The Press Friday, December 8. 1916. The British Political Crisis.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15768, 8 December 1916, Page 6

The Press Friday, December 8. 1916. The British Political Crisis.

Since yesterday morning new 6 has arrived of still another change in tho political situation in Great Britain, and everyone will hope that finality has now been reached in the matter of the Prime Ministership. . Mr Bonar Law, who was summoned to tho Palace, is said to have declined to form a Ministry. At any rate, Mr Lloyd George was subsequently summoned and has undertaken, as Prime Minister, to form a Cabinet. There can bo no doubt that an overwhelming majority of the British public feel that Mr Lloyd George can be trusted above all others to push the war energetically. He has captured the imagination of the people, and won their confidence, to a degree which has rarely been equalled in the case of any other British states-

man. This he has done through tho exhibition of qualities "which few people suspected in him in the domestic storms before the war. Tho audacity, courage and eloquence with which he led the forces of militant Radicalism against the House of Lords appeared to bo only the marks of a super-politician or super-partisan. Thtre were few or no signs, for there were few or no opportunities for hint to show signs, of sagacity, good judgment and a national as distinct from a party way of feeling and thinking. But since the war began new qualities have appeared in him. He has exercised to tho full his great gifts of energy and oratory, and yet he lias made singularly few mistakes, even in spccch. 1-rom one who seemed 3>orn to lioat every record in the way of ''blazing indiscretions we have had tio indiscretions at all. He

was enormously successful as a fighting politician; he has been just as successful as a practical statesman in a ar Cabinet, and ho is trusted and admired almost more by his old political enemies than by anybody else. It is a very remarkable example ol the changes that Time and events can bring about. If anyone had suggested. during tho South African war, that the Welsh proBoer member who narrowly escapcd being lynched in Birmingham would one day be Minister of "War in the greatest and bloodiest war of history and would become Prime. Minister through his insistence on .a moro vigorous and effective war policy, everyone would have thought the suggestion a thoroughly ridiculous one. If anyone had suggested in 1010 that the Unionist Party would one day rally round Mr Lloyd George as Prime Minister, the most likely reply would have been that which it is supposed Dr. Johnson would have made had lie been told that the greatest English dictionary would be constructed by a Scotchman and a Dissenter: "Sir, to be facetious it is not Accessary to be " indecent." Or the future it is not possible to speak with confidence. Tho "Daily News,"' to whom the fall of Mr Asquith, and still more the triumph of Mr Lloyd George, is a bitter blow, declares that the new Cabinet will contain no Liberal element apart from -Mr Lloyd George. That remains to be seen, and it remains to be seen also ■whether the bitter Radical partisanship of the "Daily News" section of the party will so far outweigh the undoubted confidence of the average Radical elector in Mr Lloyd George as to turn the Liberals in the House against the new Ministry. If the newGovernment —assuming that Mr Lloyd George, "with Mr Bonar Law's assistance, can form one which will hold together—cannot command the confidence of the House, an election -would appear to bo an unavoidable consequence, and we have little doubt that the new Government, going to the country purely as a war Government, would be able to carry the country with it. We assume, of course, that the Unionists will support Mr Lloyd George in tho House and in the country. In the meantime there aro mischiefmakers busy on both sides. The "Daily News" is seeking to wreck the Government by talking of a Northcliffo plot and a national humiliation. Lord Northcliffe himself is busy abusing tho "gan c of aged or inept mediocrities" who will leave the Ministry. This language is liable to do Mr Lloyd George much harm, for it will assist his enemies to obtain credence for their story that the new Prim© Minister has been conspiring with Lord Northcliffe and "the Tories." So far as the Dominions are concerned, we aro confident that they will distrust all tho talk of "Tory plots," for the very good reason that the only plot Mr Lloyd George and tho Tories are anxious to assist is a plot that will smash the Germans.