The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1916. AT THE HEAD OF AFFAIRS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2939, 27 November 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1916. AT THE HEAD OF AFFAIRS

j That another attempt is to be made to shelve Me. Asquith and elevate Mr. Lloyd George to thehead of the British Government may be true enough, though it has no better foundation at present than the authority of tho London correspondent of a big American newspaper. About a year ago an agita- . tion having this end in view fizzled out somewhat tamely, and there has | been little since outwardly to indicate that any fresh attempt of the kind would meet with better success. It is true probably that the numbers oE those who distrust tho methods of Mr. Asquith have been added to bjr his seeming indecision and temporising, tendencies on important occasions, while on the other hand the admirers of Mr. Lloyd George as the outstanding representative of energy and action in the Ministry have increased in strength. ' But just what body of support the Secretary for War commands in the House of Commons it | would be difficult to say. Mr. I Lloyd George has earned fame and [ reputation as a man of action. As much could not be claimed for Mr. Asquith by his most devoted apologists. He has been slow to movemany people think inexcusably slow —in practically every' step of decisive importance that Britain has taken since she entered the war, and he blundered terribly in the government of Ireland. Yet his position at the head of the British Governments strong. It is as well to recognise that quite apart from the merits or demerits of whatever claims Mr. Lloyd George has or may be inclined to advance, the hrm_ entrenchment in power of a Minister like Mr. Asquith is not a ntotter of unmixed congratulation. Mr._ Asquith may be the best available _ Prime Minister, but the qualities • which enable him to hold_ office are not more apparent than his defects, and to no small extent these qualities and defects are identified. t His character does j not_ lack elements of firmness, but he is as far as possible from being a man of action and decision. Judged by his performance as Prime Minister, before the war and sinco the war, he is the most undecided of. men, and always approaches action with palpable reluctance, if he holds a strong position and is able to overshadow as popular and able a competitor as Mr. Lloyd George it is because he is a master of political compromise, and England, though in the throes of a life-and-death war, is still ruled by compromise.

Tho fact that it is to. his genius for compromise that Mr. .Asquith owes the strength of his position is well brought out in an article in the current Fortnightly Review, from the pen of Me. Arthur A. Bauaiann. In passing, it is no small tribute to Mr. Asquith's ability in the realm of compromise that the Conservative member for Peckham should write of him as "The Indispensable Premier." The text to which Mr. Baumann writes is that in a transition period the one thing needful is compromise, and that Me. Asquith _ is one of the greatest of the Ministers who have been fated' to rule England in a period of transition. As a compromiser of creeds and balancer of parties, he declares, Mr. Asquith is as patient, as tolerant, and as successful as Burleigh. "As a manager of the House of Commons, he is not inferior ■ to_ Sir Robert Walpole. • • • He is certainly the superior of Sir Robert Peel in tho power of passiveness, the faculty of waiting till the stream of political impressions have done all that they have to do, and cut their full typo clearly upon his mind." We are not concerned to follow out the rather thin argument in which Mr. BauMann se'cks to show that his subject will be the natural leader of that Central Party which Lord Derby says must be formed in Great Britain, but h© is undoubtedly right m his contention that Mr. Asquith's power rests on compromise —on the ability to bring to some sort of working harmony the dissonant and conflicting elements which make themselves so much more freely felt and heard in- Great Britain than in most other great countries except America, That Mr. Asquith's ability in this direction stamps him as a great, or even a satisfactory, Minister in time of war is not by any means to be taken for granted. To say that Mr. Asquith is a master of compromise

and is fortified in office 'by that mastery is certainly not to say that England is not capable of responding to the leadership of a greater man, able not only to placate but to dominate and command his contemporaries. If such _ a man had been at the head of affairs events in Britain in connection with the conduct of the war would certainly not nave dallied as they have done, and tlte British Government would not have blundered through ineptitude to modified disaster in Ireland. Looking at Me. Asquith's record during the war the thought must inevitably arise that too heavy a price can be paid for compromise and comparative political harmony. It would be difficult to 'regard patiently such a record of temporising and hesitation in face of a clamant need for action but for the reflection that in the absence of a greater man and a greater leader no better way of reaching working harmony was available. Hk. Asquith is not a great leader—he holds office mainly because he has unusual gifts fts an "old Parliamentary hand," and a talent for promoting compromise which, as bitter experience has proved, is often' fatal to prompt and effective action. But circumstances in England (Jeing what they are these qualities have given Mk. Asqui'Ri such a standing as Prime Minister that to appearance nothing at the moment short of a revolutionary upheaval or his own voluntary retirement would dislodge him from office.