" LIBERALS UNDAUNTED "
SIR,-Will you allow me space for a few words on the Liberal Party and what I think to be its chief need—reunion? There are plenty of the rank and file who think the same. Against them are the two sets of leaders, and two of organisations. It is doubtful, or more than doubtful, if the public will believe in Liberal reunion until the two sections rejoin in the most open, formal and ostentatious way. There is still time, probably, before the next election for the marriage to be arranged and established. There was a sort of remarriage on the eve of the 1923 election. Mr. Asquith and Mr. Lloyd George issued a joint manifesto. But it broke down—with results that still continue. Sir William Beveridge tells the nation that the Liberals are a party of the Left, and so they are, though at the moment the plea is not helpful. The obvious rejoinder is that the Liberals should join what looks to be the party of the Left.
Lady Violet Bonham-Carter anticipates division in the Labour Party, to the advantage of the Liberals. This sort of prophecy puts Labour on its guard—if the spectacle and the results of Liberal division have not already done that sufficiently. Lord Samuel condemns the Con- servative party ott its past. What would serve the country better would be that the Liberals should turn their backs on their own past of fratricidal strife. Reunion is no guarantee of success at the next election. But the continuance of division is not unlikely to bring defeat and discredit. There is a ritual of reconciliation, which in this case means a merger at the top of leaders and organisations, so that the Liberal rank and file can recover confidence, and the nation at large believe in it.—I am, &c.,
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