POLICY DEFENDED

Evening Post, Volume c, Issue 54, 5 March 1934, Page 9

POLICY DEFENDED

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

A LIVELY MEETING

MACDONALD AT LEEDS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, January 25. Mr. Ramsay MaeDonald opened the National Government's campaign "in defence and explanation" of its policy and -work. The meeting was held in the Town Hall at Leeds,, and .the Prime Minister, who addressed several overflow meetings as well by means of loud speakers, was subjected to a good deal of interruption. Indeed, ho had a very mixed reception. Ho entered the building to the hearty singing of "Land of Hope and Glory." But his appearance on. the platform was met with an uproar in which checr3 and booing were evenly mixed. As the storm subsided the cry of "Traitor" was taken up from the back of the hall and gallery. "With the aid of the microphone, however^ and encouraging applauso from the ticketholders, he was able to make himself heard from first to last. It was when he declared his concern for the conditions of the workers that the interruption became most insistent. He did so when- speaking of food prices, and again in references to the Unemployment Bill and the Socialist war propaganda. On all these occasions he was answered by derisive comment and jeers. REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT. The meeting, said Mr". Mac Donald, was the first of a series in defence and in explanation of the National Government. "I wonder," he added, "does it require anything except the facts and the figures!" (Hear, hear.) When he spoke of "my working class friends." there was derisive laughter, and cries of "You're not our friend." Mr. Mac Donald described how for two years attempts were made by the Labour Government to stem the rising tide of unemployment. '' We had many conferences and many councils/ he proceeded, "but still the %ures went up. Let us face the facts. In those days party polities were in command; in those days partisan fighting was only obscuring the issue, and victimising crowds of people in this country." They of the National Government, the Premier continued, were pledged to work and work- until the tide of unemployment was still further reduced and until more and more men and women could sit around their own firesides feeling, the pride of independence. There was a storm of jeering and laughter from his opponents, and Women in the body of the hall stood up screaming and gesticulating. Mr. Mac Donald ignored his internipters and shouted still louder through the microphone. He told them that the figures of unemployment were down by 500,000. That was not the full story. A great many men and women who ■were on part-time were now in full-time employment. Men and; _ women who were casuals were no longer casuals. "I make no boast of that achievement," said Mr. Mac Donald, and once more there were hostile shouts. "These figures arc not enough for me or my colleagues," added the Prime Minister to the accompaniment of further shouts of "Sit Down" from the back of the hall. CHANGE; IN- 'TRADE POLICY. Mr. MacDonalil next dealt with the change in trade policy. "AYe have to continue that fine series of commercial treaties so splendidly begun by Mr. Runeiman," he said. ' "Many of the most important international transactions today arc transactions, almost in the form of barter. In those treaties we get the quid pro quo. The Government has pursued a policy of mutual exchange with a great deal of success. "Secondly, I am not content that merely commercial agreements should lie made between groups of countries. "We have to work, argue, persuade, and negotiate for comprehensive- international agreements which will move from all nations—all the big nations at any rate—those barriers to international trade that are not really necessary for national protection, but are impediments in the volume, the necessary volume, the economic volume, of international . commerce." Referring to the home markets, Mr. MaeDonald said that there was more research being done for the purposes of improving our industry than there had ever been done in the history of the country. "There is life energy, production of capital, from newer and newer sources, providing more and more income and more and more life for the great masses of our people." LOYAL TO LEAGUE OF NATIONS. /The Prime Minister said that the Government stood loyally by the League of Nations and hoped, in co-operation with other nations, like Italy, France and the smaller Powers, to devise which would make the League more secure than ever to face the very difficult and onerous problems which confronted them. There was a chorus from the back of the_hall:-"Amen." Nations were showing patience and Rood will. That they all realised. 1 mi* Were the alternatives to peace! The National Government was a Government of international peace. "I have heard great stories of how this Government, our Government, is making for war," said Mr. Mac Donald, when someone called from the gallery, "You remember the last war." Mr. Mac Donald ignored the interruption and proceeded. Mr. Mac Donald held out as an inducement to young people that by enlisting in their movement they would be joining in the great army of peace 011 earth and good will towards all men. The Government proposed to carry ont the mandate which had been given to them until the writ ceased to run, but even then he did not believe that they would destroy the confidence which had been built np and plunge the country back to where they were two and a half years ago. Speaking at an overflow meeting in the crypt, Mr. Mac Donald was greeted with cries of "The Scotch Monster." He bowed, and when, a protest was raised by some of the women in the audience he said: "There, let them howl. They don't know what they are howling about." He spoke for about five minutes, and ■was subjected to continuous catcalls from his interrupters, who appeared to have gathered at the overflow meeting in greater strength than in the main hall. __