A STRENUOUS NEW YEAR.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20470, 13 February 1932, Page 5

A STRENUOUS NEW YEAR.

PRIME MINISTER'S WISH. (FROAC OUR OWK CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, January 5. In a special New Year message, the Prime Minister (Mr Ramsay MacDoniald) says:— i "The year 1932 is to give the nations another chance of laying new foundations which are sound and of coming to now agreements which will not restrict, but expand prosperity. Moving from the habitation and life'of the war mind to those of the brotherhood and the family mind may be troublesome, and people may be timorous in face of the assumptions of security and well-being that they will have to make. They may be afraid to meet # and master some of the first consequences, but this is the alternative to making 1932 a landmark in the deterioration of our civilisation, in the destitution of our people, and in the disintegration of the settled government and order of the world. Instead of wishing the people a happy New Year, I wish them a strenuous New Year, a New Year of vigilant observation, of sound thinking, and of masterly action, a New "Year of internal co-operation, for only by mutual helpfulness and accommodation can the end of 1932 be rescued from the clouds which darken its beginning." Government Fulling Together. Speaking at Worcester, Mr Baldwin said: — "This last year has been one of_ the most difficult that I have ever lived through. In many kinds of farming, in many industries, in politics, difficulties have seemed insoluble. The position seemed almost hopeless and the country turned to the opportunity given it by the National Government. "We have tried to make the best we can of that Government, and to make it answer the purpose for which it was elected, and for myself, looking into this year, difficult and formidable as are the problems, both international and domestic, I enter upon this year as a qualified optimist. "I believe that we shall have things better at home, and no endeavour will be lost on our part to make things better internationally, though they are less under our control than domestic affairs. The National Government is, I believe, gradually becoming a team and pulling together, (applause) and I hope and believe that all through the country we shall be pulling together. "I believe that the spirit of the country is aroused. I believe there is a feeling from North to South, and East to West, that the fate of the country and the Empire lies in the hands of everyone of us—as it lies in any country governed by true democracy —and that few at the moment are the slackers who will not take their part."