29 SEPTEMBER 1944, Page 13

COALITION OR PARTY ?

SIR,—A difficulty felt by some in maintaining their support of the Coalition Government is that it has the effect of perpetuating the repre- sentation of the various parties on the basis of the results of the last General Election, although these were grotesquely out of proportion to the numerical strength of the parties L... revealed by the totals of the votes cast. The unfairness of this as a continuing basis of Coalition seems perceptible only to those who suffer by it. It must also be remembered that Mr. Churchill is not the head of the Coalition Government because of his being leader of the Conservative Party, but that he was chosen leader of the Party because, or at any rate after, he had become head of the Coalition Government. At the time of the last General Election a declared follower of Mr. Churchill's policy with regard to Germany would have had a slender chance of being adopted by a Local Association. But for the outbreak of war Mr. Churchill might never have again