LIBERALISM AT HOME.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19801, 28 May 1926, Page 8

LIBERALISM AT HOME.

Ix is not surprising that the pointed correspondence between the Earl of Oxford and Asquith and Mr Lloyd George should have excited very lively interest in the Home Country, For many years the relations between the two statesmen have been marked by a ticklish quality. The mid-war rupture of 1916, when Mr Asquith (as he then was) relinquished the helm, was followed by an ostensible agreement which has never been quite devoid of a suspicious element. It can readily be believed that memories of the former controversy, quickened by pungent reminders from the pen of an enterprising literary lady, have maintained a latent place in both minds. Lord Oxford is titular leader of the Liberal Party; Mr Lloyd George is chairman of the scanty Liberal band in the House of Commons. Both are richly endowed with a gift of incisive language. The elder has thought fit to administer a reproof to the younger, couched in terms certainly not lacking in unequivocal force. The trouble arose out of Mr Lloyd George’s failure to attend what is obscurely termed the “Liberal shadow Cabinet” during the general strike. Presumably this shadow Cabinet was an “inner circle” committee formed with a view to watching the development of the crisis and assisting the Government, if need arose, in the maintenance of law and order. Evidently Lord Oxford is of opinion that his colleague assumed a dubious, not to say mischievous, attitude at a time of national anxiety. Nothing short of a firm conviction to this effect could justify such strictures as are contained in a letter which is likely to live in political annals. It has to be admitted that colour is lent to the charges by the tone of Mr Lloyd George’s recent newspaper writings. The allusion to a breach of political comradeship is not more severe than the citation of “an article published in the American press at a time when it was necessary to demonstrate British unity” —an article giving “a highly-coloured picture ot Britain’s national straits and predicting a protracted struggle and the ultimate wearing down of the people through worry about vanishing trade.” Mr Lloyd George’s admirable steadiness during the war period, to which he appealed in his speech on Wednesday night at Llandudno, has not lasted well in the subsequent stage of comparative political on importance. His prestige and influence are not extinct, but he seems to be steering a course without a stable rudder or an authentic chart. His reply to Lord Oxford, as summarised by cable, is not angry. If might even seem to be touched by a note of sorrowful surprise. One thing is certain : The Liberal Party, sadly attenuated in the House of Commons since the days of its Gladstoniau and Asquithian glory, cannot afford to indulge in dissension. Its Parliamentary numbers may be unfavourably disproportionate to its strength in the country, but the hopes of a real revival will be very forlorn if there is to bo internal discord.