Great Scot
Sir: Mr Grimond (9 August), in dealing with Lord Haldane's life, seems to use his review as another vehicle to whip the Tories rather than give his readers a real apprecia- tion. He thinks that only Haldane and other Liberals were the object of the extreme criticism of Tories and the papers. Although Haldane was criticised very severely, this was not the fault of Tories, who were more often the victims of vindicti•ie attacks by the Northcliffe or Beaverbrook press.
Baldwin was perhaps the chief, but has not Mr Grimond heard of the Tory minister Griffith-Boscawen, who was hounded from public life and failed to secure re-election when appointed a Cabinet Minister? Nor were politicians the only objects of those papers' spleen. The Daily Mail ruined one patent medicine firm which made a product certainly no worse than the plethora of medicines advertised upon television. That firm did not advertise in that paper. And Tories as a whole were not against Haldane except for one startling instance. This was his remark, in the midst of the tension before 1914, that Germany was his spiritual home.
The papers surely had more cause for attacking Haldane for that (although I do not excuse any vindictiveness) than ever they had against Baldwin, or Griffith-Bos- cawen or the patent medicine firm.
And I would point out that Tories were not vindictive. Some, as myself, were ad- mirers of him, although I own that mine was based upon his qualities as a lawyer and as an administrator. I have to this day a framed sketch of Haklane hanging in my house. I doubt if Mr Grimond has. But his failure as a politician must have been damaging to the Liberal government of those days, and does not bear out Mr Gri- mond's claim that it was the best govern- ment we have had. And there were three governments between 1904 and 1912, includ- ing that of Mr Balfour, who can hardly be claimed as an outstanding Liberal politician.
W. H. F. Barklam Uplands, 14 Hollybush Road, Penylan, Cardiff
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