L.G. Retires

His countrymen called him "L.G.," and there were many who would add "the man who won the last war." Three generations of his neighbors in Caernarvon village had known him as "the little Welsh wizard," still talked of him as a statesman in his prime. But David Lloyd George, 82 years old this month, realized that 54 straight years in Britain's House of Commons was enough, and said so. A grateful government rewarded him with an earldom.

On Christmas Eve he called Emlyn P. Evans, chairman of the Caernarvon Liberal Association, to his Criccieth home. There, amid the gold-&-silver mementos filling the room, the great little man with the flowing white mane and piercing blue eyes announced his decision. He was going to take his doctors' advice; he would not contest the next election. Caernarvon would have to find another candidate.

Through 54 years and three wars, from

Gladstone and Victoria to Winston Churchill and Victoria's great-grandson, George VI, L.G. had fashioned a lot of English history. He had risen from a lower plane than most to do it. He could remember when Britain's aristocracy, calling at Downing Street, would watch to see if he drank his tea as a gentleman should.

Virtually in retirement for the last four years, he now tramps the orchard which his modern farming ideas have turned from scrubland to a paradise of fruitfulness, or sits in his chair, back to the big log fire, white cat perched on the arm while his wife and longtime secretary (whom he married 14 months ago) works at his correspondence.

Fifty-four years had given the old Liberal a creed which last week he passed on to those who would carry on in his tradition: "Hit your enemies hard. Be fearless in your own cause. Never forget, you're a radical and one of the people."

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