There are signs, moreover, that Conservatism is not prepared to
play the reactionary to the extent requisite for a Liberal revival. Two statements in Tuesday's pipers were instructively indicative of that. One was an article in the Daily Mail, in which Mr. Quintin Hogg swept ruthlessly aside various anodyne expectations with which superficial Tory optimists are comforting themselves, and in- sisted that nothing but a radical stocktaking and a new start could give any promise of recovery. The other was a pointed declaration by Col. W. A. Sinclair, the late Conservative candidate for East Edin- burgh, of refusal to stand at the coming by-election because it seemed demonstrated that the real reforming element in the party was being
overridden by a Beaverbrook-driven majority. This sound criti- cism. That Lord Beaverbrook, storming away on public platforms at Paddington and elsewhere, was an electoral disaster to the party is unquestionable, but so is the fact of the influence he exerted— and may, for all I know still exert—over Mr. Churchill. The return of Mr. Brendan Bracken for Bournemouth will be hailed as a score for the Beaverbrook element, though, in fact, Mr. Bracken is inde- pendent-minded enough to stand on his own feet, and make it clear that he does. But Col. Sinclair has put his finger on a vital spot, and his words will serve to concentrate salutary attention on it.
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