DUKE'S US. TOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1937, Page 7

DUKE'S US. TOUR.

LABOUR CONDEMNS. Baltimore Branch Strongly Hostile. BRITISH WRITER'S TIRADE. United Press Association.—Copyright. WASHINGTON, November 4. Mr. Charles Bedaux, owner of the chateau in France in which the Duke anrl Duchess of Windsor were married, announced that the investigation of the Duke into American labour conditions would occupy 37 days. He said it would embrace the 15 basic industries, including machinery, oil, chemicals, textiles, tobacco, steel, rubber, paper, timber and food. The Baltimore branch of the American Federation of Labour has passed a resolution condemning the visit of the Duke and Duchess, especially to Baltimore. It has warned trade unionists of the "potential threat to free labour and free democratic government of slumming parties professing to sttidv labour."' Speakers at the meeting at which the resolution was carried denounced the Duke for his visit to Germany and for seeking labour information from Herr Hitler. They also asserted that the Duchess, while she lived in Baltimore. showed not the slightest sympathy with the problems of labour or of the poor.

Some speakers attacked the association of the Duke and Duchess with Mr. Fledaux. whom they charged with the authorship of a virions labour system designed to lengthen working hours. Stating that they would embarrass every Briton they meet. Mr. Hanuen Swaffer, well-known London journalist, before sailing from New York for England, denounced the decision of the Duke and Duchess to visit the United States. ) He said: "[ accompanied the Duke of Windsor when he studied housing in Wales. If he were half a century in the United States he would know no more than he does now. He is just a middle-aged man married to a middleaged publicity-crazy woman. "Her former home in Baltimore is the best show in America. I stood in the lucky bath. In my opinion the Duke ought to put her back in it." The last reference was to a bath allegedly used by the Duchess, in which the majority of visitors to her former home stand or sit "for luck."