27 JANUARY 1925
The interim report and recommendations of the Liberal Inquiry Committee, which have already been submitted to Mr Asquith, have now been issued. Fresh personnel in the Associations, further opportunities for women, the Young Liberals, and industrial and agricultural workers, the provision of a fighting fund, and the readjustment of the party machine, are among their recommendations.
It is now officially announced that the King has been pleased to approve that the dignity of an Earldom of the United Kingdom be conferred on the Right Hon. H. H. Asquith, K.C.
Aoropos of Mr Asquith’s choice of a title, a sketch is given of the career of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford in the reign of Queen Anne.
Correspondence has passed between Mr Lloyd George and Lord Strachie in connection with a statement by the last-named that literature issued during the General Election by the Liberal Publications Department explaining Liberal land policy did considerable injury to Liberalism in the West of England.
A further joint Allied Note on the subject of the evacuation of the Cologne zone was handed to the German Chancellor. It was in reply to the German Note of January 6, and it asserted that Articles 128 and 429 of the Versailles Treaty appeared to be misunderstood by the Government of the Reich. A fifteen years’ occupation was fixed by the Treaty, and the Articles in question contemplated a reduction only in the event of faithful observance of the Treaty. In due course the Allies would state what still remained to be done by Germany for her obligations to be considered as having been faithfully carried out.