19 FEBRUARY 1927, Page 3

Answers of the obvious and conventional sort have already been

issued from Liberal headquarters to Lord Rosebery's challenge. It is said that Mr. Lloyd George's Fund was raised just as Unionist Funds have always been raised, and as the Liberal Fund of 1895 was raised, when Lord Rosebery himself was the Liberal leader. All this is in sonic sense true, but it is a very poor and evasive answer. There arc degrees in these matters. An honour conferred on a man who has " rendered political services " by helping his Party with money is different —though even so we do not say it is defensible if there was no merit but wealth—from an honour that was simply hawked round with unblushing cynicism. This is the Offence that Lord Rosebery suggests. * * *