"WELL NOT GO TO EXTREMES."

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19665, 8 July 1929, Page 8

"WELL NOT GO TO EXTREMES."

♦ LABOUR GOVERNMENT IN BRITAIN. A CONSERVATIVE'S OPINIONS. [THE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, July 7. "Give the Labour Government a chance; it will not go to extremes," said Viscount Melville, a staunch Conservative, who arrived from England by the lonic this morning with Viscountess Melville, on a holiday visit to New Zealand. "The advent of the Labour Government will do good in England," he said, when discussing the political situation at Home. "There are some very fine men in the Party, and one thing we must thank them for is that they have got rid of the Communists. I think it is up to the Opposition to give the Labour men a chance to show what they can do. They will not go to extremes, as they are not strong enough. The Labour Government in twenty years' time may go to extremes, but extremes of that time will not be the extremes of to-day." Viscount Melville said England does not want to see the abolition of the House of Lords. There is evidence of that from all quarters. His own opinion is that the House of Lords should be a self-elective body, the numbers of peers to be elected in proportion to the House of Commons. Viscount Melville numbered the late Mr Havelock Wilson, secretary of the Seamen's Union, among his personal friends, and considers that he was a really great man. He was utterly opposed to the last big seamen's strike, and often declared that the day of the strike was over for many years. Viscount Melville was in the Diplomatic Corps, and has held consular posts in many parts of the world. j