EARLIER LLOYD GEORGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 May 1939, Page 11

EARLIER LLOYD GEORGE

INFLUENCE IN POLITICS. Many years ago, after a conversation with Mr‘Lloyd George, I recorded that while I was speaking to him in English he seemed to be thinking to himself in Welsh, and that I had great difficulty in finding the point of contact between what he was thinking and what I was trying to say, writes Mr J. A. Spender of the prewar Lloyd George. This, I still think, was a large part of the truth and the explanation of much of the trouble that followed. His ideas of politics were impressionist, opportunist, dramatic, even histrionic, whereas EngI lish Liberals thought in terms of creed and principle. To them it seemed almost impossible at times to make sense of his variegated and seemingly inconsistent qualities, his impetuosity and his coolness, his violent platform manners, his skill and politeness in private, his merciless attacks on opponents. his confidence in his capacity to dissolve their opposition by persuasive talk, if he could sit round a table with them out of reach of reporters. These habits of mind led him at times into great difficulties, but there is no doubt about the services that he rendered to the Liberal Party between 1906 and 1914. He and Asquith seemed to be exactly the kind of combination the times needed—Asquith keeping the compass true. Lloyd George imparting ‘’drive” and bringing new ideas.