at, home. For a larße part of the way Liberalism, judged hy this programme, marches with Labour. It seeks to set free the. land—Mr. Lloyd fieorge did not exaggerate when ho said there was not a civilised country in Furope which made so little use of its land for enriching the people—and it, stands for tho extension of welfare work in health and education, and the general betterment of the masses. Hut, while it no long.r adheres to the principles of "laisscz. faire,"'- and is prepared to support, State intervention in industry at many points, it. uncompromisingly opposes .Socialism. •'Liberalism." says one of tho manifestoes, "is not Socialism and repudiates warfare on private enterprise." Liberalism stands for an enlightened individualism. Labour, on the other hand, stands definitely for Socialism in some form or other, and there is now a motion" to that effect before the House of Commons, a motion that Liberals must, if they arc true to their faith, oppose. Tt is not that Liberalism has no programme, but that it does not expound that programme with sufficient earnestness and frequency. The division in tho party accounts for much of this weakness. Also, Mr. Asquith, with all his splendid qualities, is an old man, who was never wildly enthusiastic ahout such questions as the land problem. He has the Whig type of mind rather than the LiberalRadical, and it is the latter ihat is needed now to spread the Liberal evangvl. Moreover, in the last few years tho party has lost to- Labour many brilliant Radicals of the younger school— men who would have helped to keep the fires of Liberalism bright up and down the country. In many respects Mr. Lloyd George is the man for the evangel. lie feels deeply about social reform, and ho has no equal as a political evangelist. Unfortunately he leads the smallest party in the House, he is unable to speak for both xvinga of the Liberal party, and his personal prestige in the country has waned sadly. Liberal reunion appears to -be little, if at all, nearer accomplishment than it was six months ago. Tlie disagreeable truth seems to be that the Independents will not have Mr. Lloyd George. They feel the deepest resentment towards him for the way he wrecked the party in 191S, they regard his subsequent policy as a betrayal of Liberal principles, and they fear that if he returned to a high position in a united party that party would suffer in popular estimation. The truth is that Mr. Lloyd ('eorge is distrusted by every party, and the old cry that he is the man who won the war has now little potency. His political future is therefore uncertain. ?o long as he has health and inclination he must be a force in British politics, but bow much o£ a force? It is a profound misfortune for tho Liberal party that at a time when it needs men who will preach fervently a gospel of social reform, it should be prevented by circumstances from reaping the fullest advantage from the services of the ablest man.