Wilson Condemns Home For Delay Proposal

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30267, 21 October 1963, Page 13

Wilson Condemns Home For Delay Proposal

(NZ.P.A .-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, October 20. Lord Home, who intends to give up his peerage and contest a by-election so he can lead the Government from the House of Commons, is already facing the prospect of a big battle with the Labour Party.

Lord Home is taking immediate steps to renounce his ancient Scottish title as early as possible so that he can stand for election to the House of Commons as Sir Alec Douglas-Home. He is a Knight of the ancient Scottish Order of the Thistle.

Political observers believe that. if necessary the Government can decide the date of the opening of Parliament without reference to the House of Commons, but such a move would probably cause a major political storm. Lord Home is expected to invite Mr Harold Wilson the Labour leader, to call on him at Downing Street to discuss postponing the new session of Parliament —due to open on October 29—to give him time to enter the Lower House. But Mr Wilson reacted to this suggestion with a quick “No” in a speech at Manchester last night. “Duty to Meet” Mr Wilson said: “I regard this demand as impertinent and we shall reject it. It is our duty to meet and debate urgent questions on home and on overseas affairs, and we are not going to set aside that duty to meet the convenience of the Conservative Party.”

Mr Wilson said he feared that a Britain led by Lord Home "is not going to play its full part in world affairs.” He told a Labour Party rally: “On issue after issue he has sided with Portugal and South Africa against the rest of the human race. He has attacked the United Nations.

“And his attitude to the newly-emerging countries in the Commonwealth, his clear willingness to sacrifice Commonwealth interests in the rush » get into Europe, make it impossible that under Lord Home Britain can mobilise the Commonwealth and lead it. “And unless Britain can do that we shall never exert our full economic strength or our full influence in world affairs." “Aristocratic Cabal” Mr Wilson criticised the method of Lord Home's selection as Prime Minister, describing it as the “machinery of an aristocratic cabal.” He said he could not accept that it was necessary to look beyond the House of Commons. “In this ruthlessly competitive, scientific, tech-

nical, industrial age, a week of intrigues has produced a result leased on family and hereditary connexions,” he said.

Mr Wilson said that in a personal sense Lord Home was “a pleasant man.” He was at least as good as any of his equals “if Britain’s leader has to be selected from a small and aristocratic elite. “But what can anyone bred and reared in this sheltered aristocratic background know of the problems of ordinary families? “And, above all, how can a scion of an effete establishment appreciate and understand, above all lead, the scientific revolution, the mobilisation of the skill and talents of all our people in the struggle to restore Britain’s position in the world?” Mr Wilson asked. Attack By Brown Mr Wilson’s deputy, Mr George Brown, also attacked suggestions that the new session of Parliament might be delayed when he spoke at Milngavie, Scotland, last night Mr Brown said: “A small group of noble families are seeking to reappoint them-

selves the arbiters of the nation’s destiny, and are showing themselves willing in the course of this to manipulate the British Constitution, regardless of consequences. “Parliament must meet on its due date, and if they have no Prime Minister able to face the Commons the Government must accept the consequences and resign,” he said. Mr Brown said: “From being unusual the situation has proceeded via the remarkable to the incredible—and has now reached the downright impossible. “Not content with being the recipient of the personal disposition of political patronage by Mr Macmillan unequalled in modern times outside the totalitarian state, the fourteenth earl has proceeded to act as if the centuries of British political struggle had never taken place or did not matter a damn.” Grimond Critical

The Liberal Party leader, Mr Jo Grimond, said in his Orkney constituency: "The suggestion that the meeting of Parliament might have to be postponed underlines the whole undemocratic 18thcentury atmosphere of the affair. Parliament has other things to do than meet at the convenience of the Tory Party.” Macmillan’s Recovery (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, October 19. Mr Harold Macmillan may come out of hospital soon, his doctor. Sir John Richardson, said tonight Sir John Richardson said after a 30-minute visit to the King Edward VII Hospital that he t'h ught Mr Macmillan would leave the hospital on October 28 He was quietly getting better. Lady Dorothy Macmillan said her husband had spent most of the day dictating letters and taking it easy. He looked very well indeed.

Climber Dies In Himalayas (NZ.P A.-Reuter—Copyright) KATMANDU. Oct. 20. An Italian mountaineer. Giorgio Room, aged 26, of Turin, has been killed while climbing Lantang Himal in the Himalayas, according to a radio message received in Katmandu. The expedition's doctor, Cesare Volante, aged 27. also of Turin, was injured.