Evening star., 1933-10-22
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.

tends from the crisis of Tangiers in
1905 to the French occupation of the
Ruhr in 1923. And in these two dec
AIDES Lloyd George was. Of course, one
of the half dozen world figures. as, in
the greatest crisis of all-that from
1916 to 19l9-he ranked with Clemen-
ceau and Wilson as member Of the
great triumvirate which won the war
and made peace treaties.
The only survivor of the "big three"
Lloyd George has already. as the
French say, been classed as a national
monument. Ironically enough, he Suf-
fers in the eyes of his countrymen be-
cause. unlike his great associates, he is
a survivor Politically. of course, he is
as dead as Queen Anne, or perhaps
more exactly, as dead as the Liberal
party which he destroyed. In post
war Europe, where the Hitlers. the Mus
solinis and the Stains are triumphant
the old Liberal of any shade is SINH
larly an anachronism.
Nevertheless. Lloyd George Is hardly
more completely finished than Ramsay
Macdonald, who is still prime minister.
And MACDONALD has in the end failed
for precisely the same reasons as Lloyd
broke with the party with which they
George. Both at a certain moment
had long been associated and attempted,
by carrying over part OF their per-
sonal following-Liberals and Laborltes.
respectively-to the Tory camp, to es-
tablish in that camp personal party,
to create a new political organization
which was liberal In its temper, but
national in its spirit.
Macdonald Doomed.
Unlike Lloyd George, Macdonald did
deSfrnU his marty hit like the
Welshman, the Scot failed to divide
the Tories and in the end became only
an instrument In their hands to be dis
carded when the appropriate moment
came. For Lloyd George that moment
came with his failure in the Genoa
Conference. With Macdonald it has
arrived with the double failure Of the
London Economic Conference and the
Geneva Arms Assembly.
At bottom, with all their differences
of personal character LLOYD George
and Macdonald had much in common
Lloyd George before the war. MacDon-
of the Socialists, as we'll as the Com
low countrymen as radicals. The for
mer was hated in the prewar days as
revolutionist. the latter in the postwar
era as Communist. and yet both we're
fundamentally reactlonaries in the view
munists Of the postwar age,
In his first volume Lloyd George has
not passed beyond the stage in his
career which was filled with the events
of the war and in which he fought
double battle with the inertia and in
the one hand. with the lack of imagi-
nation and rigidity of mind of the SOL
diers like HaIg and Roberts on the
other. In the end he triumphed over
the politicians completely. but his
struggle with the Soldiers-although he
held the upper hand--was marred by
the fact that his refusal to send them
reinforcements in the Winter of 1918
because of his justified distrust Of their
course at the Somme in 1916 and in
Flanders in 1917 was directly response
Bile for the greatest disaster IN British
military history-the defeat of March
81 in Picardy.
Conferences Futile.
But the eventual downfall OF Lloyd
George was due to the fact that in the
end he awakened universal distrust by
his long series Of international confer
ences. which were spectacular in char
acter but futile in results. From the
original peace conference to the final
Genoa meeting he led his country from
one international assembly to another.
until the method of the cinema became
a failure too unmistakable to be dis
guised. And he always failed in con-
ference because he was invariably con-
fronted by French opposition. His
friendship with BRAND led to the fall
of that statesman as a consequence OF
the Cannes meeting. But the hostility
of Poincare at last wrecked him.
Macdonald is going out now because
of a similar fondness for international
conferences and another foreign opposi-
ton For it Is the rise of Hitler which
has brought to nothing his entire pro-
gram of peace in Europe as the return
Of Poincare destroyed the similar plans
of Lloyd George. Four years ago when
Macdonald came back to power with
triumphant Labor Party. he interpreted
his mandate as an order to break the
close association with France which the
Tory cabinet of Baldwin had estab-
lished, to dissolve the partnership be-
tween BRAND and Austen Chamberlain
and establish new and friendly relations
with Berlin.
The rise of Hitler has reduced all this
program to ruins. Once more. as in the
last stages of the Lloyd George regime,
German policy has produced shift in
British public opinion. The British do
not now approve much Of French policy
in respect Of Germany as they did not
indorse the French course toward the
defeated enemy between 1919 and 1923.
But now. as a decade ago. the evident
purpose Of those who control the Reich
to abolish all the decisions Of the war
and go back to the old spirit Of the pre-
war age has restored the AngloFrench
entente
Reich Threat to Peace.
British policy must now, as in the
past. be determined in the end by the
purposes and spirit of the most power
full nation on the continent. And when
the purposes and policy Of that coun-
try-as in the case in respect of Ger
many today - carries an immediate
threat to peace and an ultimate menace
to British security, British statesmen are
bound to act n accord with French and
British public opinion, ever keen to
scent danger due to the militaristic
spirit Of a continental people to veer
accordingly.
Today the British Labor press is In
arms against Germany because of the
National Socialist treatment of the
German Socialists. who are the Ger
man counterpart of the Iaborites. The
Liberals are not less aroused over the
persecution Of the Jews and the Demo-
Gratis who are their friends. AS for
the Tories, they see in the German
purpose to dominate the continent
through revision of territorial clauses
Of the peace treaties, through revision
of the arms clauses to reconstruct their
fleet and their air force, through re-
vision Of the mandate details Of the
treaty Of Versailles, to recover their
colonies lost, chiefly to Britain and her
dominions, q threefold challenge.
Macdonald will now have to 90 as
Lloyd George did. He has already
overstayed his time. His fellow coun-
trymen are still grateful to him for