Evening star., 1950-01-29
Last Chance
For Liberals?
BY Henry FoirIie

LONDON.-At the coming
election. the Liberal Party, one
of the two great parties which
dominated British political life
throughout the 10Th century
and the first two decades of the
Goth, but now reduced to hold
ing only 10 out of the $40 seats
in Commons, will be making a
last, desperate attempt to re-
cover some of the ground it has
lost during the 80 years since
World War I.
Whatever the many. contribu-
tory causes of this decline, there
is one that outweighs them all
in importance, the rise of the
Labor Party. Labor had de-
cided, even by the 1906 elec-
ton. that it needed a Parlia-
mentary Party of its own; and
once this was formed. it was in
evitable that it should attract
the great bulk of the working
class vote. The middle class,
seeking the most effective way
to resist Socialism. turned to
the Conservatives. And when,
in 1945, a substantial part of
the middle class decided it
wanted a change from Conser-
vative government, it chose not
the Liberals. who seemed too
small to be effective, but Labor.
The Liberals, therefore, now
have difficult task. It can be
assumed that there will be little
decline in Labor's working -class
vote, and those of the middle
class who may be frightened by
further threats of nationaliza-
ton or disappointed by the al
legged "class-bias" of the Labor
governments legislation, seem
likely to be tempted to attach
themselves to the only party
which appears to have a chance
OF ousting the Government from
office, namely. the Conserva-
tives. Is there, in such a situa-
ton. any place at all for a third
party, and If so, to whom does
it make its appeal? p
Many More Candidates
The Liberal reply is that it's
appeal is primarily to those who
have been disillusioned by the
record of the Labor govern
ment, but are nevertheless re-
luctant to vote Conservative.
There can be no doubt that
there are many such people TO-
day, and they would support
the Liberal Party if they
thought they had a chance.
Liberal sentiment in the coun-
try is strong. but it is extremely
doubtful whether this sentiment
can be translated into votes.
The fear that a vote given to
the Liberals is a vote wasted is
still too powerful a deterrent.
The Liberal Party, is, of course,
aware of this. At the last gen.
eral election it had only 307
candidates in the field. and
could make no reply to the ar
gument that even If all of these
were returned there would still
not be Liberal majority in the
House of Commons. 1t is cer-
tain that this fact weighed
heavily against the party, and
persuaded many people who
would otherwise have voted Lib
eral to give their support to one
or other of the two great par
ties. The result was that only
II Liberals were returned.
This time the Liberals are
avoiding such serious strategic
error. They are putting up over
400 candidates-the exact num-
ber will not be known until
nomination day, February 13-
and so for the first time In
20 years will be able to pre-
sent themselves to the electors
as an alternative government.
Moreover, whereas In 1945 many
of the Liberal candidates were
adopted only at the last minute,
and stood in constituencies
where there was no adequate
Liberal organization, this time
the machinery of the party will
be running smoothly and effec-
lively.
They are determined to fight
as an independent party, and
their hopes are high. They have
more candidates and a more ef-
f1cient machine than in 1915;
their policy at least offers some
relief from the stale argument
about naturalization, and there
is, in the country, a renewed in
terest in their activities. But it
must be admitted that their
chance Of recovering seems re-
mote.
Copyright. London Observse
tcrsien Nsws Service,