SHARP CRITICISM

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 70, 4 January 1936, Page 5

SHARP CRITICISM

MR BALDWIN AND SIR S. HOARE. RELATION TO THE PEACE PLAN. LABOUR LEADERS’ ATTITUDE. United Press Association--Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, January 3. The political correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian” says that the first indication of the attitude of the National Labour members of the Cabinet to the Hoare-Laval crisis appears in an article in the National Labour “Newsletter,” which, if not actually written by Mr J. Ramsay MacDonald, carries his approval. It contains some of the sharpest criticisms of Mr Baldwin and Sir Samuel Hoare voiced in or out of Parliament. It deplores Mr Baldwin’s promise to abandon personal contacts between Foreifn Ministers in favour of diplomacy through Ambassadors, and points out that the method of the old diplomacy are unsuited to a world where rapid action is often vital. Personal contact between responsible Ministers should be one of the most effective aids to peace and understanding. The fact that the Hoare-Laval conference was singularly badly mishandled is no reason for condemning such meetings, except for the purpose of escaping from a tight corner. The “Newsletter” disproves Sir Samuel Hoare in a single sentence, saying no Minister has the right to exceed liis instructions and then claim the shield of joint Cabinet responsibility. The editor of the “Newsletter” (Lord Elton) writes that Sir Samuel Hoare left the impression of a man too tired and nervous for great affairs. Mi Baldwin wielded no magician’s wand. DENIAL OF AN ATTACK. STATEMENT BY MR JVIacDONALD. (Received This Day, 1.10 p.m.) LONDON, January 3. Mr J. Ramsay MacDonald, denying that the article in the “Newsletter” is intended as an attack on the Government, declares it is sheer mischief-mak-ing to say it was an attack on anybody.