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Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 66, 17 March 1908, Page 5

___CR. JOHN BURNS.

ARE HIS VIEWS CHANGING S J LONDON, March 16. , On Sunday, at a Socialist meeting at J Battersea, Mr. John Burns (President of i the Local Government Board and member ' for Battersea) was bitterly attacked. ;' Mr. J. T. Macpherson ( Labour member 1 for Preston), in a speech at Wereston, ' declared that Mr. Burns' speech had sent a thrill of disgust through the community. [It is no new thing for the Socialists to accuse .Mr. John Burns of defectiou from their ranks, and the view that with his accesion to Cabinet rank he has virtually become a. fairly moderate Liberal has been freely expressed throughout the j past year, it is more than whispered ( that the next general election will see Mr. Burns confronted in his Battersea ] constituency with a Labour candidate . free of any official relations witn the ' Liberal party. In the Unemployed Bill , debate it fell to Mr. John Burns to oppose the measure ou behalf of the Go- . vernment. His speech amounted to a wholesale condemnation, which ended with the statement that such legislation would prove "a delusion and a snare."] '. ===== h