SETTLING DOWN.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17983, 29 January 1924, Page 7

SETTLING DOWN.

CABINET GETS TO WORK.

MONEY FOR HOUSING

(37 CASLE TRCSS ASSOCIATION" COrrSIOHT-) (heutek's telegf.ams.)

ncivcd January 2Sth, 9.20 p.m.)

LONDON, January 27,

In a speech at London, Mr George Lansbury intimated that Mr Mac Don:.3(! offered liirn a Ministerial post; but

:!s it was outside the Cabinet he deri'iocl it was not worth sacrificing his independence.

In a speech at Glasgow, Mr J. Wheatley fMinister of Health; strongly denounced housing conditions. He' did not reveal Lis plans beyond suggesting that tlie country's credit must be used to bring the unemployed into touch wiili building materials. He declared that the Government's demands for housing wculd vastly exceed the demands ol ! the late Government. He was not at all nervous. If the British people would support him in a reasonable scheme, ho would put the problem on its way to solution.

A Labour Commoner, speaking at Mansfield, said that it was claimed tiiat the country would reject the capital levy; but money must come from somewhere. The Government therefore proposed an enquiry embracing all forms of taxation, also an enquiry, into the costs of production of every necessary commodity. NO CAPITAL LEVY. TIME INOPPORTUNE. (AUSTRALIA;! AJ.'D X.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received January 2Sth, 8 p.m.) LONDON", January 28. Tho political editor of "Collier's Weekly," j>rior to embarking for New York, said that Mr Mac Donald, in an interview, stated that ho neither hoped nor intended to try to introduce the capital levy, as the time was inopportune. EXPLAINING DEFEAT. / MR BALDWIN TO iISET PARTY. (AVSTUALIAS AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, January 27. The lobbyist of the "Daily Telegraph' ' says that the Unionist Party, including menjbers of the House of Commons, defeated candidates, and Peers, will meet on February 11th. Mr Baldwin intends to make a frank statement of the reasons for seeking tho dissolution and tho causos of defeat. He will leave the question of future leadership in the party's hands. It i 3 expected that tho meeting will result in a united consolidated Opposition to meet the Government, when the House of Commons reassembles. There is every reason to believe that the leaders will recommend that tariff reform finds no place in the party's immediate programme. It is believed that ardent Protectionists agree to this view. MISS BONDFIELD FOR GENEVA. (IUSTBAZJAZT AJSTD H.Z. CAJOLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, January 27. Miss Margaret Bondfield (Parliamentary Secretary of Labour) will go to Geneva as the Government's representative on the governing body of the League of Nations' International Labour Offico. THANKS FOR DELIVERANCE "CHURCH TIMES" ON POLITICS. (AUSTBAIJAM AND H.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, January 27. The "Church Times," discussing the political situation, says that, in the present circumstances, if a Coalition had been formed, it would have been dominated by Mr Lloyd George, who is a politician with no fixed principles, Mr "Winston Churchill, a wayward genius whose immense self-con-fiderite unfits him for uncontrolled authority, and Lord Birkenhead, whose rectorial address at Glasgow sneered at ideals which are the very soul of Christian religion, "Without desiring to minimise the situation, we suggest that Ithanks should be offered to God for saving the country from a Llovd George-Churchill-Birkenliead combination," says the "Church Times." "Character in high places has never been more, vital than to-day." LABOUR INTERNATIONAL. BRITISH MINISTERS RESIGN. (Stdhet "Stjb" Sebyicz.) LONDON, January 27. Messrs Bamsay Mac Donald, Arthur Henderson, J. H. Thomas, Sidney Webb, and Harry Gosling have resigned membership of the Labour International. Mr Mac Donald, like other Prime Ministers, has received threatening letters. The writers are mostly regarded as being of unbalanced mind. The police have arranged for his personal protection.