A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK 66 HE defection of Lords Reading
and Bennett of Rodd from the Liberal Party has no deep significance."—Manchester Guardian, April 17th, p. 6, col. 3. • " Lord Reading's break with the Liberals less than two months after the General Election is a serious matter for the party."— Manchester Guardian, April 17th, p. 6, col. 4.
As for me, my Lords, I am on the side of — " col. 4. Lord Reading has held a foremost place among the Liberal peers. Lord Samuel, vigorous as he is, will be eighty in November, and not so long ago the decision that Lord Reading would relieve him of the leadership was definitely taken. Why other counsels ultimately prevailed and Lord Samuel still carries on is a story that I must reluctantly refrain from telling. There is, in fact, no Liberal in the House of Lords whose severance from the party would be more significant, for as the son of that unswerving Liberal Sir Rufus Isaacs Lord Reading has Liberalism in his bones. I use the present tense, for it cannot be supposed that in moving along the ben :h he has left Liberalism behind him. The decision which he and Lord Rennell, also one of the Liberals' principal spokesmen in the Upper House, have reached, that the best hope of getting Liberal principles applied is through the Conservative Party, is one which dictated a good many Liberals' votes at the General Election. There is a solid core in the Liberal Party on which Lord Reading's defection will make no impression ; but the party is not all core.
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