Mr. Boner Law, addressing a Unionist Conference at Queen's Hall
on Wednesday, gave a very frank account of his reasons for joining the Coalition Ministry. Mr. Bonar Law's habit of thinking aloud was never more happily illustrated. Having decided when war came that the first duty of the Opposition was not to oppose, he found, after ten months, that the shortage of munitions and the resignation of Lord Fisher would compel him either to oppose the .Asquith Ministry or to form a Coalition with them. Had he opposed them and beaten them, as is probable, there must have been a Dissolution of Parliament and a General Election, with a disastrous revival of party controversy. Mr. Bonar Law and his colleagues preferred to join the Coalition, and to subordinate the interests of their party to the welfare of the nation. He declared that a Coalition alone could have secured National Service and the removal of Trade Union restrictions with the minimum of friction. He assured his hearers that the Cabinet was not troubled by party differences. The War Council had a free hand and, like a commercial board of directors, trusted its manager, Sir William Robertson.
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