LORD NORTHCLIFFE has recently contributed a remarkably outspoken
criticism of Mr. LLOYD GEORGE by way of "send-off" to his latest
journal, _The New Illustrated_. The following extracts from an article
about to appear in _The Pacific Monthly_, kindly communicated to us by
wireless, seem to indicate that the PREMIER is indisposed to take it
lying down:--
"In a letter recently published without my authority I said that I
was unable to control or influence him. This was true at the time and
remains true now. Time and again have efforts been made to harness
his energies to the State, but they have never succeeded. The
responsibilities of office are irksome to his imperious temperament.
There is something almost tragic in a figure, equipped with the
qualities of an hereditary autocrat, endeavouring to accommodate
himself to the needs of a democracy. The spectacle of this purple
Emperor of the Press, with his ear constantly glued to the ground,
is not wanting in pathos. With him the idols of yesterday are the pet
aversions of to-day. He denounces me as 'a political chameleon, taking
on the colour of those who at the moment happen to be his associates.'
But what are you to say of a man who clamours for a saviour of the
situation and then turns him into a cock-shy; of a Napoleon who is
continually retiring to Elba when things are not going as he likes;
of a politician who claims the privileges but refuses the duties of a
Dictator?
"It is obvious that he is still labouring under the hallucination that
the War was a duel between him and the KAISER; that he 'downed' his
antagonist single-handed, and that the prospects of a stable peace
have been shattered by my failure to include him among the British
Peace Delegates. So, all in a moment, the 'Welsh Wizard' is converted
into the miserable creature of the Tory Junkers--a man without 'high
moral courage,' 'wide knowledge' or 'large ideas.'
"Personally I have no illusions about my consistency, but I _do_
think that here I displayed some moral courage, also some unselfish
consideration for CLEMENCEAU and WILSON and others. Just think of the
panegyrics that would have been showered upon my head in the Press
which he controls if he had been invited to the Table!
"But with all deductions he is a man to be reckoned with, if not
counted upon. He is a man of large type--almost of "Pica" type. And
sometimes he deviates into sound and just criticism; as for example
when he says that I 'depend greatly, upon others.' It is true. What is
more, I know on whom I can depend; and I have learnt that his support
can only be secured on terms which would reduce the PREMIER to the
level of one of his minor editors."
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