STATE UNIFORMS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 146, 21 June 1924, Page 16

STATE UNIFORMS

A LABOUR NEWSPAPER'S TIRADE.

Some amusement. has been caused by the photographs of the Labour Ministers in their State uniforms. The Yorkshire "Post" calls attention to the protest made by the Clyde Socialist paper "Forward," especially directed against "Mr. James Brown, Labour member for the South Ayrshire' division, because, having accepted the official representation of the State at the opening of the General Assembly of thp Church of Scotland, in whose councils he has long been a ruling elder, to that end he has accepted also the traditional ceremonial accompanying his office." The "Forward" foams'as follows: —

If James Brown had gone in his Sunday clothes, and waved aside the £2000 for useless flummery and the disguising of himself for what he is not, he would have struck a blow for his class and the dignity of his class, ay, and for the honour and dignity of the' kirk that is sadly wanting in his participation in and acceptance of medieval aristocrat follies.' These 'mummeries,' according to the Clyde paper, are a sign of "inward and spiritual dry rot.' A party (says the '^Forward") which tamely accepts the medieval circus, and participates in, and takes a delight in participating in, useless, costly, and stupid mummeries, is a party that is not m the way of serious business.' In order that the sansculqttism of the Clyde maybe manifested in an even stricter interpretatiou of that revolutionary term, the "Forward" • also waxes wrath over the State uniforms, of His Majesty's Ministers. 'Tho Labour Government can junket with tie best (or worse) of them, and barely a day passes but some proletarian chief must needs dance upon the stage with his face painted, or his clothes decorated, as if he were at a fete or a folly. . . I will rjpji harrow the feelings of my readers with a list of pacifists who go to levees in knickerbockers and with swords.' As for Mr. James Brown, 'he is now to dress himself up in knee breeches, silk stockings, paste buckles on his shoes, and a cocked hat with feathers. And, heaven save us, he is to carry a sword, and be called your Grace, and ride in a State coach with outriders, and postillions, and trumpeters, and who knows what other useless trash.' Breathless from its long list of outrages upon the 'proletariat,' the "Forward" adds with a gasp:—'The tragedy of the business is that apparently he does not want to stop the downing.'

i "The truth is," says the Yorkshire "Post," "that the vieVs of the 'Forward' are as the poles asunder from those of the quiet, commonly dignified, and, as the country gladly recognises, even-tempered Premier and his immediate associates in the Government. The respect for tradition, the magnificent tradition which is incorporated in State ceremonial, is not the sola prerogative of one class in the country."