BRITISH LIBERAL PARTY

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25742, 2 March 1949, Page 5

BRITISH LIBERAL PARTY

CHAIRMAN BLAMES CONSERVATIVES “ PLAYING ENEMY’S GAME ” (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.), (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 28. Speaking in Manchester at a meeting of the Liberal Party organisation, its chairman, Mr Philip Fothergill, said that the Batley and South Hammersmith by-elections demonstrated that in spite of the power of their vast organisation, their fighting fund of £1.000,000, and the personal intervention at South Hammersmith of Mr Churchill, the Conservatives had failed to regain the confidence of the electorate. It was not the Liberal Party which was splitting the anti-Socialist vote, but the Conservatives, who by their stubbornness and lack of imagination were playing the enemy’s game, he said. Mr Fothergill charged the chairman of the Conservative Party, Lord Woolton, with using “gangster methods” to create the impression that the Liberals were prepared to enter into a pact with the Conservatives. He contended that the Conservative Party had reached the height of its post-war popularity six months ago, and that since then it had stood still. On the other hand there were many signs of increasing support for Liberal ideas and principles as the only reasonable alternative to Socialism.