THE COALITION

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 88, 11 October 1920, Page 7

THE COALITION

LLOYD GEORGE IN

DEFENCE

"PUT ON YOUR SOU-WESTERS"

BRITAIN'S POST-WAR DIFFICULTIES.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.)

(AUSTRALIAN - NEW ZKAI.AND. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, Bth October.

Mr. Lloyd George, when opening the autumn political campaign at Llandudno, had a rousing reception from a> typical Welsh audience. He put up a vigorous defence of the Coalition Government. The Premier said that if the Coalition was a sin against Parliament, " then Mi 1. Asquitli, who was its author, is a Jehoshaphat; see the Second Book of Chronicles, chapter 20, verse 37 ("Then Eliezer . . . prophesied against Jeioshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself "with Ahaziah, the Lord hast broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish "). Every country that engaged in the war oxcept America had adopted the coalition system in order to save the State. America came in late. Her assistance was crucial and determining, but her loss of life was only equal to that of the plucky Dominion, Australia.

"We are atill in the zone of the hurricanes, and that'is why. lamin no hurry to get back to party wrangles," said the Premier. "I would not take the responsibility before God of quitting the helm of the. ship of State. My advice to 'my countrymen is: ' Put on your sou-westers. We want peace on earth and good-will toward ,men, not merely in Russia and Poland, but here in our own factories, workshops, anl mines. The world cannot be rebuilt on rocking foundations."

Before the war, said the Premier, the. number of strikers in Britain in a year was 800,000. The number had swelled to two and a-half millions in 1919. Whatever happened, he was determined never to surrender the rights of the community to a minority, for this would mean the end of democratic government and the beginning of a Soviet, Government. There ■were signs of reason and common-sense prevailing in the coal crisis, but everybody must resolve to produce to the utmost. He 'was glad that Mr. Smillie had had the courage to tell the miners what their duty was.

The' Premier asked his Liberal friends to realise the difficulty of making peace with Russia, from, which a- poisonous atmosphere was emanating. In view of the unsettled position, the middle course was the only safe. one.