NO MORE LIBERALS?

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 211, 5 September 1924, Page 4

NO MORE LIBERALS?

•So no young Liberals arc being bom in Britain to-day, and in a few years the famous lines in tlie sentry's song from "Iolantho" about the political destiny of British babies, will have as little relation to current affairs as the clinging aesthetes of "Patience." This is the opinion of Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, son of the Prime Minister, who has been interviewed in Canada on his tour of the world. Mr. Mac Donald expresses an opinion held, or put out for political purposes, by his party. The Liberals arc to be eliminated, and the light is to be between Labour and Conservatism. Mr. Mac Donald is modest enough to believe that the fight will be long, and that it will be some time before Labour is in power as well as in office. . Events have given Labour some justification for whooping about the decay of Liberalism und tho consequent rise of the Labour party. Scores of thousands of voters have gone over from Liberalism to Labour. This- has been due largely to the way in which Liberalism was crippled by the Coalition. Labour, free of entanglements, could extend its organisation and its propaganda; Liberalism could do much less than it had done, and in consequence the stream of Liberal recruits became a trickle. Liberalism ia free now, and it is busy organising and educating. To say that its immediate prospects aro not very bright is not to say that it will disappear. And if the party were to disappear, Liberalism, which is a frame of mind, a spirit, would still live. What Mr. Mac Donald junior overlooks, or puts aside, is the consideration that the present Government is at least as much Liberal as Labour, and that if it succeeds in detaching more voters from the Liberal party, the Liberal wing in the party will be proportionately strengthened. Liberals may well ask Labour what is going to happen then. Will the extremists in the Labour party be content to go on associating with the moderate section, which will refuse to be stampeded into general Socialism of one kind or another? Mr. Mac Donald might reply that. Liberals will go over to the Conservatives, but the experience of the Inst few years makes it certain that a large section will join Labour. Mr. Mac Donald's interesting comments leave out Of account one most important factor—the divisions in his own party. It is with difficulty that the Prime Minister prevents open rebellion. If the party had a clear majority he would probably find that impossible, and rebellion would give Liberalism, if not the Liberal party, another opportunity! As Labour learns by experience, and continues to be torn two ways, Liberalism may get back from the "party what it has lost, and possibly more.