A letter on Unionist leadership and the Halsbury Club move-
ment appears in Tuesday's Times over the signature " One Who Served under Disraeli." He maintains that, while nominally formed to promote highly commendable principles, the Hals- bury Club, which has been formed behind the backs of and without consultation with Mr. Balfour and Lord Lansdowne, is calculated to develop a division within the party on a question of tactics into a permanent breach. In conclusion the writer expresses his belief that " if Mr. Balfour would call a meeting of the party at once and lead the country in the same spirit as he leads a forlorn hope in Parliament, the chaff would be sifted from the wheat, and the small band of party wreckers would be clearly divided from the great majority,who want to strengthen the party attack, not to weaken the party personnel." Pending such a meeting he appeals to his brother Unionists to avoid committing themselves to a step which on existing lines is fatal to party discipline, subversive of confidence, and certain to split the party at a moment when divided counsels will bring inexorable penalties on the country. On the follow- ing day Lord Halsbury wrote to the Times "to contradict in the most specific manner that the Halsbury Club, in so far as I know, or any single member of it, is actuated by any disloyalty towards the leader of the party. We desire," he continues, " to co-operate with all Unionists, whatever view they may have taken of the events of last August, in fighting for the Unionist cause to the utmost of our power."
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