BRITISH LIBERALS

Otago Witness, Issue 3958, 21 January 1930, Page 28

BRITISH LIBERALS

* MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.

LEADERSHI P CRITICISED.

LONDON, January 14

Viscount Grey was re-elected president at the annual meeting of the Liberal Council. He declared that the founders of the council felt that Mr Lloyd George was not entitled to the confidence they had given to Lord Oxford and Asquith He strongly resented the invidious position which had resulted at headquarters from finance depending on a personal and not a party fund. Liberal headquarters took unwarranted advantage of the council’s agreement to Mr Lloyd George’s election policy. It was not true to say that the whole party was united under him. Never before had a leader been able to say to the party: “ You have no party fund, and unless you do what I want you will have, no money.” That

was fatal to any party. Even headquarters felt the party's dependence on a personal fund to be unsatisfactory. “ We have no confidence in Mr Lloyd George's leadership,” continued Viscount Grey, who added that many of the younger Liberals were looking to the Labour Party, but they would be well advised to wait. Labour was not undivided, and there were rumblings in the Conservative Party, which might precede an earthquake. The council should support the Government if any part of its foreign and Imperial policy became an election issue. The resumption of Anglo-Russian relations was justifiable only if Bolshevist propaganda ended. Mr MacDonald's part in promoting the Naval Conference was a credit to himself and to Britain. Mr Snowden’s work at The Hague strikingly demonstrated the British character, nevertheless the country was balancing its Budget by drawing on the revenue of the future. The remedy was trade expansion, not high taxation.

A BONE OF CONTENTION

RUGBY, January 14

Viscount Grey, when re-elected president of the Liberal Council to-day, spoke of the differences with Mr Lloyd George, the Liberal Leader, which had not been settled. Referring to the proposals which Mr Lloyd George issued before the last General Election as his policy for dealing with unemployment, Viscount Grey said that the Liberal Council separated itself very distinctly from any responsibility for the pledge - as to how much could be done to relieve unemployment in any par ticular year, but the council had no hesitation in agreeing to the principle of the proposals, which was that it was better to relieve unemployment by finding work for the unemployed than to leave them idle or on the dole. A somewhat unwar- [ ranted advantage was taken of that by Liberal hea-lquarters, and the whole party was represented as absolutely united under Mr Lloyd George. Since the election he had been criticised for not having during the election pointed out that that was a misconception.

Viscount Grey declared: “Our feeling remains just as it was with regard to Mr Lloyd George’s leadership and his fund.” If, when the next election came, Liberal headquarters were in a position to say they had fl party fund which was independent of Mr Lloyd George’s personal fund they would have enormous support from Liberalism jn the country, but there would still remain the other ques tion of want of confidence in the leader ship of the party. “ That is why,” said Viscount Grey, “we must maintain an absolutely separate organisation when the next election comes. If things are as they are to-day with regard to the leadership of the party, the Liberal Counc’l must fight not under its present leadership. but under its own organisation an! with its own funds.

THE PRESENT LEADERSHIP. LONDON, January 15. Mr Lloyd George’s personal fund has long been a bone of contention, and it did not need Viscount Grey's plain speaking to establish the fact that it is his leadership which is still sapping the vitality of the party. It is common knowledge that, in spite of outward ap pcaranccs, the Liberal differences have no" been healed. It is understood th a: the trustees of the fund recently offered an annual contribution for a limited period.

MR LLOYD GEORGE TO REPLY

LONDON, January 14. Mr Lloyd George states that he will reply to Viscount Grey fully on Monday

at the National Liberal Club.