Reform and the Liberals.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18400, 5 June 1925, Page 8

Reform and the Liberals.

If the letter which Mr Wilford sent yesterday to tho Prime Minister is distinctly droll it is not unimportant. Mr Wilford says "we" when the facta demand "I," and speaks of an "impasse" when ho means simply that the Government has declined to be "drawn." He wastes a good many words also pn a sermon of co-operation

and Empire when al! that it was necessary to say was that "party is as dust" (or now shall be) to the Party that is in the dust. It is not unfair to point out that sermons are apt to be laughed at when they come from sinners overtaken by their sin, and that a leader who has been publicly repudiated by his followers one day cannot appropriately demand the next day that none should be for party but all for the State. The fact, however, remains that Mr Wilford 3till has followers, and if we may assume that his letter was written with their consent, the position now is that they as well as he have given up hope of a successful appeal to the electors on the old party lines. On the other liand, the fact that Mr Wilford himself "neither desires nor "would accept office if the new Party "eventuated" is of very little importance indeed. It is well known that he has other ambitions which may prove just as embarrassing as the desire to be in the Government, and it is in any ease a little too soon yet to talk about "the new Party." So definite a request for a conference cannot of course be ignored after the Prime Minister's recent statement that proposals for a friendly merger will "assuredly receive most earnest consideration" whether they come "as "the result of pourparlers or in any "other way." The Government is bound to accept any offer of negotiations that is honestly made, and the fact that Mr Wilford \s desire for union is not disinterested does not make it less real.