The New York Times/1918/11/11/Warns Lloyd George of Wilson's Mistake
WARNS LLOYD GEORGE OF WILSON'S "MISTAKE"
London Paper Sees Possibility of Grave Consequences in Result of General Election.
Copyright, 1918, by The New York Times Company.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, Nov. 10.—Efforts made in the House of Commons to extract definite information respecting the Government's intentions relative to a general election failed to do more than to obtain from Bonar Law an assurance that the amount of time given by the Government to the subject was infinitesimal. Various speakers suggested that it was always the Prime Minister's prerogative to decide a question, and that Lloyd George would not be exceeding his privileges if he surprised even his colleagues.
One member of Parliament said that the date had not been fixed, that it hung on the events at the front. To the inquiry if the formula, "no armistice, no election," was correct, he replied that it was not, but that the converse was true: "If an armistice, then an election."
General opinion in the lobbies is that an election in December is a certainty.
Lloyd George is receiving some frank lectures from the Liberal press, which, with most of the provincial papers, is opposed to a snap election. The Westminster Gazette reinforces its arguments that "an election in these times is no mere matter of domestic politics; it will concern all our allies in the war, and may profoundly affect the course of international politics," by referring to what the Washington correspondent of The Morning Post describes as the mishap which has befallen President Wilson in the Congressional election:
"This first important reverse since he entered politics was due unquestionably to his ill-timed appeal to the country urging an election of a Democratic Congress and intimating that the Republicans ought not to be intrusted with the conduct of affairs."
The Westminster Gazette's comment is:
"Great men now and again make serious mistakes, and even President Wilson is human. Is our own Prime Minister quite sure he is not going to repeat the President#s mistake, or that the consequences may not be infinitely more serious to him and to the country than the corresponding consequences in America?"
Outside of political circles, the best opinion seems adverse to a general election, which may take place possibly to the thindering accompaniment of revolution in other countries, which may awaken echoes over here. There is a strong feeling that a Parliament elevated under existing conditions will not be thoroughly representative and consequently will have no mandate to give the real national verdict on the Government's handling of the reconstruction problems.
In that event, it is argued, Lloyd George might find success at the December election a panic victory. His confidence in his star is too full-bodied to be affected by timorous considerations of the more or less distant future.