We' learn from Lord Oxford's letter that on Monday, May
3rd, the Liberal " Shadow " Cabinet discussed the proper attitude of „tile Liberal Party towards the general strike, and that. tff those present were critical of some of the,steps iilniatithe Government had taken during the negotiations befiore the strike, but- that they were united in a determination to resist " the anti-social campaign of the Trades Union Council." Lord Oxford afterwards made a speech in the House of Lords in which he took the same line, and added " two or three practical suggestions towards the attainment of peace." On May 10th he summoned another meeting of the Liberal " Shadow " Cabinet, but Mr. Lloyd George refused to attend. Lord Oxford then adds, " the reasons for your absence as set out in a letter dated the same morning seem to me wholly inadequate." Mr. Lloyd George's reasons 'were that he was entirely in accord with the proposals of the Arch- bishop of Canterbury for ending the strike, and that he dissented from the declarations which had been made in the Government Press by Lord Oxford and Lord Grey of Fallodon. He complained that he had not been consulted before those declarations were published. He could not agree that Liberal leaders ought to con- centrate their criticism on the Trades Union Congress.
