Critics do not have support of the nation

Germany putting out peace feelers

Presumably it is from the ranks of the critics we are to get the men better than the present government to have charge of the nations interests.

To say that is quite sufficient in itself but the temptation to quote a description of one of them, given in a leading Conservative paper this morning, cannot be rested.

“Lord Willoughby de Broke,” it says (in its account of last night’s talk in the Lords) “careered about like an unbroken colt and after flinging his heels in various directions rushed at the Prime Minister.

“A peculiar character is Lord Willoughby de Broke.

“To him the world is out of joint - as it is indeed to us all - and it is his cursed spite to put it right, a task which he might be able to discharge better if he restricted himself to his military duties until the war is over.

“His language indicates the intellectual limitations of the steeplechase, the coverts and the country house fireside.

“His speech will no doubt be faithfully recorded in the official report in which he claims Mr Asquith had failed in the efficient conduct of the war and ought to retire.

“The only effective part of Mr Asquith’s speech of yesterday, he said, was where he declared that he will stop where he is as long as he can - words which Mr Asquith did not use, which Lord Willoughby de Broke did not scruple to put into his mouth.

“Lord Willoughby saw no difficulty in replacing Mr Asquith but in a moment of extreme modesty refrained from naming the man marked out by destiny for the leadership of the nation.

“He professed that it caused him much pain to ‘single out’ Mr Asquith and it must be said that he bore his agonies with unflinching resolution.

“Lord Crewe, when his turn came to speak, extended no sympathy to him here.

“He said what is surely the cruellest thing that has ever been uttered in the House of Lords.

“He could of course, only judge of the pain Lord Willoughby de Broke had felt from his observation of Lord Willoughby while the speech was being made.

“That observations had led him to take an entirely different view of the painfulness of Lord Willoughby’s task.

“It was that the pleasure the noble Lord has derived from the speech was in direct proportion to the offence he had hoped and believed he was causing by what he has said.”

We have been given a faithful picture of Lord Willoughby. We are not going to kill anybody to make him or anyone like him king of our destinies.

The mistake the critics make is that they think they have a big following in the country, they haven’t.

The country is solid in its support of the Coalition Government if only for the simple reason that if it went there is nothing to take its place or, if we take Lord Willoughby into consideration, less than nothing.

Despite the anticipated denials from Berlin, credence is attached to the report that Germany is putting out feelers in the direction of peace.

The Netherlands newspaper at all events have no doubt upon the matter.