21 JANUARY 1938, Page 3

The Liberal Nationals have made the mistake of being too

accommodating. Occasionally individuals have taken an independent line. On no single occasion, however, has their rank and file ever made a stand against anything the Govern- ment proposed. They were said to be indignant at the time of the Hoare-Laval plan. But some months later when sanctions were withdrawn not one of them followed Mr. Harold Macmillan and Mr. Vyvyan Adams into the Opposi- tion lobby. They are indeed the least troublesome section of the ministerial forces. The fact is that they have ceased to occupy a position to the left of the Conservative Party, and some at any rate have gravitated to the extreme Right.