19 1 o] Churchill and Granville Barker 297 



and common prisoners ; but he is obstinate about forcible feeding in 

 spite of all Barker and I could say about torture and the Spanish in- 

 quisition, which it closely resembles. Barker has paid much attention 

 to these prison matters, and is a very good talker and a pleasant fellow. 



" yd April. — A brilliant day of talk. After breakfast I took Win- 

 ston into the New Room, and we had the whole question of the Budget 

 out together and the veto and the Irish vote. I gave him Dillon's mes- 

 sage, which for a moment rather staggered him, as he was under the 

 impression the Irish would in the end give way and let the Budget pass, 

 and he said that if they persisted in wrecking the Government their 

 blood would be on their own heads. The Liberal party would never 

 support Home Rule again. The policy of wrecking one party after 

 another would only result in the two parties combining to crush them. 

 { explained, however, that they did not want a quarrel, only that they 

 distrusted Asquith, Haldane, and Grey, and did not intend to be hum- 

 bugged. This made him reasonable again, and he told me what the 

 Government plan is. They are to finish the Veto resolutions by the 

 13th, and then go straight on to the Budget and carry it right through to 

 the third reading, the Veto resolutions being meanwhile sent up to the 

 Lords. If the Lords refuse, Asquith will at once apply to the King for 

 assurances that a Veto Bill on the same lines as the resolutions shall 

 be forced on the Lords bv the creation of Peers or otherwise, but it is 

 not at all likely the Lords will do this at once. They will put it off 

 till after the Budget battle has been fought, and thus it will be impos- 

 sible to get the guarantees from the King in time to satisfy the Irish. 

 All the same he does not despair of carrying the Budget through its 

 third reading, the Irish vote notwithstanding, by help of the Tories. 

 They will apply to Balfour for his assistance to carry on the King's 

 Government, and if he refuses will resign and leave him to get out of 

 the mess as he can. They mean to stand or fall on this issue. It is ex- 

 traordinarily even betting, he says, which way it will go. 



" We had a great deal of talk about the King, with whom Winston 

 now corresponds, or rather, to whom he writes a daily account of what 

 goes on in Parliament, this duty having been transferred from the 

 Prime Minister to the Home Secretary, and the Kine now and then 

 writes in reply. He believes he is personally in good favour with the 

 King, though his last speech might get him into trouble, in which he had 

 said that the King and Commons would have to unite against the en- 

 croachment of the Lords. Also he had the advantage that the Liberals, 

 when in office, were always more polite to the King than the Tories. 

 The Tories were in the habit of considering they were doing quite 

 enough for the King by being in office and protecting him from the 

 Radicals and Socialists without showing special politeness, while Liberal 

 Ministers showed him the greatest consideration, thus balancing things 



