SPEEDY CONVERSION

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 265, 5 August 1929, Page 13

SPEEDY CONVERSION

MR. JOWITT SEES “A GREAT LIGHT” Dominion Special Service. London, June 13. t Since a Chinese general who had been converted to Christianity ordered all his brig .de to be converted and baptised in a river, there has been no instance of rapid conversion equal to that of Mr. Jowitt, now SI W. A. Jowitt, to the orthodox Labour faith. He fought, and won. the election at Preston in the darkness of Liberalism, but within two days or so of his return as a Liberal, he suddenly saw a great light, and was formally received by Mr. MacDonald into the true fold. Mr. Jowitt has always had a good deal of sympathy with Labour, and during the last Parliament he frequently voted with them, but he fought as a Liberal, and his speeches in exposition of the Liberal cause left nothing to be desired. His letter to the Prime Minister announcing bis adhesion to Labour failed to explain the motives which prompted this suddet change. The nearest parallel in modern polities for such a speedy conversion is to be found in the Home Rule struggle in 1893. Mr. Gladstone had sent one of his supporters . the House of eers. but when the Home Rule Bill fo!’.' him, he finally felt compelled to vote against It. He made a very confused and embarrassed statement of his reasons, nnd Lord Rosebery icily remarked, “The noble lord wears his eorouet like a crown of thorns.”