An uninstructed stranger, sitting in the gallery on Monday, could
scarcely have realised the low estate to which the Liberal Party has fallen. As has happened more than once recently, the minor Opposition played a part in the debate out of all proportion to its numerical strength. Sir Archibald Sinclair has never been in better form. His style is well suited to a great occasion, and he was particularly effective in dealing with a series of somewhat childish interruptions from Mr. Boyce. Mr. Lloyd George demonstrated once again that his natural force is in no way abated. A few of the Parliamen- tary sketch-writers seem to have formed the habit of Con- stantly sneering at his interventions and referring to his "melodramatic accompaniments." Why it should be a reproach to a member of a debating assembly that he is a master of the technique of persuasion is difficult to see. But at all events his oratorical devices have not lost their effect. When he wishes to do so, Mr. Lloyd George can still command the strained attention of his audience in a way that not even Mr. Churchill can quite equal. From the Government back benches Sir Malcolm Barclay-Harvey denied that we were condoning Italian aggression in Abyssinia. Did anyone, he asked, suppose that when the Mayfair boys were let out of prison the country would be condoning their crime ? Mr. Silverman retorted by inquiring whether the honourable Baronet suggested that when the four men concerned came out of prison they should be left in undisturbed enjoyment of the proceeds of the robbery.
* * *
Previous page
