We are NOT Crumbling

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 1, 15 July 1932, Page 1

We are NOT Crumbling

An Inspiring Talk from 3YA

By Miss

Dora

West

O.B.E.

& Mice Dora West. O.B.E.. was a member of the Downing Street

Secretariat when Mr. Lloyd George was Prime Minister, and a member of his private secretarial staff in later years. Miss West was also the original first secretary of the League of Nations Union in London. A well-known political speaker at Home, she stood as Liberal candidate for Rotherhithe, London Docks, in the General Election of 1929.in EngJand. Now travelling in this country, Miss West is studying Empire conditions, and learning something of the overseas Dominions.

WOULD like to explain that I am no highbrow leader of women’s movements-the biggest thing I have ever tried to move was a Cabinet Minister or two, as I found them in Downing Street in those difficult years of reconstruction after the War. And that was a full-time job any day, and gave me a taste for trying to take my share in the world’s work, as and when I see an opportunity. ‘To-night I can only give you a brief glimpse of my chief, Mr. Lloyd George-the superman of Europe and the world through six cong years of world war, and reconstruction of the mangled map of "Europe and our muddled social lives. A vital force in world politics indeed, and do not let anyone be deluded into thinking otherwise, even now. He has a disconcerting habit of confronting critics unexpectedly.

and it is illuminating to see how, even when no longer on the Treasury bench, and with.a depleted party, none the less the speeches in the House of Commons are made directly to him, rather than to the Government benches -the Father of the House of Commons, he is still the spearhead of the House to-day. A man of.dynamic energy and driving force-with. out a doubt he has some hidden secret source of psychic energy within, that is not given to ordinary mortals. I have seen him at election time wear down to exhaustion point men half his age, while he remained fresh as pain and full of vim. When he comes into a room he seems ‘to radiate a vital energy, felt by everyone, friend and foe alike, whu comes: into contact with him. He is a man vividly alive

in every fibre of his being. His lion head of hair shows. it — it shines in the flash and _ the twinkle of his

tLWiliKIO UL shh eye. He affects one like a strong tonic or sea breeze, and he has great personal charm, very hard to resist, as even his keenest political opponents know, so much so that at times they definitely desire to avoid a per sonal contact, lest he should sway them against their will! I have watched with keen interest the effect of Mr. Lloyd G. upon a crowd, and have heard him address many meetings, sometimes to 10,000 people in the open air. Mo" of our political work at Home to-day is done in the open air. The old-time town hall political meeting, with some party patriarch in the chair, cuts less and less ice, and we all, Cabinet Ministers, women candidates and all the rest, do our work out in the open where the crowd can come. Standing on a balcony behind Mr. Lloyd George, I have watched with keen interest the way in which he grips his hearers. He is not the fiery impetuous orator of popular imagination at all, but rather a quiet, forceful, weighty speaker, dead serious, with flashes of wit and humour, gleaming out every now and then. He begins slowly and very quietly-he logically lays the foundations of his argument, and e¢ a4. Lila ¢thomea wit

untolds his theme witt telling deliberation. He gets right into the heart of his subject with a quiet emphasis and weight, arresting close attention. Hé talks in vivid word pictures, directly to the people. He makes his points with striking illustrations and vivid metaphor-he is a master of brilliant metaphor, and has a rapier thrust of retort and repartee. I have seen the sheer vital force of the man grip every imagination in a great (Continued on page 5.)j

We Are Not Grumbling

(Continued from page 1.) ctowd--I have séen him hold spellbound as by some magic charm every mind. and éye present as they listened. I remember one such occasion on a coalfield in the Midlands during «a byelection. As Mr. L.G. stood looking down at the sea of faces upturned to him on the baleony from which he was to speak, he said, "Ha, I see I must take off my coat to this!’ and suited the action to the word, and a closely reasoned speech on the coalmining situation followed. AS I made my way through the dispersing crowd in the market square afterward, I listened with interest to the passing comments ~--all seemed Jeeply impressed, to the point of quiet seriousness, and I heard one young collier say to another, "Seenjs to me we shall have to get back to old-fashioned polities again yet." That great crowd went home to its tea that Saturday evening thinking, and when we won that election by a narrow * margin, I felt I knew whose good work had done the deed. I remember still one phrase. of his that afternoon-"We never get all we want in life all at the same time." {We regret that owing to pressure on ...fipace the remainder of. this. talk has to held over till next week.-Ed.]