PRIME MINISTER’S SPEECH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18687, 17 October 1922, Page 5

PRIME MINISTER’S SPEECH

HOSTILE CRITICISM. LONDON, October 16. (Received Oct. 16, at 8.5 p.m.) Press comment on Mr Llovd George is severely critical and generally bad the Daily Chronicle and Daily Telegraph alone supporting him. The latter deprecates the holding of a General Election ip the present state of the Near Eastern situation and the imminence of the ratification of the Irish Treaty. The Daily Express describes the references to Franco as deplorable, and declares; “Whoever represents us at the Near Eastern Conference will be weighted bv those utterances. It is an impossible position.” The Westminster Gazette says: “Nobody is so quick to recognise failure of tactics as Mr Lloyd George. He plainly saw the country had no use for Mr Chamberlain’s policy, and he left the latter to flounder in the morass in which he wandered.” The Morning Post says: “The annarent frivolity with which the Prime Minister deals with the most delicate questions of international moment seems to indicate that Mr Lloyd George is temperamentally ii :apable of understanding the elements of statesmanship.”—A. and N.Z. Cable. CRITICISM OF FRANCE. KEEN RESENTMENT FELT. PARIS, October 15. (Received .Oct. 16. at 8.5 p.m. I There is much comment on Mr Lloyd George’s speech. -He is accused of_ relating history in his own fashion for his own purposes. There is resentment against the .accusation that the Trench abandoned the British. The Prime Minister’s words are regarded in home ionrnnls as more wounding than anv which the enemy countries directed against France during the war. Lc Temns. in a violent attack, snvs; “It pleases him to annear amid the lightning of European storms.” M. Franklin Bouillon, whose actions at the Near East discussions have been criticised in British semi-official onarters, says; “We will rcnlv to Mr Llovd George, and the world will be surprised when it knows exactly what happened.”—The Times.

r— - A TANGLED SITUATION. DIVERGENT PRESS VIEWS. LONDON. October 16. (Received Oct. 16, at 9.50 p.m.) The press continues to be obsessed bthe obscurity of the political situation. Most of the journals predict an early dissolution and others point out that ->ir Lloyd George is not the resigning sort. He is profoundly impressed by the warmth of his reception in Lancashire and mar attempt to carry on in the belief that he is sufficiently strong to break down the antagonism. Lord Birkenhead, Mr Churchill, and others are pressing Mr Llovd George to appeal to the country, and. on the other hand, other Tory members of the Cabinet declare if the Prime Minister forces an election without consulting the Conservatives as a party they will resign immediately and precipitate" a crisis. The Consdrvntives and Independent Liberals are prenaring for a fight, the latter having 300 candidates ready to take the field at the shortest notice. The Westminster Gazette declares that Labour’s chances are greatly strengthened by Mr Chamberlain’s invention of the Bolshevist bogey. —A. and N.Z. Cable.