Three Minus One

As everyone knows, the triumvirate at the head of the Liberal Party has long consisted of the Earl of Oxford and Asquith (official leader), Mr. Lloyd George (leader by popular consent) and Sir Alfred Moritz Mond, famed Jewish chemical industrialist, who served as Commissioner of Works and later as Minister of Health in Premier George's Cabinet.

Last week the Earl of Oxford and Asquith ripped open a long, ominous-looking envelope; gave vent to several expressions almost as pungent as those for which his wife "Margot" is famous. Before him lay the resignation from the Liberal party of Sir Alfred Mond, with the added declaration that Sir Alfred will hereafter consider himself a Conservative, and the explanation that he has taken this action because the Land Tenure Reform scheme to which Mr. Lloyd George has pledged the Liberals (TIME, Dec. 12 et ante) amounts, in Sir Alfred's opinion, to "nationalization of agricultural lands. . . [to which] I am absolutely and unalterably opposed."

Reaction. Mr. George upon hearing of Sir Alfred's resignation publicly branded him by an indirect reference to the biblical Judas, and directly charged that he had abandoned the Liberals because he saw "poor prospects for an ambitious man" in sticking to them, now that the party has lost its War preeminence.