ORDERS ARE ORDERS
SIR,—Your recent article 'Orders are Orders' seems to me to have been significantly underlined by the South-West Norfolk result. When the Conservative Party was being built up after the heavy defeat in 1945, it was apparently decided to make the party as broad-based as possible, and people holding Liberal views were accepted and respected. Those were, of course, the days of the partnership between two men of exceptional sagacity—Sir Winston Churchill and Lord Woolton.
The present party leaders appear to see matters
in a different light. Apparently confident of their ability to win the next election on a purely Tory platform, they are making no obvious effort to retain any Liberal elements within their ranks. It would seem, therefore, no accident that all the time that Sir Frank Medlicott and Mr. Nigel Nicolson have been struggling for their political lives, the party leaders have remained ominously silent.
The issue has not yet been decided, however: local political associations may be able to issue orders to their parliamentary candidates and committed supporters, but fortunately in this country they cannot issue orders to the electorate. South-West Norfolk is the adjoining division to Central Norfolk, and the electors of South-West Norfolk have seen the treat- ment meted out to an MP of independent, Liberal views.
The Conservative Party would do well to recall how many seats have been won in recent years through the adherence of Liberal voters. It is a fair assumption that many of such people were amongst those in South-West Norfolk who resisted all the efforts of the Conservative Party to get them to the poll.
The policy of militant Toryism has no doubt had
a stimulating effect on many Conservative Associa- tions, but if it is to be at the cost of driving away the Liberal-minded voters who have been providing the margin for victory in recent years there may well be a depressing inquest at the Conservative Central Office after the votes have been counted in the next general election.—Yours faithfully, P. MORLEY GRIFFI11-19
Meadowlands, Nut hurst, near Horsham, Sussex
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