The state of the Conservative Party is justly causing concern
to many people who never have been and never•will be Conservatives. The Vote of Censure did the Party in the House of Commons much more harm than good, and the American Loan Debate completed its discomfiture. The decision to abstain from voting was bad enough— though the decision was dictated not so much by a desire to conceal party differences as by fear of the effect in America of a large Con- servative anti-Loan vote—but when the abstention broke down alto- gether, and half the party trooped into one lobby or the other in spite of their leader's earnest appeal, the thing became a sorry and demoralising farce. Several members of the Front Bench would, if they had followed their inclinations, have voted with the Govern- ment ; one of the best defences of the Loan and the accompanying agreements that I have yet seen was contained in an article by Mr. Richard Law in Monday's Daily Telegraph. Now this particular issue is out of the way, but it leaves the Party deeply fissured, and on many other issues there can be no genuine accommodation between the die-hard element on the Right and the almost Liberal Progressives on the Left. That is a serious matter, for never was a united, skilful and resolute Opposition more needed in the House of Commons. It will be interesting to see how things shape after the recess, when in Mr. Churchill's absence Mr. Eden will be leading in the House.
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