LORD ROSEBERY AND SOCIALISM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 70, 21 March 1908, Page 6

LORD ROSEBERY AND SOCIALISM.

(To the Editor.! Sir, —For obvious reasons I did not intend to refer to Mr. Phileox again in my correspondence, but as his letter or the 17th contains an inference which is evidently intended for myself, 1 kindly ask for sufficient space to answer his reference to Lord Rosebery. Lord Kosebery's preiiminations are, like those of Mr. Philcox, unsupported by any evidence. A mere statement without evidence i≤ never received in a court of law, nor should it be at the bar of public opinion. And now let us see who and what Lord Rosebery is, whose speech is so eulogistically referred to by Mr. Phileox. In the first place he is a child ol fortune; born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and reared in the enjoyment of every luxury. That he is gifted with eloquence all must admit; and that eloquence, coupled with his great opportunities, should have enabled him to make his mark as a British statesman; instead of that he is regarded to-day even by his friends as a dismal failure. His brief tenure of the British Premiership was only marked by one memorable event, and that was the fact that a horse of his won the blue ribbon of the Derby. Hβ has taken no prominent part in any political measures to benefit his country or people, and is really, so far as his public life is concerned, nothing more than a political windbag. He inherited large estates, and vast wealth, and further increased that wealth by marrying an heiress of the Rothschild family; and is today one of the chief upholders of aristocratic privilege and financial tyranny, to be found in the Homeland. Such is Lord Eoseber3 - , whom Mr. Philcox holds up to our admiring gaze—one who only a few days since used all his eloqunece in the House of Lords to defeat the Scottish Small Holdings Bill, which would give those needing it the opportunity of acquiring small holdings of land at a fair valuation. But such a socialistic measure was stoutly opposed by Lord Kosebery, who owns tens of thousands of "acres, and who is determined to resist any encroachment upon, his class privileges, la the concluding part of Mr. Philcoxs letter he has taken a fresh departure, and left Britain for the Continent." ." As to whether operative socialism las worked out badly in France i am not prepared to say; but let mc say this, that the characteristics of the French and British are very dissimilar. History records all the horrors of a French. Kevolution, but greater reforms than those resulting from revolution have been gained in British communities without the shedding of blood.—l am, etc., WALTER CRISP. Fencourt, March 19, 1908.