BRITISH POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 November 1922, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS.

ONE MAN CONTROL. FAILURE OF EX-PREMIER. BONAR LAW’S IDEAS., By Telegram.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, Nov. 2. Mr. Bonar Law addressed a meeting of women voters in London. He said women had a tendency to be conservative, not in the' political sense, but cautious, and that was what they wanted in the Government, of Britain. Mr. Lloyd George spoke of his (Mr. Bonar Law’s) simplicity, but he was good enough to couple honesty with it. Mr. Bonar Law said he wondered if Mr. Lloyd George knew where he was. "So far he has not issued an election address,” he added "It is unfair to suggest that he is waiting on Providence before he puts his views in print.” There was absolutely no foundation for the statement that the Unionist Party had been unfair to Mr. Lloyd George. If the war had ended under the Asquith regime instead of that of Mr. Lloyd George, he believed the Coalition would have been between Mr. Asquith and the Unionists. Lord Balfour had deplored the death of the Coalition, asserting it had been wantonly destroyed. The fundamental reason for the change lay in the fact that , people everywhere felt that under Mr. Lloyd George they did not know where they were to-day, and could not tell where they would be to-morrow.

The ex-Prime Minister was a man of tremendous energy and surprising vitality, and when any big question emerged he undertook to deal with it. That was not his (Mr. Bonar Law’s) idea of fulfilling an important function. His idea was that the man at the head of a big business should allow work to be done by others under his general supervision. That was the change they intended to make. It was a great mistake to suppose that the new and younger men in the Government would not do the work equally efficiently. He did not want to dismiss the old-stagers right away. He did not think it quite followed that because Mr. Lloyd George was so good in war that he would be equally good in peace. He did that better than anyone else could have done, but when the charge was over and some had fallen and some were in hospital, the drummer would be rather out of place in the hospital unless the drumsticks were taken from him. There were times when it was good to sit still and go slow. He hoped America would gradually take an interest in the League of Nations in some form or other, and that she would gradually feel it her duty to help dissipate the post-war chaos of the world. Our relations with France would be the keynote of our policy. We must maintain our naval position and retain forces adequate to the security of the Empire.