BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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Grand Council is extracting from them moneys for which
it has no immediate use, but which it merely wished to
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save.
Bonner's entreaty for Habitations to join together in bargaining for
lower fees underscored Mocatta's concern that a popular reaction might
surface to decentralize League organization, thereby destroying its
potential
for greater expansion and influence.
Throughout the Bartlett controversy, complaints from readers
continued to surface within England's editorial pages in support of
cost reductions.
The Central Office, however, was not without its
public supporters as a letter in the 7 May 1887 issue of Vanity Fair
attests.53
Nevertheless the Grand Council's own minutes and those of the
LGC suggest a series of longstanding, if muted, internal complaints
concerning the excessive expenditures incurred by the London executive.
In April, 1885, for instance, a delegate to the Grand Habitation, Mr.
Ankett, publicly requested the right to examine the League's balance
sheet. The suggestion was tabled by Randolph Churchill. The following
year at the Grand Habitation popular support was affirmed by delegates
("Hear, hear") for a decision made by the Grand Council to reduce
entrance and Tribute fees by 20 percent.54
The LGC minutes suggest a
series of attempts on the part of the women's executive to persuade the
Grand Council to lower fees, or alternatively, to subsidize poor
52
England, 30 April 1887, pp. 9-10.
53 Vanity Fair, 7 May 1887, p. 292.
54
April 1885.
Minutes of the Grand Council of the Primrose League, 25
The Morning Post, 20 May 1886, p. 2.