LIBERAL DISSENSIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19800, 27 May 1926, Page 9

LIBERAL DISSENSIONS

MR LLOYD GEORGE REBUKED. A POLITICAL SENSATION. (Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, May 25. A political sensation has been caused by the publication of a sharply-worded letter from the Earl of Oxford condemning Air Lloyd George’s refusal to attend the Liberal “shadow Cabinet’’ during the strike. Mr Lloyd George replied disclaiming responsibility for creating Liberal dissensions.—Sydney Sun Cable. LEADERS AT VARIANCE. THE LETTER AND THE REPLY. POSSIBLE SCHISM IN RANKS. LONDON, May 25. (Received May 26, at 11.30 p.m.) In connection with the split in the Liberal Party. Lord Oxford’s letter to Mr Lloyd George says : “I should not be doing my duty as leader of the Liberals if I did not convey my regret at your course during the greatest domestic crisis of our time.” The letter points out that Mr Lloyd George and his colleagues of the “shadow" Cabinet discussed the Liberals’ attitude to the strike and declined t) condemn it, and use such influence as they could exert or command in. resisting the Trade Union Congress’s ill-advised anti social campaign. It then refers to the Liberal leader’s speeches in Parliament and elsewhere in that direction and deals with Mr Lloyd George’s absence from the “shadow” Cabinet at which a letter was read from him declaring that he was obliged to dissent from the declarations of the Liberal leaders. Lord Oxford says he considers Mr Lloyd George’s absence a very grave matter, believing that it was the primary duty of all responsible Liberals at such a critical moment—and not least of their leader in the House of Commons —to meet and discuss the position. He finds it impossible to reconcile such a refusal with his conception of political comradeship, and finally refers to an article by Mr Lloyd George published in the American press at a time when it was necessary to demonstrate British unity, in which he gave a highly-coloured picture of Britain’s national straits and predicted a protracted struggle and the ultimate wearing down of the people through worry about vanishing trade. He deplores such a presentation of the case to the outside world on the authority of an ex-Prime Minister of Britain and the chairman of the Liberal Parliamentary Party, and concludes by stating that it gives him real pain to write this letter “which Mr Lloyd George will well know is net dictated by personal feeling.’’ Mr Lloyd George in a lengthy reply, says that although he did not attend the meeting of the “shadow Cabinet” he sent a full summary of his suggestions. He thought that as a previous meeting of the “shadow Cabinet” did not consider the suggestion that unconditional surrender must precede a resumption of negotiations and that as the Liberal announcements in the British Gazette, which he considered a complete departure from the Liberals’ agreed policy, had prejudiced the decisions it was accordingly unwise to attempt to amend them. He intended no discourtesy .to Lord Oxford and was only anxious to avoid unpleasantness in the hope that the controversy would blow over. He adds: “My absence from the “shadow Cabinet” hardly justifies your provocative letter,” and declares that the American article contained sentences which he never wrote. Even now he was not certain that his predictions in the article were wrong owing to the danger of a continuance of the quarrel unless Parliament assisted in a solution.” The letter concludes: “If there is another Liberal schism what is its object? Surely neither my article nor my absence from the “shadow Cabinet” is the reason for it. lam willing to meet yon and my colleagues if thereby I can help the party.”—Sydney Sun Cable. NEWSPAPER COMMENT. AN ILL-TIMED CONTROVERSY. LONDON, May 26. (Received May 26, at 9 p.m;) The letters of Lord Oxford and Mr Lloyd George are featured in all the newspapers. The full text occupies two of the Daily Telegraph’s long columns. The Daily Express, in a front page article heacled 'Bombshell for Liberal Party,” describes Lord Oxford’s letter as the most sensational' political letter written for many years. The Morning Post headline is “Exit Mr Lloyd George," but several political writers says that it is a question which should “exit”—Mr Lloyd George or Lord Oxford. The Morning Post states: “Mr Lloyd George’s laboured explanations amount to this—that he proposed to support the Government and at the same time put the Government in the wrong, with the net result that he overreached himself and finds himself alone. He has parted from the Liberals and the Socialists will not have him.” Curiously, neither the Daily News nor the Manchester Guardian which voice Asquithian views endorses the letter. The former considers that an internal party controversy is especially inopportune at a time when thousands of miners are on the brink of starvation. The Manchester Guardian describes the letter as violent in tone and unconvincing in argument. — A. and N.Z. Cable. A FIRST-CLASS SENSATION. MR LLOYD GEORGE’S POSITION DISCUSSED. LONDON, May 25. (Received May sso. at 8.50 p.m.) The newspapers regard the controversy between Lord Oxford and Mr Lloyd George as a first-class political sensation and likely to result in Mr Lloyd George’s departure fro mthe Liberal Party, as it is considered most difficult for an exPrime Minister to accept an unprecedented public rebuke from the party leader. Intense interest attaches to Mr Lloyd Georgg’s speech at Llandudno on Wednesday.—A. and N.Z. Cable.