LIBERAL REUNION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 26 May 1923, Page 9

LIBERAL REUNION

MR. ASQUITH REJECTS ADVANCES PERFECT PURITY REQUIRED MR. LLOYD GEORGE NOT WANTED.' (FFIOJt OUR OWN CORUESPOKDBNT.) I , LONDON, 13th April. Mr. Asquith has given his reason for declining the invitation of the Leeds Liberal Federation to a joint reunion luncheon with Mr. Lloyd George. The federation took care to intimate that the invitation was not intended to provide another platform for the public discussion of Liberal reunion. "In the circumstances," wrote Mr. Aaquith, "I cannot help thinking that it might be better to postpone any such function as you proposo until the process of active Liberal co-operation, both in the House of Commons and.in the constituencies, of which I entertain sanguine hopes, has advanced a further stage/ As past experience has shown, consolidation ■upon specific issues of grave and vital principle is the Lest cement of party unity. I am in hearty sympathy with the objects ' which you have in view, and I greatly regret not to be ablo to accept your invitation." Thus, again, has Mr. Asquith rejected the advances of those who have sojourned in an alien camp.' It is evident that the National Liberals will have to seek a change of heart and shake off the archenemy, Mr. Lloyd George, before the "Wes Frees" are ready to take them 'back to the fold. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald has discussed the question of Liberal reunion in an article in the "Socialist Review." He maintains that the growing power of Labour acts as the adversity that drives Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Asquith^ to become strange bedfellows. Liberalism is bound to make a counter-offensive upon Labour, and before launching its attack it must try to unite itself. But what is to be'united? "Only the sixty members of the Liberal Independent group rank as an Opposition section, and if a really determined attempt wore made to unite the National and the independent Liberals, the beat of the sixty ought to come over and act with the Labour 1 Party. They share our immediate views on such questions as ■nationalisation, the capital levy, foreign policy, and not those of their leaders, and only by acting with" us on a programme and policy which can at once be earned out, will they be able to pull their maximum weight and help to elect at the next election a united majority to take the place of the present Government? ■" ORIENTAL FINESSE. "For Mi-. Lloyd George re-union has .become a necessity. He is now cut off from the main currents of political life. IJie lories seem to have stolen his cash and his followers in the House of Commons have no political weight. He knows quite well that if he were once in the Liberal fold again, neither Mr. Asquith, nor Sir John Simon, nor Lord Grey, nor anyone else could stand in his way. So 110 must ba there. To. him, Liberal unity means one tiling—the return of Mr Lloyd George to political influence. fo r the mo ment the issue' is this: Which ia to be the stronger influence in the minds of a few Liberal Party leaders, a determination to oust Labour from the front Opposition bench or a retention of their own position in the party? Until that is clear, Liberal unity •will be played with by one side and ap-pealed-for by the other., and observers will be treated to a display of an almost Oriental finesse in meaningless politeness and manoeuvring for advantage." STATEMENT BYA LIBERAL M.P. _ Such, is a Labour view of the situation. To understand the position more fully I have sought an interview with Dr. W. A. Chappie, who is a member of Mr; Asquith's party. "In December, i 1916," he explained, "the, British power ■ 111 the war was _ at its zenith, .and the prospects of Allied success were bright. Russia web still with us and no suspicion did we _ entertain of her coming collapse. ! Rumania had come in to the war on the Allied side, and was drawing away vast German effort from the Western front. The intensive submarine campaign was not in being. Ludendorf, in his recent book, said of this moment (December, 1916) that so great was the massing of Allied munitions and men on the Western front that the war for Germany was already lost. All our leading statesmen and generals were buoyant with hope and confident of success. This was the moment Mr. Asquith's conservative colleagues in the first Coalition chose to attack his leadership and unseat him. (December, 1916.) "The Tory party then came into power led by Mr. Lloyd George, and called itself. the Second Coalition. A leading Tory (Sir Holford Mackinder) said in a letter to the Press at.the time, 'The Tory party is now. in power, for every great office of State except one (Mr. Lloyd- George as Prime Minister) was held by a Tory.' In December, 1918, Mr. Lloyd George and his Tory colleagues went to the country as a Coalition—a coalition consisting of the' whole of the Tory party without a single exception, and Mr. Lloyd George with his political followers. They were returned by the solid vote of , the Tory party and the 'Hoop-la-we-won-the-war' votes.

COALITION VOTE PURE TOBY. "For four years," Dr. Chappie continued, "Tory policy prevailed, and by the end of that time a conviction had evolved in the minds of Mr. Lloyd George's Conservative colleagues that the Tory Party could stand alone. They therefore sloughed him off and went to the country as a rejuvenated and purified Tory Party, and won the election in November, 1922, with out the aid of their erstwhile leader. Every by-elec-tion since has confirmed what the General Election demonstrated—viz., that the so-called Coalition vote was a myth. It had been a Tory vote pure and simple, and not a combined Tory and Liberal vote. "In a~recent by-election a Tory stood instead of a, National Liberal who had been successful at the last General Election, and got practically ,the same votes, showing that the 'National Liberal' votes were Conservative cotes and nothins else. "The Lloyd George Liberal M.P.'s are now showing a feverish anxiety to join up with their old colleagues, the Independent Liberal M.P.'s under Mr. Asquith, alter a six years' sojourn in a far country. Mr. Asquith and all his colleagues and followers are most anxious that this reunion should take place, and are doing everything possible to encourage all the National Liberals to come back to the party they have so long deserted-, to leave their one-time political friends, to vote in the Liberal lobby, to work with the Opposition team, and to bo loyal in the House and country to acknowledged Liberal principles. They will not do this except on terms. They want to come back as-a. party with a leader. Some of them are suspected of wanting to rejoin on terms that will ensure that Mr. Lloyd George shall sooner or late< be the leader of the re-united party, and that we shall be of them, not they of us. "Whatever happens," concluded Dr. ■HliawK- ''it cjjh isaMy b*. tan! 'there is j no trading of National Liberal vpt.ee in '

the country, those who voted National Liberal in the past will now vote Tory. When the next General Election comes there will be no National Liberal candidates, they must stand as Liberals, Tories, or Labour. It is a matter of political b'fe and death for Mr. Lloyd George's followers in the House to choose a new party without delay; nearly all owe their seats to Tory votes and some of them to Tory pledges made on the hustings or to the Tory organisers. A dramatic and spectacular 'treaty' of reunion would make political re-adjust-ments with their constituencies more easy, and provide a safer way of escapa from electoral embarrassments. A dribble back to the fold, would be difficult, and misrht leave .Mr. Lloyd George high and dry. The National Liberals h,ive a party chest." A SIGNIFICANT BY-ELECTION. Whatever the attitude of the leaders towards reunion it is evident- that the Liberal forces in the country are bent on reunion. If. the movement.is delayed at the top it will come from the foundation —which is the party in the country. An indication of this trend of feelI ing is given in the result of the Anglesey by-election this week. Both wings of the Liberal Party co-operated heartily in the contest, with the result that Sir R. J. Thomas, the Liberal candidate, topped the poll with 11,116 votes, as against 6368 votes for Mr. E. T. John (Labour), and 3385 votes for Mr. O. Roberts (Conservative). Mr. Lly/d George sent the following telegram to Sir Robert Thomas: "Congratulations on your splendid and significant victory. Anglesey has given a fine lead for. Liberal unity." A message of congratulation was also sent by the Independent Liberal Headquarters in Abingdon street, signed by Mr. Vivian Phillips.

It is reported that during the election there was a complete line-up of the two Liberal wings. The Welsh Liberal Federation, which is the Independents' organisation, and tho Welsh Lib- 1 era! Council, which is National Liberal, worked together in amity. On£ of the most striking features of the contest was the complete tour of the constituency by Dame Margaret Lloyd George on the day before the poll. She travelled by. motor-car, and in the course of the tour addressed twelve meetings, ending at Holy head. Here Dame Margaret and Mr. Lan Macpherso'n_ jointly addressed two meetings, at whjch much enthusiasm was evinced. The demonstrations en route were exceptional. Sir John Simon also had an excellent reception, and much interest was taken in his visit.

There is litfle doubt that the result of the joint effort in Anglesey will give \i decided impetus to the movement which ia on foot to bring the two Liberal organisations in Wales into closer touch. A conference on the subject may take place Shrewsbury in the course of the next few days.