CONSERVATIVE FAILURE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 828, 23 November 1929, Page 9

CONSERVATIVE FAILURE

FEELING DISPLAYED AT CONFERENCE LEADER CRITICISED i’.l LONDON. Thursday. An attempt to hold a ’ post mortem” inquiry into the cause of the failure of the Conservatives at the last general election was badly beaten at the annual conference of the Conservative Unionist Association. The leader of the party, declared one critic, Lieutenant-Colonel W. Grant Morden, had more power than a Tammany “boss/’ and the resolutions passed by the conference were consistently disregarded, notably those upon the reform of the House of Lords and the safeguarding of industry. The Conservatives had faced the election without a policy, therefore without a soul. Mr. J. K. Kernel* mentioned the party’s additional handicap, namely, the absence of support from the Press owing to the party leaders having deliberately embittered the newspapers. Sir William Ray deprecated the exhibition of feeling among members of the party. If the Archangel Gabriel were their leader he would be criticised, but he would blow his trumpet more loudly than Mr. Stanley Baldwin bail blown his. Mr. Herbert G. Williams said the only way to run the party was to elect a leader and back or “sack” him. A long debate ensued on a motion by Sir Page Croft that Imperial preference and safeguarding should he placed in the forefront of the party’s programme with the object of educating the electorate on those subjects; also that the party oppose the repeal of the McKenna duties. Mr. Boyce. AT.TV. formerly of Australia, said that if the Dominions became weary of British vacillation and withdrew preferences, unemployment in Britain would be trebled overnight. There was a scene of indignation and excitement when Captain Pierrepont opposed the motion, saying it would be more true to talk of “bamboozling” the electorate instead of educating it. Tlie motion was agreed to with only three dissentients. Mr. Neville Chamberlain was elected president of the conference.