A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
FOR Liberals there is a certain melancholy fitness in the fact that the last election result to be declared, apart from the Scottish Universities, involved the loss of what was regarded as a perfectly safe Liberal seat.. The Orkneys and Shetlands have returned Sir Robert Hamilton since 1922, and he will be greatly missed at Westminster, like many of his former colleagues, particularly, of coarse, Sir Herbert Samuel. The future of the Liberal Party defies prediction. Its predicament toda.y is a pitiful spectacle for those who can remember the flood-tide of 1906. Liberalism inevitably goes into eclipse during a war. The party, moreover, was split into Coalition Liberals and Asquithians in 1918, and again into National Liberals and Independents in 1931. Its doctrines, more- over, have been so largely assimilated by Conservatives of the Baldwin school that its raison d'être as a separate party is not what it was. What distinction there is between National Liberals and Conservatives it is hard to divine, but the presence of Sir John Simon and Mr. Runciman in the Cabinet has undoubtedly secured the Government many Liberal votes. In a straight fight with Labour and Conservatives a revived Liberalism may still have a part to play. But is a straight light in prospect ? The Liberal leaders would find it easier to frame a policy for the future if they could foresee what party alignments in 1939 or 1940 would be.
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