MR. LLOYD-GEORGE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 758, 5 March 1910, Page 14

MR. LLOYD-GEORGE.

Sir,—Your note on Mr. Lloyd-George in yesterday's issue constrains me to write. You quote the "Spectator'' on the Chancellor's speech as th© rebuke of an ally, hut you do not add that no paper lias more Utterly opposed the Budget than the "Spectator." Then your conclusion may well be questioned. .'lt may fairly be urged, I think, that the ridicule and abuse'do not refer to Germany at all. The abuse is of the system— and the ridicule is of those who, rightly or wrongly, are. deemed to divorce Protection from its effects. Looking at the uniform attitude of much of our local press toward Mr. Lloyd-George, the question obtrudes: Is it fair? On every conceivable occasion lie is attacked. I 'do not complain of that: it is rather a tribute to his exalted position, and reminder of the fact that, to the land and liquor interests, he is the most hated man in England to-day. But the local criticisms are based on the baldest cablegrams, whose' impartiality I shall not be the first to challenge. I have known Lloyd-George ever since he entered political life; I have read verbatim copies of maiiy -of his recent speeches; and I know how inaccurate and unfair are most of the attacks of the local pross. It may be urged that the pajrers have no option but to form their judgments by the extracts supplied by the Press' Association, but is it not almost common knowledge that the Press Association' is far from impartial? No less, an authority than . the present chairman of' the ' New Zealand Press Association called attention to this fact when he-returned from the' Imperial Press Conference in London, and it has been very manifest in recent'.months. Take Mr. Lloyd-George, e.g., his most trivial utterances aro cabled , out, with special attention to any strong statement. But they tell. us little or nothing of. the other side—of the numerous scandals, withdrawn, only under . pressure of the "stable" language of many of the peers in their campaign—of Lord Milner's "Damn the consequences," of Lord Curzon's advocacy of Eastern conditions fa ■ the English;,pe'ople>„of» ; the. -Duke of ..But., land's description of the Cabinet as a "pirate crew of tatterdemalions," and his pious aspiration to "put . the gag in every Labour - member's. mouth- -and Y keep it there," of. Lor.d .Malinesbury's declaration that all-Liberal; Ministers are liars, or of the Headmaster of Eton's choice invective: "He would rather put a number of "blind kittens in the place :of . .Govern-' ment than be governed by Mr.. Lloyd- : George- and Mr. W. Churchill." No! We are told none of these things! Then, take the papers quoted in the cables; they are mostly Opposition, at the least,Conservative to Liberal as 3 is to 2; Further, we have more from "The Times" than all the rest combined, as if "The Times" l were not now as much a party organ as any of the others, and, some days, both , the : "Daily Mail" and "The Times" are-, quoted, as if these papers we're not the weapon or tool of the same proprietor—Lord ■ Northcliffe! I have said enough, I think, to show that the reading public should be chary in passing judgment upon Mr. LloydGeorge, or any public man, with nothing before them but -material supplied by tho Press Association.—l am, etc.,~T. A. WILLIAMS. Petone, March 2. [Mr. Williams's .complaint as to th« nature of the cablegrams relating to British, politics,' .sometimes supplied through the Press Association, is well founded. At the-same-time, .if he has followed Mr. Lloyd-George's speeches as reported verbatim in the English press he must at - times have been. shocked at the lapses into..intemperate language and occasional vulgarities' of one-whom all admit to. be an exceedingly able man.]