On Thursday, speaking at a banquet of South Essex Liberals,
Mr: Asquith took up the challenge thrown down by Sir William Harcourt, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and Mr. Morley, and in a speech of great force and courage, and one which does high honour, not only to him personally, but to our public life as a whole, repudiated in the strongest terms the notion that the Liberals as a party stood committed to Pro-Boer sentiments. He told the meeting, and, as all who know anything of the inner history of the Liberal party know, he told it truly, that he had striven for harmony with his colleagues. But a challenge had been deliberately and defiantly thrown down, and he was forced to take it up. He denied emphatically that any one had the right to treat as schismatics Liberals who held the views about the war which he and his friends held, and he declared that they could not have reunion except on terms of equal tolerance. Mr. Asquith then went on to express his views on the war, which were eminently moderate and reasonable. He thinks there was political mismanage- ment before the war and military mismanagement during it, but that now it is impossible to find any solution but annexa- tion, and he protests against the unjust attacks on Lord Milner.
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