THE LIBERAL SPLIT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7133, 25 June 1901, Page 2

THE LIBERAL SPLIT.

The division in the English Liberal Party created by the war in South Africa is gradually widening. The so-called LittLft England section is becoming every day more pronounced in its sympathies with the Boers, and the members of the party with Imperialistic leanings are moving in the opposite direction. At the present moment a crisis is threatened, and' if it is not averted it may split up the party quite as effectually as did tie 'Home Rule question. To the onlooker at this distance from*' the scsme, thfc action of Si-r H. Campbell^annerman and his friends appears incomprehensible. Wlhen, at the opening oif the war, they denounced Britain's attitude towards the Boers, they were careful to make it understood that they 'believed that war was inevitable, and to disclaim any intention of Tvea-kening the hands of the Goverr.merft at a critical moment in the history of the Empire. The war Opened, it passed through its initial stages, and*- ibun the pendulum began to swing in favour of England. Every earnest humanitarian hoped that with the fall of Pretoria, the end of hostilities was in sight. But it was not. The Boers, with a tenacity wliich compels the admiration, although it must excite the pity of most right-thinking people, 'continued the hopeless struggle, and at the present moment they are still holding out. Their purposeless resistance has cost them thousands of lives, and 'the British Empire much 'blood and millions of money, but it still continues, and unless it is crushed before the close of the present winter, it may last another twelve months. We have implied that their matur:il obstinacy has encouraged the Boers to hold out. Another factor to their opposition has been the misleading storits of European sympathy with which they have been duped by their crafty leaders, and a third is the undisguised sympathy of a certain section of the British Parliament and Press. It is with this party that Sir H. CampbellBannerman seem.? to have definitely allied himself. No 1 doubt the leader of t-he Opposition weighed well the consequences when He took the step of declaring himself a Boer sympathiser, and we wonder how !he reconciled his action, with the possibility of its prolonging the campaign. If the sympathy of tho rank and file of English proJßoers has acted as such a stimulant to thfr burghers, TV J bat effect will the support of a party leader have? It. may encourage them to fight for another year, and then Sir Henry Campbelf.-Bannerman will have the satisfaction- of feeling that he has contributed to the waste of more precious lives and the expenditure of another twenty millions of treasure. It will be a pleasant reflection surely !