The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-27

remains MT" Asquith to friend and Op- ponent alike and even his foes admit now that no other prime minister Is pos sible while the war lasts.
 MT. Asquith has now been prime min ister for longer period, without break, than any other man since the Earl of Liverpool, who was the first minister for IA years, from. 1872 to 1927. He took office on the death of Campbell Zimmerman in April 1908, and, therefore, has held the helm of the British ship of state for nearly eight years. Gladstone's longest continuous term of office was five years and 70 days and Beaconfield and Sails bury each remained in power for just over six years. The longest term of of- flee as premier on record wa4 that of Walpole, who held the post for nearly 2 years, from 1721 and William Pitt also had long reign with just over r years.
 SOMETHING OF SITUATION
 To understand the real significance of the long term of MT. Asquith one must know something about the English po- litical system. The prime minister of England is not elected like the Presi- dent of the United States for a fixed term of office. As a matter of fact he Is not elected at all, except as an ordi- nary member of Parliament. He is ap- pointed by the King, if the term 'ap- pointed" can be used of an office which has no legal existence. In the theory of the British constitution, which is not written and is simply a collection of cus- tom, he is simply the first minister" and the King may choose any one whom he pleases for that honor. It carries no salary and the prime minister always occupies some other salaried post, usual ly that of first lord of the treasury, which carries a salary of $25,000 a year. In practice the King always sends for the recognized leader of the majority party in the House of Commons, and if that party ceases for any reason to hold the majority, by custom also, the prime minister automatically resigns and the King sends for the leader of the new ma jority. Thus a defeat of the prime min ister's party in the House of Commons on any important issue always means his resignation. It will be seen then that Asquithls long tenure of the principal office in British politics means that he has retained the confidence of the House and of his party for all that tine and that in the face of the most determined efforts of a powerful clique to drive him from power That he has retained it during the recent months of the war is due as much to the support of his former opponents, the unionists, as to that of his own party for the responsible unionists have Loyalty supported his coali- tion government against the two rumps the old-fashioned die hard tories of their own party, and the extreme radicals of the liberal party of which Asquith is the leader
 These two groups have been clevely manipulated by a few ambitious men who wanted to see Lloyd George pre- mier, and expected to benefit themselves by the encouragement. They have been helped by the most powerful newspaper combination in England, that controlled by Lord Northcliffe, including the Lon don Times the Daily Mail and a string of provincial papers, all of which backed Lloyd-George; but Asquith has triumphed over even this powerful combination and made his position impregnable.
 Attack after attack has been made on him, First there was the shell scan- dal, for which it was attempted to lay the blame on his shoulders and on those of Lord Kitchener Lloyd-George took a leading part in the exposure of this alleged shortage and MT. Asquith prompt ly countered by creating the new post of minister of munitions and appointing Lloyd-George to it, thus putting the re- sponsibility of clearing it up on him. As matter of fact the shortage had been discovered long before Lloyd George be- gan to talk, and steps had already been taken to remedy it. This attack having AdllCO tllc dSlliIlOu lOf COnScrlpLlOn was begun. MT Asquith was known to be opposed to compulsory service on princi- pie, and it was hoped to dethrone him on this issue. MT. Asquith, however is above all things a practical politician. and as soon as he saw that a measure of compulsion would be necessary he adopted it and compulsfon of single men is the result He was able at the same time to carry the country along with him and to impose the necessary meas. ure of compulsion with minimum of friction, while it is certain that if the whole hogger' conscriptionists had had their way the country would have been bitterly divided, and there might even have been violent resistance to it. "One of the cleverest thing Asquith has ever done" said war office official to me the other day, lis the way in which he has induced the country to accept com pulsion without knowing it'
 A cxrx1