LLOYD GEORGE'S POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18216, 9 October 1922, Page 7

LLOYD GEORGE'S POLICY.

OPPOSITION GROWING. MR. GARVIN JOINS CRITICS. RETIREMENT DEMANDED. COALITION KILLED BY KEMAL. By Tclezrapli—Press Association—Copjrrleht (Received 4.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON. Oct. 7. The London Observer, which for several years has been one of Mr. Lloyd George's staunchest supporters, and has expressed intense admiration of his statesmanship and leadership, has joined the chorus of newspapers demanding his retirement, owing' to Britten, policy in the Near East. The Observer puts forward four reasons. " Firstly," it says, " as far as the East is concerned, the Government has irretrievably lost the Great War. Secondly, the necessity for a fundamental change in the personnel and system of our Government is unanswerably proved. Thirdly, the moribund Coalition is desd at last, killed by Kemal as surely as the sparrow killed cock robin. Fourthly, Mr. Lloyd George's position has become quite untenable with any credit to himself or advantage to the country. " Mr. Lloyd George was a great leader in the war. We shall never forget it. If ho can only make up his mind at last, though late, to sacrifice office in order to regain his influence, ho will be a great leader once more in due time, perhaps sooner than is thought by most people now his stock is low, but for the present his public usefulness is exhausted. It is strange that so infinitely clover a man has made tho old stale mistake of so many of his predecessors of lingering too long. If he endeavours to extend his tenure still more inordinately, he will find the ground cut from under his feet by a majority which is not now his own, and now definitely means at no distant date to have another head. " Tho main currents' of events at Home as abroad have passed beyond his control. The reasons for this anti-climax are obvious. Alone, of living statesmen, he has been 17 years in office. Eight of these years have been wjual to more than an ordinary generation of wear and tear. No mortal man could stand it, and be as good £s ho was. Neither in insig'for Home a,nd foreign politics, nor in any kind of consecutive directing energy, is he equal or anything like equal to tV" man he was at his best. He is fundamentally fatigued in a way that makes men incapable of really fresh thought or vital insight or steady concentrated application. The sooner he stands aside the more easily will the nation be able to extricate itself from its immediate difficulties, and the better chance there will bo for his own future. There is no lack of alternative men and alternative combinations." MR. ASQUITH'S ATTACK. "CLIMAX OF INEPTITUDE." APPEAL TO EMPIRE DENOUNCED. Australian and N.Z. Gable Association (Reed. 3.30' p.m.) LONDON. Oct. 7. Mr. H. H. Asquith, addressing a conference of the Scottish Liberal Federation at Dumfries, said that he had supposed that British diplomacy had reached the climax of clumsiness and ineptitude in the publication of tho Earl of Balfour's Note on the inter-Allied war debts, but that had been easily surpassed in all qualities vrhich such a document ought not to possess by the communication from Downing vStreet appealing to the Dominions, which sounded the like notes of provocation and panic. It was issued without intimation to the other Powers. All this strident rhetoric, bugle-blowing, and flag-waving was wholly inexplicable unless prospects of war was well in sight. Had wo been fighting Turkey to-day we should have been single-handed. Neither France nor Italy would have sacrificed a man or fired a gun. The freedom of the Straits was a matter of international importance, and was in no sense exclusively or mainly a British affair. The conference adopted a resolution declaring that Britain's foreign policy should aim at reconciliation with her late enemies, fche establishment df friendly relations with all peoples, and amendment of the so-called Peace Treaty to conform to these ends. The conference also affirmed its belief in the League of Nations as a safeguard against future wars and a means of fostering inter< national goodwill. BONAR LAW'S ATTITUDE. BURDEN ON THE EMPIRE. NOT THE WORLD'S POLICEMAN. (Received 4.5 p.m.) Timee . LONDON. Oct. 7. Mr. Bonar Law has at last broken silence regarding the Near East. In a letter to the Times he declines to apportion blame for the events leading to the present situation in the Near East. He considers it is probably true that the alleged pro-Greek sympathy of Britain has alienated Mahommedan feeling in India and elsewhere, but if w 0 had withdrawn from Asia and allowed the Turks to cross into Europe it would have been regarded in India as a defeat of the British Empire. Nevertheless, the burden should not fall on the Empire alone. The task is not specially a British interest, but is humanity's interest. The Empire should not show hostility or unfairness to the Turks, but Britain, for financial and social reasons, cannot act as the world's policeman. We should tell France that tho Near East is as much part of the general peace settlement as Germany. If sho is not prepared to support us in the Near East we had better imitate the United States and restrict our attention to our own Imperial affairs. LORD ISLINGTON'S VIEW. UNWISE POLICY PURSUED. A. and N.Z. LONDON. Oct. 6. Lord Islington, former Governor oi New Zealand, and several other influential members of the Near and Middle East Association, in a statement declare that tho crisis in the Near East is largely to be attributed to Britain's unwise Eastern policy during the past tlireo years. It should bo made clear to the Government that tho nation will refuse to support any war it believes unnecessary and honourably unavoidable. All questions outstanding should be speedily composed by negotiations, based upon concerted action with tho Allies. Tho policy of isolation and provocation should never have been assumed, and should be finally abandoned. This policy entailed vast additional and quite unnecessary expenditure, and brought us to tho very brink of war, the issue of which at Heme or abroad none can foresee.