COMPULSORY REST

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 34, 9 August 1934, Page 13

COMPULSORY REST

MR. RAMSAY MACDONALD

HIS TRIP ABROAD

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, Juno 28.

The Prime Minister has been ordered three months' rest from work, and it is expected that he will take an extended cruise, accompanied by Miss Ishbel Mac Donald. Mr. Baldwin will be acting Premier.- Politicians of all parties sent expressions of, regret on hearing the news, and of hopo for complete recovery. The return of his eye trouble is attributed to over-strain.

Lord Horder, the Prime Minister's physician, wrote to his patient: "You were probably not surprised to learn from Sir Stewart Duko-Elder that there has been a retrogrado movement in respect of the condition of your eyes during the past three months. This deterioration is due to strain incident upon excessivo use of the eyes for reading papers relative to public business, and not to any defect in your general health.

"The surprise is, of course, not that this relapse has happened now, but that it has not happened before—a testimony to tho success of the operations undertaken during 1932.. The indicaiion is clear; you require three consecutive months of. reiativo freedom from the use of your eyes for near purposes. Given this respite there is every reason for believing that the position will adjust itself. You will doubtless agree that it is only by spending the greater part of those three months abroad that your eyes can secure the rest they need."

The duties of office compel Mi\ Mac Donald to read masses of documents, and, as ho has never spared himself in this connection, he has overworked his eyes. No political significance should be attached to his coming absence. It is his intention to return to Downing Street about the end of Septomber, in Order to prepare for the heavy work of the next session of Parliament.