The Press. Thursday, March 31, 1921. Sail Ho!

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17107, 31 March 1921, Page 6

The Press. Thursday, March 31, 1921. Sail Ho!

The public is evidently going to derive some entertainment from the projection of Mr Stathaffl'9 <f N&tiotlfti Progressive "fifld Moderate Labour Party." _ Tads# Wfc have the comments dl Mr SidSy, M.P., oil the iiew movement. To Mr Sicily, Aft, W<J may. assume, to othen members of the old liberal Patty * the new organisation is something to be dreatted as well as something to be welcomed. It is obvious that it may take tha placeof the lingering shade Of filb Libetal wilted faithful suppbftfers rtitist be weary of devotion to ifhti is fcfewty & going eohfeSrn nO loffger. fiut, it' is hpped that «Mr Statham may be the provider of k sttUft fot tSi6 old Liberals. Ae Mr Sidey states the petition, the old Party is in the case of a bankrupt concern waiting for some oufsfdef t3 fcOfhfe alohg With, finahciai assistance. liberalism, he sayd, ii Still iv litiftg political force, fend only aWaito the opportunity to demon* stfiite its vigour! , There, is nd false pride abotit these old Liberals'. They hatre neither the men nor the policy necessary to life; 'they have & leader, Mr tVilford, ahd, we suppose, some sort of ofg&frisfttiea. ftiey git decofotoly Opposite Mr Massey in the House, and they go through some 6f the iflotions of a living organism, such as moving nocoilfldence mbtions, and walking into tOH» division lobby. But by themselves they cannot do anything. They have been hopmg for something' to turn up, as We suggested long ago, Lung unable to turfl anything tip oil their own rfc-

(jottnt. Hence their hope thai Mr 9 Statham'if n&fr party -will etart Hheir old machine goifig agaifl. Ho, #o assume, is to pfovide soine idekSi and they •>ill take hitn into partnership. If, as is possible, Mr Statham and his fellow National - Progressive - and-Moderate-Labour colleagues ask what the old Pfifty wilt briflg itito the partnership, they will be told, so one must infer from Mt Sidej'd langiirtge, that the Liberal Party's contribution will be the goodWill of aft old-established firm. How Sir Stathatfl will view this proposition is not our business, but he is probably its well aware as he Was until 1819 that the goodwill of the derelict Liberal Party is worth exactly nothing at all. What the end of the negotiations may bo we canfiet prophesy, but it seems to be inevitable that the two parties of discontent Will cOtno together. And when they proceed to count their osseta in the dhape of support in the electorate they will find that they amount to nothing useful. Parties are born, not made, and in this country the general division is between the extreme Labour voters on the one aide,- and on the other side tie moderate majority which realties that the Oflly effective defence against revolutionary Labour is the ftefortn Party. Iri the flteantitae Mr Statham, if he has done nothing else, has placed ihd admirers of quaint situations under an obligation to him by evoking Mr Sidey's statement. On the

water-logged raft of the old Party in the mid-ocean of politics Mr Sidey has lighted a strangely-rigged craft, and rises to cry "Sail hot"