A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK T HE question of memorials to Prime
Ministers is perplexing. What form should they take, and how long should elapse before they are contemplated ? In the past we have moved cautiously in such matters. There are statues of several past Prime Ministers, including Lord Beaconsfield, in Parliament Square, and one of Mr. Gladstone in the Strand. No later Prime Minister, so far as I can remember, has been thus publicly honoured. The question was revived by steps Frances, Countess Lloyd George (who as Miss Frances Stevenson was Mr. Lloyd George's secretary for many years) took some months ago in the matter of a memorial to the great Prime Minister of the second half of the First World War. A rather difficult situation was created, for none of Mr. Lloyd George's children, the present Earl, Major Gwilym Lloyd George, Lady Carey Evans and Lady Megan Lloyd George, were consulted and various political leaders whose support was sought did not identify themselves with the project The proposal, however, has not been dropped, and an agri- cultural college at Llanystumdwy is now being aimed at. Whatever the merits of that, it is plain that it cannot rank as a national tribute to Mr. Lloyd George, which must take a different form and command the support of all classes of the community, particularly politicians. If I am right in thinking that there has been no national memorial to any Prime Minister who has died within the last fifty years (the statue of Mr. Lloyd George at Carnarvon is hardly national in character), there would be something to be said for appointing a Select Committee of the House of Commons to consider whether any general principle could be adopted as a rough guide. So far as statues at Westminster itself are concerned, it is a firm rule that no such memorial can be considered till at least ten years after death.
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