LIBERAL PARTY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 222, 20 August 1931, Page 11

LIBERAL PARTY.

. HUMILIATING POSITION. “SERVILITY TO"SOCIALISM.”

The'decision of Sir John Simon, Sir Robert Hutchison, and Mr Ernest Brown to decline to receive the Liberal Whip comes as a crowning blow to a week of humiliation for the party, caused by Mr Lloyd George’s tactics in ko\v-towing to the Labour Government, says a London correspondent under date June 29.

The dissentients express the Liberal voters’ present opinion that while Mr Lloyd George says rhetorically that executives and meetings of branch delegates confirm his leadership and policy, he is unable to reach the electorate effectively. Mr Lloyd George, outside Parliament, criticises the Government in furious speeches; inside, he eats meekly from the Ministers’ hands. 'lt is this contrast in deportment which at length infuriated Sir John Simon, Sir Robert Hutchison, and Mr Brown to such an extent that they exercised the right to be guardians of their own selfrespect. Recent events have caused all Liberals to ponder anxiously over the official policy of keeping the Government in office. ■ Liberal voters at recent by-elections left no doubt as to their attitude. When they deprived Liberal candidates of their support they scornfully refused the Labour candidates as an alternative, although in some cases officially recommended to do so. At the two most recent by-elec-tions—Gateshead and Wavertree—where 22,000 Liberal votes were cast at the general election, Labour candidates, though favoured by the absence of Liberal candidates, polled 9000 fewer votes and the Conservatives 12,000 votes more. The irresistible inference is that few, if any, Liberal votes were transferred to Labour, that thousands were transferred to Conservatives, and that the rest of the Liberal voters refused to vote. The Liberal electorate’s comment on the official policy is, therefore, a striking expression of disgust and revolt. Most party leaders holding the balance of power, as Mr Lloyd George does, find it possible to dictate and improve certain principles of their own policy through the party which they keep in office. The Liberals’ vote last week against their colleagues convicted the party not only of absurdity, but also of surrender of principles in humiliating circumstances. It is clear that the electorate is convinced that although the official Liberal policy professes to be a dictatorship in Parliament, it has become, and threatens to continue to be, servility to Socialism. SIR JOHN SIMON’S FUTURE. Official and unofficial spokesmen and Liberal chieftains profess no dismay at the defection of Sir John Simon and his colleagues. They say it is just as well, since Sir John Simon has long been shivering on the brink. It is better for him and better for the party that he should go than that the recent petulant bickering should be continued indefinitely. This view is expressed in the NewsChronicle, which editorially says: “Liberalism is greater than its most gifted exponents. It will survive the loss even of Sir John Simon. Opponents who are gleefully announcing that this is the end of Liberalism will be once more deceived and the funeral will' again be postponed. Those who firmly believe in Liberalism’s future do not need to be told why. The very essence of Liberalism is recognition of the right to differ.” Meanwhile much interest has been aroused concerning Sir John Simon’s future. He does not intend to retire from politics. It is believed that, in addition to Sir Robert Hutchison and Mr Brown, other Liberals, including Mr George Lambert, Sir Murdoch Macdonald, Colonel A. England, and Major L. Hore-Belisha, associate themselves with Sir John Simon’s breakaway. The dissentients at present do not intend to cut themselves adrift from Liberalism. They propose to form an independent group to judge the Socialist proposals strictly on their merits, ; and vote in accordance with their convictions.

Sir John Simon personally has done with Mr Lloyd George for good. He remains a Liberal, but with a marked difference. It is thought, however, that the leadership of a small group, without much prospect of adding many recruits to its ranks, will not satisfy so astute a Parliamentarian. It is known this his views on freetrade have changed. The period which will elapse before his reception into the Conservative fold depends 'solely on how much his veiws have changed or are in process of .changing.