EARL AND DEAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 258, 31 October 1928, Page 7

EARL AND DEAN.

Birkenhead's Tilt At Eminent

Cleric.

MATTER OP EARNING CAPACITY

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) J (Received 1 p.m.) LONDON, October 30.

Lord Birkenhead in the "Evening Standard" submits an incisive reply to Dean Inge's article, "Are Our Big Men Overpaid?" He says: "I have admiration for Dean Inge, who is a scholar with great gifts as a journalist and very clever .'without being an insincere poseur. He has exploited the gloomy business to the uttermost. He is not particularly gloomy; his gloom is really a pose. Although ascetic in appearance he has a sense of humour which he has never permitted to de-commercialise his journalistic career,

"I should have thought Dean Inge would have lamented the squalid meanness which leaves the Prime Minister of England £5000 a year and no pension. The inadequacy of judicial salaries id also a scandal, and the Leader of the Opposition should receive a salary. "The dean thinks it dignified to he content with a small income, yet I seem to remember the dean justifying his own journalistic activities by a plea that he could not support his family on his deaconal salary. Moreover, I have heard many reports from Fleet Street very gratifying to the reputation of the Rev. Dean as a man of business.

"He is an astute negotiator of the very valuable material he sells. I suggest that for the guidance of public men the dean should inform us how much he himself would allow anyone to earn."

DEAN COMES BACK.

SOCIALIST DOCTRINE.

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (Received 1.30 p.m.)

LONDON, October 30.

Dean Inge, shown Lord Birkenhead's reply, wrote emphasising that there were no personalities in his article. Socialists, he stated, said that nobody ought to have more than £500 a year. He suggested that ten times more ought to content the high-minded servant of the State. "It does content our admirals, generals, bishops and it would seem that the untold wealth of our greatest scholars, scientific discoverers and opr most gifted men ought to show us how to combine high-thinking with plainliving, which is not difficult."