PERSONALITIES AT POLLS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 105, 30 October 1931, Page 7

PERSONALITIES AT POLLS

The three members of the Labour Ministry who are reported to have survived the holocaust in Britain are Mr. George Lansbury, Sir Stafford Cripps, and. Major Attlee. Mr. Lansbury held the post of First Commissioner of Works and he baa had a vigorous and colourful career. He is now nearing his seventy-third birthday and has been active in politics since he was a boy. At one time he emigrated to Australia, but returned within ; a year and entered business in Britain with his father-in-law. He has done many things in local government work and has been active in investigation #E and attempts to remedy unemployment evils. He established the first labour colony for unemployed apirt f^omtho Poor Law and under public control at Hollesley Bay. One ; of his most advertised if not most * important acts during his period of office as First Commissioner of Works ;was to bring the Lido to London, figuratively speaking, by permitting bathing in the Serpentine. Formerly he edited the "Daily Herald," the Labour organ.". ' Sir Stafford Cripps is the son of Lord Parmoor, the.peer who determined to assist the Labour Government when first it gained office, and became Lord President of the Council under Mr. Kamsay Mac Donald's 1924 Government. Sir Stafford Cripps, a rising younger lawyer.and with,a bent for ecclesiastical law r joined the ranks of Labour at the end of last year to succeed Sir James Melville, who had resigned from the post of Solicitor-General owing to ill-health. Cripps entered the Housei of Commons as member for Bristol East, where he had an easy victory in a byelection. He received his knighthood at this time, but has been a K.C. since 1927/ ;.■ .. •'■ • ' ■•.■•■■■

Major C. E. Attlce, the third survivor of the Labour Ministry, was Un-der-Secretary for War in the first Labour Government, was appointed to the Indian Statutory Commission of 1927, and last year became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was a Toynbee Hall worker, co-operated with the Webbs in their Poor Law campaign, and for some years was Parliamentary private secretary to Mr. Mac Donald. Miss Mary Pickford, who has been elected to the House, is not to be confused with anyone else of that name. She is the Hon. Mary A. Pickford and a daughter of the late Lord Sterndale. Mr. Alan Chorlton, who defeated Mr. J. R-. Clynes in tho Platting division of Manchester, comes of an old Manchester family long associated with the district; He is an engineer by profession, best known as the designer of the engines of the ill-fated airship RlO2, and a pioneer in high-speed, light Diesel motors. He is a brother of Mr. Arthur Chorlton, of the "Evening Post" literary staff. ■■■ /■

Sir Newton Moore, who has been reelected, is a name familiar to New Zealanders, for he has been on a visit to this country this year. He has been a member for Richmond Borough since 1924, and had a long political career in Western Australia before entering British politics, being at bne time Premier of Western Australia.

Another recont visitor, to this country is the Hon. Lan MacPherson, K.C., who has been an M.P. for twenty years, and is the founder and honorary president of the Free Trade Union. Ho was formerly Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Minister of Pensions.