But he soon warmed to his work, and spoke
with all the zeal of the convert. Among his most appreciative listeners
were the occupants of the Peers' Gallery--the Duke of MARLBOROUGH, who has
transformed the sword of Blenheim into a ploughshare, and Viscount CHAPLIN,
to whom the announcement of State bounties for wheat-growing seems like the
arrival of the Millennium.
Another ex-Minister of Agriculture was, to put it mildly, less
enthusiastic. I should be doing Mr. RUNCIMAN little injustice to say that
for the moment the politician in him rose superior to the patriot. If after
the War the old party-quarrels are to break out again with all their fatal
futility I can imagine that Liberal wire-pullers in the rural districts
will be much embarrassed by the existence of bounties which economically
they cannot approve but which politically they dare not remove. But surely
we shall have learned our lesson badly if the old strife of Tory and
Liberal is to be revived in all its former virulence and sterility. Besides
there is the Labour Party to be considered, as Mr. GEORGE ROBERTS reminded
the House in the best speech he has made since he went on the Treasury
Bench.
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