POLITICAL SITUATION IN ENGLAND

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 56, 8 March 1922, Page 7

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ENGLAND

INTERESTS BEST SERVED BY

COALITION

SIR ARTHUR BALFOUR'S TRIBUTE

TO LLOY.D GBOEGE,

(BXITBD PRBSS AJSOCIAIION.—COMItMBT.)

(AUSTRALIAN - NEW ZBALANP CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

(Received March 8, 9 a.m.)

LONDON, 7th March.

Sir Arthur Balfour, speaking at the City Carlton Club, said that he .was jmphatically of the opinion that the country's interests would be best served by the Coalition.' He would remain a member of the Conservative Unionist Party until he went to that land where parties would no longer interest him. The two-party system was admirably adapted to normal times for the government of England. That system implied a, fundamental agreement between two parties upon the great social verities which lay at the base of ail civilised societies, but the two-party system was not one under which we could have won the war. It was not true that the Coalition put on one side points of difference between the component parties. Old differences had been submerged. The way the Irish question had been dealt with was an admirable illustration of the point. Sir Arthur Balfour paid a glowing tribute to Mr. Lloyd George. No other jiian, he said, could have brought the nation through its Tecent difficulties. They would not advance the country's interests by abusing.Mr. Lloyd George. The Irish "Treaty would help to niake conditions in Ireland less intolerable than since the rebellion. We might see Ircvland a happy and contented integral part of the Empire. AH circumstances pointed to the advisableness of continuing indefinitely the intimate and friendly co-operation which had worked so successfully in the past. He _ had never belonged to a r Government with a greater unity of eagerness to. carry out a national policy without attempting -to gain petty party advantages. With the problems of unemployment, India, and JSjrypt, thia was not the time for the disintegration of parties.'