LEADERS OF LABOUR

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LIX, Issue 87, 1 November 1938, Page 6

LEADERS OF LABOUR

PARTY MEN IN ENGLAND

■'"'■■■ it"Unemployment in Britain should^* offer a splendid opportunity to the, leaders of the Labour Party, who seoj| to interpret the wishes of Britainl^ sons of toil, says Peter Howard, in the "Sunday Chronicle."

But most of the men wfio lead the Labour Party are not sons of toil themselves. , j| There is Mr Attlee. He was ecu?" cated at Haileybury and at University College, Oxford.

Then there is Dr Dalton. He went to Eton and King's College, Cambridge.

We have the Rt. Hon. Frederick William. Pethick-Lawrence, who was captain of the Oppidans at Eton, and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge.

The Rt. Hon. Hastings Bertrand \ Lees-Smith was sent first" to Aldenham. Then he became a cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. And he finally made his way to Oxford.

There is Sir Stafford Crlpps, son of a Lord, Lord Parmopr, and an old Wykehamist, together with Captain the Rt. Hon. William Wedgwood Benn,, D.5.0., the son of a first Baronet. Both these men went to London University.

Now Mr Attlee's leadership of the Labour Party is not commanding a great deal of support. He does not arouse enthusiasm among his followers. And sooner or later hislmccessor is hound to emerge from the ranks of Labour. Many people believe that Dr Dalton is a likely man for the place. For why? Because the trade unions back Dalton. And the unions are the most powerful element in the Labour movement ' V Dr Dalton is a huge, shambling -.3 man with a bald head and pale blye eyes. He is fifty^one. His father wdlK .' the Canon of Windsor, appointed by . Queen Victoria to tutor King George V. when he was a boy. ,■$ "^f A great man for languages is Dr Dalton. He speaks English, French, '• and Italian fluently in a vast, ibooming voice. He fought in the war on the-*. Italian front. Of course, when Mr Attlee retires ; from the leadership of the Labour Party, it may be that a new man .. will have arisen in the ranks of " Labour who will snatch the golden, ) glittering prize, from the outstretched hands of Dalton and Company. I_do not see such a man among the Labour M.P.'s. But, then, some t of the best Labour men are not in Parliament. For instance, there is . ' Bob Fraser, thirty-four years old, who is to fight at Wellingsborough next time. He is an Australian, still talks with a colonial accent. He came to London to earn his living as a journalist. Bop Fraser is a chapelgoer. He is also a canoer. There is scarcely ~ a river in England, Wales, or Ireland, ~_ up which Bob Fraser has not paddled < his canoe.