24 NOVEMBER 1950, Page 7

There is no doubt that the Liberal Party, which cannot

afford to suffer at all, will suffer heavily in the country as the result of recent events in the House of Commons—particularly after Lady Violet Bonham Carter's trenchant speech at Cambridge. The point to consider is that while many Liberals may applaud the action of the three dissidents (I have no idea whether many do or not), they are persons who would vote Liberal anyhow ; whereas those—also, I judge, pretty numerous—who deplore the split as disastrous to Liberalism will vote Conservative, or conceivably Labour.