The Washington herald., 1922-10-26
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.

While there are many differences
which must instantly come to mind.
there 10 . certain resemblance be-
tween the present situation Of Lloyd
George and that of the late Col.
Roosevelt. when he broke with his
party In 1912. What has overturned
George was responsible for the de-
feat of Roosevelt. namely. the tri-
umph of party loyalty over all per-
sonal considerations.
when Lloyd George came to
power in 1915 the war was in prog
ress and all political considerations
were buried in national concerns.
when he rushed through the khaki
election OF 1918 the country was
still In a war mood and grateful. to
that leader who had steered the
ship to a safe and shining harbor.
Yet evsn before the close of the
war Georges perils were patent. To
become prime minister he had d.
vided his own Liberal party and
overturned its leader. Nothing was
more certain than that at least a
fraction of the Liberal party would
return to the Asquith leadership.
There remained for George three
possibilities. to gain control of the
Liberal party. to join the Conserva-
tive. or to create a new party fol-
lowing the example of Col. Roose-
welt in his Bull Moore experiment.
Own Party Impossibie.
1t was very soon plain that while
George could command the support
OF many Liberals. the very circum-
stances by which he had risen to
power made his permanent leader
ship impossible. As for joining
the Conservative party, this was
contrary to his past history. his own
political instincts and represented
to his mind going over to a party
which was in the near future DOOM
ed to defeat and probable extinction.
AS a consequence the whole ef-
fort of George has been to create q
political party of his own, draw
ing from the liberal Conservatives
and the conservative Liberals. He
has thus aimed at creating a mod
crate party. but his plan has OBJ
viously envisaged splitting the Tory
party as he had already split the
Liberal.
And exactly this circumstance has
explained his fall. He has been able
to enlist the Tory leaders. Birken-
head, Balfour and A Austen Chamber
lain, but the rank and file of the
Tory party instead of following
their leaders have rebelled against
their direction. which headed
straight for the extinction of the
Tory party following a cleavage.
The decisive moment for Lloyd
George was last February, when he
tried to rush through another, gen.
eral election like that of 1918. His
calculation was plain. The Wash
ington conference had just closed
with a manifest betterment of An
glo-American feeling. the Irish set
tlement at that moment aroused ap-
proval and even enthusiasm in the
nation. The Genoa conference had
already been announced. What
George planned was that on two
achieved successes he could go be-
fore the country and ask for a man.
date to go to Genoa and establish
peace in Europe.
Moreover, what he hoped for was
that once more popular sentiment
would rally to his cause, a house OF
commons would be elected composed
of members OF various parties in
the main loyal to him. He would
then be able to carry on for a con-
siderable period of time instead of
having to face the necessity for an
election a little later under condi-
tions which could not be foreseen,
when thel term Of sitting Parliament
should expire.
This plan was vetoed promptly.
not by the Tory leaders who held
office with Lloyd George, but by the
party boss, Sir George Younger,
whose decision was directed by the
rising tide of resentment and ap-
prehension within the party. Young
er's opposition blocked the plan and
George missed the tide. Since that
moment everything has gone wrong
for him.
Genoa Farley Fiasco.
The Irish settlement has lapsed
into. civil war. Genoa was a fasco,
the American results of the WASH
ington conference have been dis
closed as negligible by the refusal
of Washington to go to Genoa or to
cancel British debts. Finally the
Near Eastern collapse has brought
with It swift ruin.
Lloyd Georges fate was decided
by Bonar Law, once his colleague
whose verdict that the country no
longer had confidence in the prime