6 FEBRUARY 1948, Page 17
SECOND CHAMBER REFORM
SIR,—You say the Conservatives' case for the reform of the Lords is weakened by the fact that they took no steps to do so while in power. Several attempts were made in 1932/33 to induce Mr. Baldwin to take it up, but he would not. Remember, the Government was a coalition, and the other parties were not interested, and there seems no doubt now that to have precipitated a political crisis in the serious economic crisis of the time would have been a mistake. Then reform was to be a matter of high policy ; now it is to be a matter of expediency.—Yours