LEADERLESS

Southland Times, Issue 20002, 16 October 1926, Page 7

LEADERLESS

BRITISH LIBERALS ASQUITH RESIGNS RESULT OF QUARREL WITH LLOYD GEORGE PARTY IN PERILOUS POSITION (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) London, October 14. Lord Oxford and Asquith has resigned the Liberal leadership.—A. & N.Z. REASONS FOR DECISION. DIFFERENCES OVER STRIKE POLICY. WHO WILL LEAD LIBERALS NOW? (Rec. 8.10 p.m.) London, October 14. Lord Oxford and Asquith in a letter to Mr J. A. Spender, president of the Liberal Federation, says, “I have reconsidered every viewpoint, since the differences arising from strike, of my personal relations with the party. I am of opinion that serious matters of principle, vital to the Liberal Party, the State and Parliamentary Government were then, and are now, imperilled. If the strike, which is the gravest event of my lifetime, were to succeed, Parliamentary Government would be ended. Temporising with the situation would fatally and justly discredit the Liberal Party. It was with surprise and distress I found my public declarations encountered a challenge from a quarter it was impossible to disregard, coupled with a refusal in the time of a national crisis to meet me in council. Fortunately the strike ended, to which Liberal declarations materially contributed. I attach as much importance at anyone to party unity and I have done as much as anyone to preserve it, but it cannot effectively be maintained under rival authorities with separate organisations and funds'; I will not participate in sectional controversies. I am now in my seventy-fifth year. During all the years I was in office I gave my time and strength unreservedly to the service of the party and the State. I never swerved, and never shall, from the principles of Liberalism. Though my health is restored I feel that the anxieties of leadership should not be continued by anyone who cannot stand the strain. I do not contemplate retirement from public life. I hope still to be of service to the State and to Liberalism, but it is my duty to lay down the leadership, which decision I regret is irrevocable.”

Lord Oxford’s resignation without nominating a successor caused a sensation in the Liberal Party, though there are hopes that he will clear up the confusion when he speaks at an important liberal meeting at Greenock to-morrow supported by Lord Grey, Sir John Simon, Sir Walter Runciman, and others who decline to accept Mr Lloyd George’s leadership. Some are of opinion that there may be a tacit understanding that Earl Beauchamp, who did not sign the antiLloyd George manifesto will continue to lead the party in the House of Lords and that Mr Lloyd George will lead in the

House of Commons until the Liberals are returned to power. If the Beauchamp compromise proves impossible, many moderates are likely to take the opportunity of Lord Oxford’s resignation to leave the party. Mr Lloyd George is reserving his views until he speaks at Barnstaple on Saturday. Owing to the separate organisation and election fund, Mr Lloyd George occupies a position of unexampled independence. Lord Reading, Sir Herbert Samuel and Sir John Simon are also mentioned for the leadership but the majority of Liberals are unwilling to risk a party meeting to elect a leader. —A. and N.Z. ASQUITH’S CAREER. EVENTFUL POLITICAL LIFE. Herbert Henry Asquith was born in September, 1852, at Morley, Yorkshire. Educated at the City of London School and Balli I College, Oxford, he was called to the bar in 1876 and soon became known as a clear thinker, and a man of indomitable energy and practical common sense, averse from extreme measures. After decades of bitter political struggles these good qualities were still admitted by his opponents. He entered Parliament in 1886 and was Home Secretary in Gladstone’s last Cabinet —a post he retained under Lord Rosebery. The position of the Government made constructive legislation impossible as shown by the fact that Asquith’s big scheme for workmen’s accident insurance was thrown out by the Lords. When the Liberal Government fell in 1895 ten years in the wilderness followed, a period remarkable for two facts: Asquith’s attitude during the Boer War when in contrast to the majority of his party he vigorously supported Chamberlain’s war policy, and the fact that later on he attacked with equal vigour that statesman’s Tariff Reform proposals and conducted a highly successful Free Trade campaign. Although his defence of the Boer War alienated many members of his party he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer when the Liberals returned to power in 1905 under Campbell-Bannerman. A notable feature of his Budget was the large sums set aside for the amortisation of the national debt, while that of 1908-9 was i. .*ked by the introduction of old age pensions. When the Premier’s health broke down in 1908, the party despite the misgivings of the more radical section chose Asquith, who by appointing Lloyd George Chancellor of the Exchequer showed his readiness to govern according to the views of the social reformers. The conflict with the House of Lords influenced all the political measures of the next few years and the protracted struggles resulted in 1911 in complete victory for the Commons. The second election in 1910 had confirmed the verdict of the January polls and he carried his proposals that the peers must not touch money bills and that, if the Commons passed any bill in three successive sessions it became law. He then introduced the Home Rule Bill and, when the Lords amended it, he announced that the King had during the previous summer agreed to create as many peers as might be necessary “to sectire that effect should be given to the decision of the country.” This announcement came as a bombshell. A section of the Conservatives shouted him down in the House, but the party were divided and the Lords let the bill pass rather than tolerate the unlimited creation of peers. Meanwhile, Asquith passed a number of measures which he either piloted himself or which owed their passage to hjs incomparable tactical gifts. As regards foreign policy he remained an Imperialist and even at home he never capitulated to the demands of the workers. He was also a strong opponent of votes for women and he and his supporters suffered much at the hands of militant “suffragettes.” His Cabinet whose position had been gradually weakened. received a fresh accession of strength in spring 1914, from the so-called Ulster rebellion. After the warlike measures in Ulster and the resignation of officers there r-iher than engage in civil war, Asquith offered a compromise as regards that part of Ireland, but it was not accepted. He dealt with the situation by a surprise move, taking over the War Office himself and giving it to be understood that the Government would not tolerate insubordination by officers.

But this bitter controversy was stopped by the war. In 1915 the shell shortage question became acute. Lloyd George dilated on it, but Asquith denied that the operations had been crippled by lack of ammunition. There was a move for a Coalition and Asquith invited the other parties to join the Government. He was still

unwilling to introduce conscription and the Derby recruiting scheme was tried. Meanwhile the half-hearted treatment of the blockade, the food problem and air defence had created dissatisfaction which centred on Asquith. Lloyd George suggested a War Council minus Asquith except as a consultative member with the power of veto. This ultimatum was not accepted whereupon Lloyd George resigned, and, as Asquith could not carry on without him, he followed. Lloyd George became Premier, while Asquith, when the Left wing of the Liberals formed themselves into a separate body after the war, put himself at their head. At the December, 1918, elections he and all his principal colleagues lost their ln the catastrophic defeat of the re-united Liberals in October, 1924, he was again among the vanquished. He married as his second wife Miss Margaret Tennant, a brilliant and accomplished but erratic woman, whose outspoken “Reminiscences” published in autumn, 1920, did not improve his political position.