Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1920. BRITISH POLITICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1719, 9 January 1920, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1920. BRITISH POLITICS.

In these days of political unrest it is not at all surprising to lind by-elec-tions going against the Government in Great Britain. The. enormous majority secured by Mr Lloyd George on his appeal to the country in December, 1918, is, of course, in no immediate danger of being wiped out. But much water has passed under the bridge since then, and, far from running smoothly, the waters appear to have been getting more and more troubled. Industrial unrest, the high cost of living, the cessation of war industries, the necessity for repatriating the immense army of citizens whose energies were turned from industrial pursuits into the destructive work of war, the call for retrenchment, coupled with the many exposures of wasteful expenditure and administrative bungling, and the long-drawn-out controversy over the Home Rule question, have all played their part in arousing dissatisfaction with the Government, which appears to have become increasingly unpopular with the public. The one man who can, and who may, stay the dry rot which has seemingly set in, is v Mr Lloyd George. The British Prime Minister has a marvellous knack of retrieving situations that appear almost impossible. Beyond question, he is the outstanding figure in British politics to-day, for, whatever may be said of his colleagues, Mr Lloyd George enjoys the confidence of the great mass of the people in a way no other statesman does or can do, the one possible exception being Lord Robert Cecil. Mr Lloyd George's time and energies' have been so much taken up with the work of the Peace Conference, and in reconciling the many conflicting claims that I have arisen over the peace settlement. | that he has been unable to give that I attention to matters of domestic concern, which was not unnaturally ex-

pected of him. As a result, the byelections have been going steadilj against the Government, the most being made of the failures of the Coalition -Cabinet, as the most was made of the failures of our National Government. The Spen Valley by-election has been described as "the heaviest blow yet received by the Government." But the result is really no worse than that at the Widnes by-election ; it is not, indeed, so bad, because, while at Spen Valley the Labour candidate, MiMyers, secured 11,962 votes—an increase of 3454 in the Labour vote at the General Election—the Liberal vote, divided between Sir John Simon and Colonel Fairfax, actually amounted to 18,378—an increase of 7734 in the antiLabour vote. Sir John Simon, who is still a force to be reckoned with in the political world, polled 10,244, and Colonel Fairfax 8134 votes. There was thus a much bigger poll than in 1918, when, out of 38,827 electors on the roll, of whom 16,501 were women, onlv 19,172 recorded their votes, two candidates—Sir Thomas Whittaker and Mr Myers—alone contesting the seat. At Widnes, in a straight-out. contest between the Labour candidate, Mr Arthur Henderson, and the Government nominee, Mr F. M. B. Fisher, the iformer succeeded in turning a Labour minority vote of 3694 (as at the General Election) into a majority of over WOO. Still, the position lias to he faced that the Coalition Government, headed by Mr Lloyd George and >Lr tiomir Law, has received a decided setback by the rejection of its candidate at Spen Valley, and in other electorates it has sustained reverses which point to its continued unpopularity.

MR LLOYD-GEORGE AS A FACTOR

-A writer in one of the English reviews, recently discussing the position of British politics, ventured the opinion that, although a Genoral Election was talked of as likely to occur early this year, there was no actual prospect

of such a thing happening. Mr Asquith, while nominally remaining the Leader of the Liberal Party, is still out of Parliament. He shows little or no inclination to re-enter it. Several of his' colleagues who were in the last Parliament have also failed to obtain seats in the House of Commons, and Sir David Maclean, who is leading the ragged remnant of the once great Liberal Party in the present Parliament, has, so far, failed to impress the popular imagination, or to secure any general recognition as the leader of his party. There is the same disBosition on the part of the Liberals at [ome as was apparent here prior to the General Election last ,month, to ignore the outstanding fact that, with the entry of Labour as a political force the Liberal vote is bound to diminish. The Labourites have simply formed what might be termed the advanced wing of the Liberal Party. They are now lighting for their own "place in the sun," and the Liberals are bound to suffer by their defection. The inevitable trend is, therefore, in the direction of Labour finally appropriating the Liberal mantle, leaving the more moderate sections of that party to fall into line with the Unionists. The latter are in the line of direct succession to the old Conservative party, although the policy they advocate and pursue is just as Liberal as that of the Liberals themselves. Politics are largely in the flux the world over, and the indications point more and more in the direction of a complete cleavage of oninion between the moderates on one side and so-called Labour on the other. The proposed Centre Party in British politics may be accepted as one indication in that direction. It offers a rallying point for Liberals and Unionists alike. Mr. Lloyd George is said to be dissatisfied with some of his present colleagues, and he would probably welcome a change which gave him the opportunity of reconstructing his Ministry. But the time is hardly ripe for that. The peace conditions with Turkey have still to bo settled; the Italian difficulty has to be smoothed out; the Bolshevik menace has yet to be reckoned with, and the disloyalty in Ireland cannot be allowed to continue. Added to all this, there is the I danger of industrial disturbances recurring in connection with the railways, etc. These matters cannot be effectively dealt with by a purely party Government, and Mr Lloyd George is hardly likely to desert his post, or to leave'the barque of State he has piloted so successfully through the closing years of the war, while it remains in troubled waters. No British statesman of recent years has so appealed to the popular imagination, and no politician has been more trusted and honoured by the British public than Mr Lloyd George. There may, and probably will, bo changes in the British Government; they would be inevitable were an appeal made to the country, but the indications are that there would be no change in its leadership. Mr Lloyd George remains the man ot the. day, the hour and the moment, and there 'does not appear to be anyone in sight likely to supplant him in the confidence of the people.