21 APRIL 1917, Page 3

The suggestion that the War Office was trying to trample

upon the party of progress we can only call either malign or idiotic. It was quite on a par with Mr. Massingham's own brilliant discovery when he and other members of the National Liberal Club had their clubhouse commandeered. He was disturbed in his accustomed luncheon-place, and implied that the dreadful act was committed with the deliberate purpose of destroying Liberal- ism. That frail flower, we were in effect told, might flourish on the Embankment, but translated to the Westminster Palace Hotel it would fade and lose all its sweetness and light.