BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

69
The idea of a great loose body of fifty persons like
the Grand Council of the Primrose League, controlling a
paper is absurd. They cannot do it. The paper will
fall into the hands of a small clique, and will be
worked by them and in their interest.38
Bartlett's attack on the Grand Council reached its zenith in
April.
Writing in response to the executive's decision to put up only
two thirds of its members for reelection in any given year, he
mistakenly charged them with creating a permanent body of sixteen
members.
He used this as the pretext for launching an assault.
It is part of a vicious system which has become more
and more developed of late in the Primrose League, a
system of getting all the political and financial
control of the society in the hands of a small clique
on the Grand Council who really pull the strings and
make the puppets dance.39
He went on to note the willingness of delegates to accept the
status quo if only to hear Grand Master Salisbury speak at the annual
Grand Habitation.
The programme is carefully cut and dried, the elections
are a farce, people are naturally anxious to hear Lord
Salisbury speak, and so complaints and reforms are
stifled. The Central body of the Primrose League is
practically worthless. It is a huge money-absorbing,
money-wasting, lifeless mechanism, whose operations are
conducted with the maximum of expense and the minimum
of result. It is doubtful whether any political body
ever existed in which the cost of management was so
high in proportion to the actual work done.40
Bartlett went on to champion League initiatives at the local
level and to affirm its genuinely representative character.
38
Ibid.
39
Ibid., 16 April 1887, p. 8.
40 Ibid.