The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-27
LAST FEEBLE ATTEMPT

The last and feeblest attempt to overthrow him by proving that he had lost the sympathy of the country was in the London constituency of Mile End. A by-election was caused there by the death of Lord Burnham, which elevated his son, the Hon. Harry Lawson, M, F., to the peerage, and an independent candidate was put up against the coalition candidate. He was an officer in the royal flying corps who resigned his commission to fight for Parliament on the platform of the better protection of London against air raids, and although this was a popular platform and the man, Flight Commander Pemberton Billing, was an extraordinarily good candidate and had the powerful support of the North cliffe newspapers he was badly beaten at the polls.
 Some of Asquiths opponenets have not scorned low methods to undermine his influence. One of them has been to circulate the story that he drinks too much. No one who knows the mans career at the bar or in politics would believe this story for a moment, but I suppose it was hoped that the tale would injure him and through him his party with the uninformed electors. Of course, there isn't a word of truth in it, MT Asquith no doubt enjoys the 6OOu liAlHSS lLdl llle 6OQS send IlIu ana he IS no ascetic, but he has the strong head of the north countryman, and men who have watched him closely in Parliament for the last 30 years assure me that they have never seen him when he was not keen and clear headed and able to hold his own with the strictest teetotaller in the House.
 What then is the secret of MT. As- quith's great and lasting influence? It is made up, of course, of several factors, but I should say that the two most powerful are his clearness of intellect and his understanding of how to manage men. Men who have been called in to attend a number of cabinet meetings recently to ad- wise on technical matters in connection with the war tell me that they were amazed at Mir. Asquith's masterly handling of his colleagues It is no secret of course, that the cabinet has been sharply divided on many sub- iects in connection with the conduct of the war and it has been MT. Asquith's task to harmonize them and to secure united action. His plan has been to sit still and say nothing while his all appeals to express an opinion un- til he was satisfied that every one else had been talked out, and then he summed up like a judge, pointing out the weak spots in every argument and usually ending in not only securing consent to a united course, but in con vincing every one that the course he outlined was the right one. At re- cent meeting al which figures were under discussion each section of the cabinet had an interpretation of it's own of a set of statistics. Asquith lis- tened to them argue, listened to the reports of the experts and smoked on. without saying a single word for two hours. Some of the strangers atN the cabinet meeting thought he was dozing or wool gathering When everyone had said his say and no one was convinced, the prime minister woke up.
 s'I think it is this way he said, and outlined his interpretation of the figures, '.but none of us seems to have got the sum right Suppose we adjourn for q week and come back with the correct am swer" As matter of fact the correct answer was that given by him in his summing up at the first meeting
 That is one way of handling men. An-