BRITISH LIBERAL PARTY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18325, 15 February 1923, Page 6

BRITISH LIBERAL PARTY.

The evil days upon which the British Liberal Party has fallen have not yet ended. The two sections do not appear to have composed their differences in any degree. The ill-success which both met at the elections appears merely to have embittered their quarrel. Mr. Lloyd George declares his advances toward practical co-operation have met with no response from the Independent Liberals. One of Mr. Asquith's Whips has resigned, and in doing so has declared that that party has become a close corporation without semblance of democratic organisation. While the Liberal Party is thus expending its strength in internecine strife, Labour seems to be endeavouring in all earnestness to consolidate its improved position. Its reaffirmation of the principle of a capital levy ought, in the nature of things, to present the Liberals with a golden opportunity for proselytising, for winning away from allegiance to Labour those hardly prepared to go the full distance involved in acceptance of that, and one or two other items from the programme. Cohesion, however, would be necessary to grasp the chance. No evidence of a mutual desire for reconciliation appears among the Liberals. So far as this was a mere matter of party loss the consequences might be accepted as a just retribution for preferring private quarrels to anything else. , The Liberals however attack both the present Administration as reactionary, and the Labour Party as too advanced. If they sincerely believe this, if they are honest in their claim to a political theory and principles superior to those of the other parties, they are seriously open to the reproach of sacrificing their conception of the public weal to their own feuds. In the present condition of Britain, constructive criticism is needed. They cannot offer much while fighting among themselves. Thus in Britain, as in New Zealand, can be found the spectacle of the urgent needs of the times taking second place to party considerations of which public opinion is becoming increasingly impatient.