We should not, of course, condemn investments in home railways
as such. But surely if, as Mr. Maxse implies, these investments were freely bought just when the Government had undertaken to settle a strike which affected the railways more closely than any other industry in the country, a very wrong, indeed an absolutely inexcusable, course was taken. The epi- sode means that the Liberal Party, as a party, was intimately concerned financially in the earliest possible settlement of the strike. Yet the leaders of that party were themselves respon- sible for settling the strike. A settlement on any terms, how- ever disastrous they might have been to either side, would have been financially profitable to the Liberal Party. That is what Mr. Maxse's charge comes to. Possibly Ministers knew nothing about the investment of the party funds. But what is to be said of the chief Liberal Whip who—if Mr. Maxse is not mistaken—plaoed his leaders in a position which was bound to deprive them of the appearance of impartiality ? We hope that the Liberal Party, for its own credit, not to say the common decencies of Parliamentary life, will dispose of this charge. It is a very damaging one, and the party ought not to let it pass.
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