Evening Post. MONDAY, MARCH 5. 1923. A CANDID CRITICISM

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 54, 5 March 1923, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, MARCH 5. 1923. A CANDID CRITICISM

Though he has now been more than four months out of office, and the Gen&ral Election has reduced his Parliamentary following to a mere handful distinguished from their fellow Liberals by no obvious differences of principle and merely Jheld together by personal loyalty to himself, Mr. Lloyd George con- > tinues nevertheless to enjoy a fair share of the limelight. On Friday his syndicated article on the Ruhr appeared in Britain and America, and doubtless attracted a good deal more attention than the utter- ■ ance of any other politician in either of these countries, and. on I the following day it eclipsed in I interest for readers on this side of the world all the news from Europe and America that appeared ■at'the same time. Two platform performances at Edinburgh have also served to keep Mr. Lloyd George well before the public. To the Scottish Liberal Club he discoursed of the need for the reunion of the Liberal. Party and of the happy issue that might be expected from all their afflictions "if the party .differences were handled with, tolerance, .goodwill, and good temper." The man who did more than anybody else to bring the party to 'a position of unprecedented power, and afterwards to break it up, declares that recriminations must cease, and that he is "ready to follow any leader possessing the necessary vision and resolution." What could be fairer than this? The only trouble is that he is quit© satisfied that the rival Liberal leader has neither vision nor resolution, and that, though he himself may be well endowed in both these respects, his lack of other essential Qualifications makes a majority of the party very unwilling to give him another Coalition to play ducks and drakes with. His Eectorial address at Edinburgh University provided Mr. Uoyd George with what was-prob-ably a unique event in his experience, at. aaiy rate since the days when, at the height of Britain's South African war fever, he was the most conspicuous, and therefor© the -iLost detested of the proBoers. The man whose oratorical genius disarmed so many hostile audiences, and even charmed them into active sympathy, was, unable to get an effective hearing when he turned his back on political polemics and sought a hearing from an academic audience on a non-contentious th&me. But even Mr. Lloyd George failed to triumph over the rowdyism of the Edinburgh students. A crowd whose interruptions are inspired by a genuine interest in the subjectmatter, however hostile, may be reasoned with and conciliated, or even converted. But a crowd whose ideal of enjoyment is to 1 make a noise, and disinterestedly pursues it with no unfriendly bias against the speaker or his contentions, may bp as' far beyond the Teach of eloquence or argument as a fog-horn or a steam siren. The Lord Eector of Edinburgh University did not get the hearing /which, as a powerful Prime , Minister, he could always command, but he cannot be said to have failed. He obtained a '. partial hearing, and in the jieneral sympathy which his treatment is calculated to excite- he will probably gain more than he lost by the omitted points. It was odd that the " exacting, irritatipg, and mortifying conditions" under . which Mr. Lloyd Geoi-ge.said that "the politician works should have bean so strikingly illustrated in one of his rare excursions into what is normally a less troubled atmosphere. If Mr. Lloyd George needs any compensation he may find it in the general approval of which his article on the Ruhr is assured. A Government which considers that Germany is being harshly and unwisely treated, but is anxious to avoid an open rupture with France, , will regret his outspokenness, but his article doubtless comes a good deal nearer to an accurate expression of the sentiment of his counr tvymen than the " Yes-No" to which they are officially com- ■ mitted. Taking various newspaper headlines—" French Troops Occupying Fresh Territory," "Proposals ■for New Coinage in Ruhr," etc., etc. —for his text, he asks: "What is it all leading to ? Is it really reparations?" It is already as plain as daylight, .not only that the French occupation has so far been economically disastrous for both countries, but that,, whether Germany's resistance breaks down or not, it is likely to remain so for years to come. At the present rate it will take France a long time even to pay expenses, and the cost to Germany will at once aggravate her financial misfortunes and stimulate her passion for revenge. The peace and prosperity. of tho whole world are threatened by an issue between

France and Germany in which the ; other nations feel themselves for the present unable to interfere. ] The process to which Mr. Lloyd , George refers is carried further by our latest messages. Interference ; with the telephone wires between j Dusseldorf and Essen has resulted in the imposition of a fine of a million marks upon the commune. Re- j fusal to pay has resulted in the! arrest of the burgomaster. Thirty-1 fiva million marks have been taken by the French from the banks at Bochum for a cause not stated, and eighty-five million marks intended for the railway strikers have been seized at Bocklinghausen. Frenph troops have occupied Mannheim and Darnstadt, and are on their way to Karlsruhe- Where are they to stop 1 Will' they really go on to Berlin, and there make a new peace? or get Europe ablaze with a new war? Mr. Lloj'd George declares roundly that " French enterprise has abandoned all idea of recovering reparations, and is now j brooding upon loot -on an immense! scale." He is satisfied wider developments are in train than those involved in the control of German industries, and makes light of the French denials of his previous statement that France intends to stick to the Ruhr. To stick to the Ruhr until the reparations are paid is, in Mr. Lloyd George's view, the same as to stick to it for ever. The best of his new points is that the terms -which Germany will have to accept if she is beaten have never been formulated. No ultimatum, writes Mr. Lloyd George, was issued before the invasion. Germany clearly does not know what terms she would have to comply with if she threw up her hands to-morrow. The British Government does know. They were even .discussed at Paris. If _M. Poincare's statement means anything, the Ruhr industries must be vested in Franca until the whole mortgage is re* deemed. Hence the vast plan for the exploitation of Germany, and, through Germany, of Europe. " Like most schemes which do not make allowance for human nature," this scheme, Mr. Lloyd George de- ! dares, is bound to fail. But when and at what cost to the world are questions on which he wisely- declines to prophesy.