CHALLENGE IN REPLY.

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 40, 16 August 1921, Page 2

CHALLENGE IN REPLY.

Mr. Arthur Henderson, in reply t* tho Dean: . _ '^THe, Dean admits that the British workman is 'not at all a bad fellow.' He even admits, that he is 'not, a fool.' The majority, of these; mcii—in some important trades, practically the whole of them—ar« organised in trade unions. It is their 'elected industrial • and political leaders againstwhom the Dean's tirade is directed. If a tithe of the charges made by him were true, then the organised British workers would be both fools and knaves. No truly Christian gentleman would in one sweeping denunciation condemn as !pests and parasites of the worst- kind' a whole class of persons, many of whom have devoted their lives and'their powers to the service of that people, and whose only reward-j-like the noble soul we have just laid to rest at Poplar— is the touching sympathy and affection of the poor. If one cannot demand from the Dean the exercise of .Christian charity of spirit, one can at least ask that he should endeavour to escape from hi?' bitter class-prejudice and keep to facts which he can substantiate." The Dean relapsed into innuendo against Labour leaders. If he were openlj to charge individual Labour leaders with the crime which he insinuates they have committed, he would be forced to prove his statements in a public court of law. I cannot imagine any more serious charges against the honour of a number of public men, and I feel fully entitled to ask the Dean either to prove them or to withdraw them." , (.