CRISIS SYMPTOMS VANISHED

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 45, 21 February 1918, Page 7

CRISIS SYMPTOMS VANISHED

UNIONIST ATTACK ON PRESS INFLUENCE

(AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

("Received February 21, 9 a.m.) LONDON, 20th February. The Daily Telegraph says that the Parliamentary symptoms of crisis' have vanished. The Unionist War Committee met privately and endorsed the Government's policy. It heartily concurred with. Mr. Austen Chamberlains declaration that the Government must sever its connection with press influence, and themselves govern. Strong representations to this effect were made to Mi- Lloyd George privately by his most ardent Unionist supporters. Mr. Chamberlain said that half of Mr. Lloyd George's troubles arose from the fact that the Government was associated with certain newspaper proprietors, and had thereby surrounded themselves with suspicion and distrust. MORNING POST'S PESSIMISM (Received February 21, 9 a.m.) , LONDON, 20th February. _ The Morning Post says it does not believe the public yet realise the posi- • tion in the Army. "This is not surprising, because any newspaper which attempted to explain it would be treated as Ahab treated the Miciaus. But may not the public look to the House of Commons for the truth? We have swapped horses in the biggest crisis _of the war, when the stream was deepest and tlie night darkest; 1' AMERICAN APPROVAL ■ NEW YORK, 20th February. The New York Times states that Mr. Lloyd George's explanation entitles him to Parliament's and the country's confidence. The overthrow of the Ministry would be regarded with apprehension in America. "Ho has won our confidence because of his intellectual force, his power of organisation, and his definite policy."