26 JANUARY 1924, Page 2

On Monday Mr. Austen Chamberlain, in a telling speech, described

sadly what might have been if there had been a fusion of the anti-Socialist parties. Co-operation did not mean " wangling." Mr. Asquith had been so " frightened of getting a touch of Tory pitch that he had plunged headlong into a vat of Turkey red." Although Mr. Asquith had declared that he would never give Labour a blank cheque, he had given letters of marque to the good ship ' Clyde to cruise on the waters of commerce -and industry. In his opinion Mr. Asquith had sung the swan song of the Liberal Party. In future the country would vote either Unionist or Socialist. Mr. Austen Chamberlain's speech was incidentally a requiem on the Coalition which, in the form in which we knew it can never be revived.