LABOUR CRITICS OF CORONATION

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27055, 2 June 1953, Page 7

LABOUR CRITICS OF CORONATION

Speeches At Lowestoft

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, June 1. Three Labour members of the House of Commons criticised the Coronation in speeches at a Lowestoft meeting. They were Messrs John Freeman and Edward Evans and Mrs Barbara Castle. “I feel intense disapproval of it,” said Mr Freeman. “I am not saying I disapprove of the institution of the Monarchy. That is a different issue. I do disapprove of the ceremony of establishing the head of the State in which we all have a share, and using it as an occasion for the glorification of every kind of anti-Socialist belief and every myth which can be found anywhere in our history. “It is possible to have a constitutional Monarchy without this waste of money and bally-hoo and glorification of heredity,” Mr Freeman said. “I cannot see why we cannot have the Coronation with decency, simplicity, and emphasis on the religious side, with people there representative of those who have made the Commonwealth what it is, and not representative of the military and what is called society with a capital ‘S’,” Mr Evans said. Mrs Castle said: “Frankly, I do not see what this fuss is about. Why should we have this neurotic outburst? I hope it is the last Coronation of this kind this country will ever see, utterly unrepresentative as it is of the Britain and the Commonwealth of ordinary people.”