LIBERAL CONCLAVE

Southland Times, Issue 20616, 15 October 1928, Page 6

LIBERAL CONCLAVE

THE GENERAL ELECTION . MR LLOYD GEORGE HOPEFUL INDEPENDENCE STRESSED (VnitM Press Assn.— By Telegraph—Copyright.) Rugby, October 12. Mr Lloyd George. Liberal leader, speaking at the Liberal Conference at Yarmouth, made an important declaration regarding the Liberal position at the general election, which will take place next year. He forecasted that there would be an overwhelming majority of votes against the Conservative Government; that there would be an enormous accession of strength to the Liberals, and that whatever party was in the majority it would not be Labour. Dealing with the possibility of not one parly having a definite majority over the others, Mr Lloyd George said the Liberal party was equally opposed to both the Conservative and Labour parties. If the prosperity and well being of the country were to fall into the hands of either of these tw’o parties the Liberals would have very little to choose between strangling prosperity with a rope of tariffs or drawing and quartering it by socialism. Whatever might befall the Liberals they could enter no understanding, formal or informal, with any party under any circumstances to advance measures or policies in which they disbelieved and which they knew to be detrimental to the interests of the country. If a Liberal Government were not attainable in the next Parliament there was a vast fertile territory common to men of progressive minds in all parties which they could agree to cultivate together, but the conditions of co-operation and understanding must be honourable to all and humiliating to none. Mr Lloyd George declared: ‘ Let me say once and for all we shall decidedly and emphatically decline to contemplate the possibility of a repetition of the experiment of 1924 which proved so disastrous." He referred. of course, to the support then given by the Liberals to the Labour Party which kept the Labour Party in office for nine months though the Labour Party had no clear majority in the House of Commons. This was only justifiable as an experiment, said Mr Lloyd George, and it was no fault of the Liberals that it failed. A prominent Labour leader had assumed that if the Liberals were in a minority they would again help Labour into power. Mr Lloyd George’s reply was that in vain was the net spread in sight of the bird which had been caught in the same net before and escaped with his life but left a good many feathers behind. In conclusion the Liberal leader reiterated that the Liberals would fight the election as an independent party. They expected no quarter from either the Conservatives or Labour anti asked for none. The Liberals would go on fighting and in the end would triumph. —British Official Wireless. REPLY TO MR. LLOYD GEORGE. LIBERAL PARTY CRUMBLING. (Rec. 1.5 a.m.l London, October 12. The Daily Herald in an editorial headed: "Our Reply to Mr. Lloyd George" says that Mr Lloyd George's hope of holding the balance of power will fall to the ground and the Liberal Party will be in the ruins. Nobody knows that better than Mr. Lloyd George, one of the chief authors of its ruin. It may linger for a long while on the political stage, but the days of its greatness are gone never to return. The liberals to achieve power must win 280 seats. The odds are that they will lose 280 deposits at the general election. Labour is the only party entering the fight confident of victory.—Australian Press Association.