BRITISH LIBERALS HAVE STORMY TIME.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17890, 5 July 1926, Page 13

BRITISH LIBERALS HAVE STORMY TIME.

SEVERAL SPEAKERS GET SHARPLY HECKLED. LONDON, June 20. There was a "boisterous scene at the Liberal Federation meeting in London, when Mr J. A. Spender, the newly-elected president, announced that the Wolverhampton Liberal Association had withdrawn its resolution recommending the adoption of "jOO Parliamentary candidates at the earliest possible moment. A candidate protested that the withdrawal was tantamount to the Liberal Party throwing up the sponge. Mr Geoffrey Mander, delegate from Wolverhampton, who declined to move the resolution, declared that they could not at present ask even fifty candidates to throw their whole energy into Liberalism, because the atmosphere of the Federation was one of elaborate pretence. Interrupters shouted : Quite right! Rub it in ! Hypocrisy ! Mr blander continued: Certain leaders have declined to work with others here on the platform. There is no hope of unity. A delegate shouted: Sack the lot! Sir Charles Hobhouse, endeavouring to calm the storm, was met with cries of “Face the truth ! ” The meeting carried an identical resolution amid a storm of cheering. .