25 OCTOBER 1957, Page 16

SIR,—The letter in your issue of October 11 from a

rabid Young Liberal demands a reply from a Young Conservative. This I will endeavour to give.

Individual Liberals have, no doubt, decided views on the principles and aims of the Liberal Party. The pity is that they are apparently unable to coalesce their views into a united whole, either within Par- liament or outside it.

I would like to suggest that we in the Conserva- tive Party agree to a very large extent on the same points. We want equal opportunity for all, reward according to merit, full scope for personal initiative, and to retain an orderly society with the minimum of government controls. To have full employment. To resist Communism in every possible way. To

develop our Corn m-anwealth into a true Common- wealth of Nations. These among others. Our vista may, indeed, be obscured by present problems, but is none the less clearly discernible. In a nutshell, we do, I believe, endeavour to govern giving equal re- gard to every section; this, inevitably, results in compromise, with all its well-known pitfalls.

Let us take one example, agriculture. Needless to say, the Liberal .Party is totally divided on this topic. We have, on the one hand, the Free Traders and the Cheap Food Leaguers; on the other, Mr. Jeremy Thorpe and company, mostly prospective candidates in agricultural constituencies, have to be a little more realistic. Cuts in food subsidies mean rises in food prices, however distasteful this may be.

No one can seriously pretend that all is right in our own house; in fact, your excellent leader in the same issue does, I feel, indicate the correct mortar for the Chancellor. Totally different to all the non- sense which has appeared, and continues to appear, re Suez.

To conclude, the eight, repeat eight, Liberal candi- dates who will stand at the next election with any chance of being elected to the House should be judged on their merits as individual Independent candidates, which is what they really am—Yours