STILL A FORCE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12623, 7 December 1926, Page 7

STILL A FORCE

BRITISH LIBERAL PARTY BUT CARRIES UTILE WEIGHT IN COMMONS LABOUR MEMBER SPEAKS “The British Liberal Party is still a force—any party which polls four million votes at an election must be recognised as a force. But in the House of Commons it does not carry much weight.” That is the opinion of Mr James Stewart, Labour member of Parliament for the St. Rollox Division of Glasgow, and Under-Secretary of Health for Scotland, when the British Labour Party was in office, who arrived in New Zealand by the Tahiti yesterday. “The Liberal Party is growing weaker and weaker,” said Mr Stewart. “Only a few days ago it was announced that Sir Waller Runciman, father of the Hon. Walter Runcitnan, had resigned his chairmanship of the Liberal Party for his district. .The Hon. Runciman, himself, will not accept Lloyd George as his leader, and the Liberals won’t vote with one another. Sometimes you will find them

voting with the Labour Party and sometimes- with the Conservatives. DISTRICT OF LLOYD “Then big men in the party. Commander E. Hilton Young, and that great Liberal, Sir Alfred Mond, have crossed the floor of the House to the Conservatives, while others, like Commander Kenworthy, have gone over to the other side. There is a general feeling of distrust of Lloyd George, whom all know to he an opportunist. They still possess some men who can make good speeches— Lloyd George, himself, can be relied upon to make a good speech every time he takes the floor, for he has personality and power, but there is a general uncertainty as to whether he will stand to-morrow where he stood to-day. ‘ ‘Things .are not wliat they were two Parliaments ago when the Liberals, still the official Opposition, were very strong in speakers and had an influence out of all proportion to their strength. Then they possessed such men as Runciman, Mond, Hilton Young, and Wedgwood Benn, one of the best debaters I have ever met. To-day Liberalism is discredited. It may be seen in the by-elections of the country, for the Labour Party is gaining the votes and not the Liberals. At the last general election the Labour Party went back 152 strong, and to-day it is 156 strong. And it has not lost one by-election. “The stronghold of the Conservative Party is still the country districts. It took us many years to win the cities. It will take ns many more, though not, 1 hope, as long to gain enough of the country _ districts to go back as a Government in power as well as in office. WITHIN THE PARTY

“The Labour Party is not a class party as you ( have been told recently. The party contains other things besides trade unionists. 1, myself, am not a trade unionist, I entered politics through the Independent Labour Party. Then we have men like Buxton, at one time Minister for Agriculture, Trevelyan, one of Sir George Trevelyan, who was a member of the Liberal Cabinet of 1914, and left it because of the war, and Philip Snowden, who represents the Civil Servant class. We have hankers, successful employers of labour, professors and ministers of religion, besides representatives of the landowning classes and of the unskilled labourer. “It is generally believed in England that Lloyd George forced Asquith to knife the Labour Government in the motion of no confidence in the Campbell case. Lloyd George believed that he had a chance to oome back stronger than ever, but he miscalculated as you saw. The Liberals may go hack stronger next election, I don’t say they won’t. But their day is over.”