BRITISH LIBERAL PARTY

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26018, 23 January 1950, Page 7

BRITISH LIBERAL PARTY

“ ALLIANCE WOULD MEAN DESTRUCTION ” LONDON, January 20. An alliance between the Liberals and the Conservatives would not ensure the defeat of the Labour Party, but it would mean the destruction of the Liberal Party, said Viscount Samuel, leader of the Liberal Peers in the House of Lords to-night.

Addressing the Cambridge University Liberal Club, Lord Samuel said that in the last election "the people made it quite clear that they did not want to see in the next four or five years another Conservative administration, lethargic and inefficient, such as had governed the country for the greater part of the long period between 1895 and 1935.

“Now there is good ground for believing thai the greater number, perhaps a majority, of these voters are dissatisfied with the present conditions and want a change,” he said. The electors wanted the Labour Party out.” but did not want the Conservatives in. If no Liberal candidate was standing they would either abstain or vote Labour. If the Liberals presented only a few candidates and supported the Conservatives there would be no chance of winning the millions of floating Votes from the Labour Party. Even if the electors did not return a Liberal majority, the Liberals wanted enough members "to make liberal ideas powerful, and perhaps decisive, in determining policy.” The National Liberal Party will cooperate with the Conservative Party in the election.