" LIBERALS UNDAUNTED "
SIR,—The letter from Sir Andrew McFadyean in The Spectator of May 31st prompts me to ask again for space. He, a leader of one section of Liberals, illustrates my point. The heads of the two sections keep up the guerrilla, while the rank and file, sick and soured by the contentious- ness of headquarters, long for peace and co-operation. Sir Andrew will have no dealings with Liberals whom his inquisitorial eye judges unsound, or once unsound, or, I dare say, capable of unsoundness. Politics is no sphere for this academic purism. It is best to take people's word for it that they are Liberals ; certainly better than to reduce Liberalism to an . esoteric clique. The rank and file, whom I think Sir Andrew neither represents nor understands, do not regard either Liberal section in the House as adequate to the tradition or to the weight of the Liberal electorate. Some Liberal M.P.s are indistinguishable from Socialists, and others from Conservatives. Sir Andrew cites the case of Mr. Mabane. But that story is easily capped by cases from the other camp. The two sets of leaders are leading Liberalism straight for the last ditch. The rank and file realise it increasingly. They want formal and public reunion, and have taken the measure of obstructiveness in high places. Sir Andrew pooh-poohs the reunion, such as it was, of 1923. It was the Sir Andrews of those days who killed the hope. The Sir Andrews of this seem to have learned very
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