Within about twenty-four hours a telephone message came' from Mr.
Lloyd George saying :-
" My colleagues and I mean to stand faithfully by all the pledges which- we gave to the constituencies. We are prepared, at any moment to submit to the judgment of Parliament and,. if necessary, of the. country our efforts loyally to redeem our promises."
Interpret this exchange as we may, we cannot get away from the fact that it is a humiliating transaction. To think that it should be thought necessary to insult a British Prime Minister by reminding him of his promisee ! The signatories go through the form of saying that they are- in no. doubt whatever themselves, and that the blame must .rest on their. tiresome constituents, but in essence the meaning of the message to the Prime Minister is: " So..many pledgee- have been-broken lately in British. politics .that. pledges no longer have their old. value. A pledge- thatis already more than three months old certainly ought to berenewed or. it will not have any value at all."
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