The Evening Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1922. A PREMIER IN DIFFICULTIES.

Evening Star, Issue 18094, 9 October 1922, Page 4

The Evening Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1922. A PREMIER IN DIFFICULTIES.

It is significant that tho ‘Observer,’ most dignified ami ioast sensational of London’s Sunday papers, has at last rounded on Mr Lloyd George. Under Mr J.' L. Garvin. this paper has given dUcriminating i but fairly consistent support to the Coali- I tion Government and its policy. But i breaking point has now been reached. Tho Coalition has latterly wobbled ignorninionsly from crisis to crisis until it brought the nation suddenly to the brink of another war. As Mr Garvin puts it, Kcmal has killed the moribund Coalition, and Lloyd George must go. This evangel of a played-out Premier has long been preached by the organs of his political opponents, the ‘National Renew ’ being per- . haps the most rancorous, with 1 The , Times ’ almost equally insistent in, a less flamboyant style. Those who are acquainted with the intensity of party feeling in British politics naturally discount a good deal of what they road in ultraConservativo “Die-hard” attacks on Mr Lloyd George. But when such a- paper ( as the 'Observer’ adds its voice to the call for resignation it is time to take notice. Though tho verdict arrived at ris the same, the ‘ Observer ’ gives more charitable grounds for arriving at it than do some of its contemporaries. It pleads that the Prime Minister has worn himself out, his last eight years of office having imposed a strain beyond the power of mortal man to endure. His political opponents prefer to proclaim tho view that the Prime Minister is rather increasing in political astuteness than otherwise, and is applying his gifts towards tho furtherance of aims which tho nation abhors, one of them being tho termination of the Entente with France. Indeed, Mr AVickham Steed, editor of ‘ The Times,’ who himself represented his papeT-at the Genoa Conference,* reported that in substance Air Lloyd George there told M. Barthou “that the Entente between Great Britain and France was at an end; Great Britain considered herself henceforth free to seek and cultivate other’ friendships. His advisers had long been urging him to make an agreement with Germany, even at the cost of abandoning British claims to reparations.” Air Lloyd George got Air Austen Chamberlain to deny this in Parliament, and also wrote asking AI. Barthou to contradict it. This AL Barthou certainly did, but ho had meantime sent a grave report to tho French Government of the interview in which Air Lloyd George was said to have spoken in this vein, and French opinion, at any rate, took tho view that AI. Barthou had strained a point to help a brother statesman out of a hole. There can he no doubt that French opinion almost since the armistice has held that the effect of Air Lloyd George’s course of action has been to sprag France’s wheels. Tho wisdom of many of Franco’s diplomatic methods to retrieve something out of war’s disaster and conserve her own safety may bo debatable. Nevertheless, it has been a regrettable sight to see the two staunch Allies of war time perpetually at loggerheads in conference practically ever since. France may bo overambitious in her fairly evident aim to take Germany’s former place in tho affairs of Turkey, but Anglo-French differences have been greater than unity in recent developments in .the Near East. Air Lloyd George made a speech on the Near East in tho Commons on August 4, extolling the Greek effort as that of heroes and humanitarians, and his peroration drew from Sir Donald Maclean, tho parliamentary leader of the Independent Liberals, tho delighted comment that “the traditions of tho great Literal Party were reflected in tho speech of the Prime Minister. He was glad that the session had closed not upon pounds, shillings, and pence, bat upon a note of humanity and a declaration of our obligations to the oppressed peoples of tho Near’ East, who were under the heel of a race which, despite the lessons of the past few years, had learnt nothingat ajl.” , The iugjlixfi- J

Greeks may possibly bo bitterly pondering over the difference between tho declaration of obligations and tho fulfilment of them; but that is not our present point.' A great many Independent Liberals evidently disagree strongly with their leader, and consider that there should have been no declaration of any obligations, The Scottish Liberals’ ’Conference at Dumfries adopted a resolution that Britain’s' foreign policy should aim at reconciliation with her lato enemies and the establishment of friendly relations with gll peoples. Mr Asquith’s address to that conference contained scalding comments on tho ineptitude of tho British diplomacy in tho Far East leading up to the present crisis and Britain’s dangerous isolation. What Sir Donald Maclean called a policy of humanity, tho members of the Near and Middle East Association, headed by Lord Islington, call a policy of provocation pursued during the past three years, as to the results of which tho ‘ Observer ’ says: “As far as tho East is concerned tho Government has irretrievably lost the Groat War.” As tho position now stands it looks as though the veteran Greek statesman, M. Vonizolos, is prepared to make tho way easy for Britain by tho prompt restoration of Thrace to Turkey. Thus not only “obligations,” but a vital part of the Treaty of Sevres, would go by the board. This is humiliating, but it strongly corroborates tho sweeping opinion just quoted from, the ‘ Observer.’