Laodicean Tories
Conservatives in the House of Commons have done their party a Singularly ill turn by their decision (which may conceivably be changed between the writing of, these lines and the division) to abstain from voting on the American Loan motion. Here is an issue of transcendent national importance admitting of only plain Yes or No. The loan must be accepted or rejected ; there is no middle course. But the Opposition, which offers itself as an alternative Government, proclaims itself incapable of framing either mono- syllable. Sir John Anderson declared there was no alternative to the loan. So did Mr. Oliver Lyttelton. It is known that other Front Bench Conservatives take the same view. Yet all must abstain from voting lest Conservatives should be found filing into different lobbies. The fissure in the party is unconcealed, but it must not be formally registered. A free vote would have won the party far more respect than this unheroic abdication of responsibilities.
