BRITISH ELECTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 132, 30 November 1935, Page 8

BRITISH ELECTIONS

POINTS PROM SPEECHES

ACRIMONIOUS CAMPAIGN

MACDONALD HOWLED DOWN

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, November 9. The Opposition Socialists are carrying on a vigorous election campaign against the National Government, depending upon the vilification of their opponents for catching votes rather than declaring their policy for the future. It is not a pleasant election campaign. There is a-great amount'of illogical abuse, and National candidates have to spend much of their time in refuting accusation:; which have the ring of truth to the uninformed. Mr. Ernest Bevin may or may not have some justification for the following statement:—. "For weeks, while we have been denouncing Hitler, certain interests in the Gity of London have been trying to arrange a loan for Germany, to be spent on armaments. It has been secretly going on and there is a conflict of opinion in financial circles as to its wisdom. While the City of London is doing that, Mr. Baldwin is asking you to spend £200,000,000 on a Navy to stop Germany fighting you with armaments built up with money from this country. It is hypocrisy and wickedness." WHEN REASON REBELS. Mr. A. P. Herbert, who is standing as an Independent candidate for Oxford University, in a letter to the electors, says:— "In such times as these the electors and representatives of universities have a special opportunity and duty to keep alive the interest of the Legislature in the laws and customs which touch the mind and morals but not the incomes of the people. They tell us that Capitalism is doomed. Karl Marx, I believe, made the same announcement 80 years ago. He may still be right; but the old clock ticks on, and it does not help very much, to throw stones at it. My reason, such as it is, reluctantly rebels when I am asked to beileve that, after thousands of years of a not wholly fruitless civilisation, not merely a new, but the best and only way of managing this coniplicated world has been revealed to my old fooball captain. Sir Stafford Cripps. I am for Peace with Honour, but not War without Armaments." CHAOS AND DISASTER. Mr. Baldwin sent a message to the Bewdley Division in which.he said:— "My appeal to you all is to work one with another to support the National Government, which has done so much during these past four years to make this country, the happiest, the most prosperous, and the most envied of all nations. We all know that the return of a Labour Party committed to the most extreme forms of Socialism would spell nothing but economic chaos and disaster. The first to suffer would be the workers, who would once again be subjected to the sufferings of increasing unemployment and industrial depression. "It is a danger that we must fight with all the strength that we can> muster, and I know that I can rely upon the electors of Bewdley to play their part in maintaining the principle of national co-operation, and consolidating our country's advance along the road to peace, security, and prosperity." INDICTMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT. This is Mr. Arthur Greenwood's indictment of the Government: — "Though generous with doles and tariffs to landlords, industrialists, and ship owners, the Government has, on the other hand, been quite indifferent to the needs of the consumers, who have been footing the bill through restricted supplies and higher prices. "Lavish as it was in distributing favours to carry |*ut the policy of economic nationalism, it turned a deaf ear and held a tight fist to the social services and to schemes of national development. "It cut the pay of the unemployed. It saved money by a harsh and cruel family Means Test. "It banged the doors of the secondary schools against thousands of work-ing-class children. "It discouraged the normal growth of the public health and other social services. It put the brake on housing progress." MR. CHURCHILL'S WARNINGS. Mr. Churchill continues his warnings:— The fate of Abyssinia, he said, at Camberwell, showed what would happen to Britain upon a frightful scale if we were found unable to defend ourselves. Not only should we be stripped of every possession, but even in our own island we should be subjested to foreign intervention and restraint. Unless we rebuilt our Navy and created an Air Force second to none, we might find ourselves very soon reduced to what Sir Edward Grey described in 1909 as "the conscript appendage of a stronger Power." Undoubtedly, if the British people or their leaders refused to take the necessary measure to preserve their freedom and independence, everything of value that they possessed would be taken from them, and they themselves in their daily lives would be forced to live and speak and write in accordance with foreign instruction. The declarations made by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer left us in no doubt as to our danger. There was still time to rebuild the Fleet. BEDLAM AND CHAOS. At one point in Mr. Churchill's speech there was a prolonged outburst of shouting. Commenting on the interruption, Mr. Churchill said: — "It is just a handful oi: larrikins, girls and boys, who bring the good name of London into disrepute. They show the confusion, bedlam, and chaos this country would be reduced to if they were in power. They can shout and squeal, but it is lucky for them that there is still a British Navy, or they would soon be getting Mussolini's dose of castor oil, or a taste of Hitler's rubber truncheons. I don't know whether you had any doubt before which way lo vote, but you can see what to vote against. Imagine trusting the affairs of this country to these crazy people." In the event of Socialism being accorded another chance, Sir Stafford Cripps names the following as among the first steps lo be taken without delay:— Socialisation of the financial system. Transfer of land to the community. Control of all foreign trade. When these measures have been adopted, for five years there must be a progressive socialisation of transport, mining, gas, electricity, petrol, and other industries of national importance. The present proprietors would not be compensated, he added. FARMERS BETTER OFF. Defending the National Government's agricultural policy, Mr. Walter Elliot-, Minister of Agriculture, said that the Government's task had been to stop the fall in the total value of

crops or stock in the industry and to start a rise in the.wage rates.

"We aim to get the poor law out of the green fields. This year prices received by the farmer have been 15 per cent, higher than, in the same period of 1933, when the lowest point of the depression was reached. Today the farm worker's wage is higher than at any time in the last ten years." To support his claim that the population was better provisioned now than ever before, Mr. Elliot pointed out that last year, compared with 1932, we consumed 70,000 tons more sugar; 80,000 tons more, butter; 360,000 tons more fresh fruit; and 150,000,000 more eggs. "If this is restriction, there are nations which would gladly share it," he declared. Agriculture provided work for about 1,000,000 people—more than were employed in the coal-mining trade, the cotton and woollen industries, or the building trade. Britain's agricultural output in 1933-34 was £240,000,000. MR. LLOYD GEORGE. Mr. Lloyd George, in a broadcast speech, declared that Mussolini and M. Laval had completely fooled Ministers all round, and that the sanctions which had been applied were a mockery of the Covenant. "The fact of the matter is," he said, "that our Ministers have gone into conference' with divided purpose, and when they have been there they have been hopelessly outmatched by the resolute and astute men by whom they have been confronted. Mussolini and Laval have completely fooled them all round. Our prestige in the world has been hopelessly impaired by the two feeble attempts we made to lead the nations over Manchuria and Abyssinia, and then when we were confronted with difficulties we joined in the general retreat. How have the Government interpreted their obligations under the Covenant? They have always delayed action until it is too late, and when they look like action they hesitate and falter and weaken, and it all comes to nothing." Mr. L. S. Amery, at Birmingham.— Mr. Lloyd George did not make a speech at present in which he did not clamour for action; which was bound to mean war with Italy. In every one of his speeches he made sure of insulting France so that we should not have France with us. Mr. A. V. Alexander, at Brighouse.— It was absolute humbug to say that the British Fleet was inefficient and ineffective against modern aircraft. He quoted figures which, he claimed, showed that the Fleet was stronger and more modern than any other in the world. Mr. Herbert Morrison, at Whitechapel.—Mr. Chamberlain is 'anxious! to spend millions of pounds on machines of destruction, but he has no money for the unemployed, the depressed areas, and social services. He will spend on the means of death but, not on the means of life. Mr. Neville Chamberlain, in a broadcast address on behalf of the National Government, announced for the first time that the Government had decided to embark on a five-year plan of road improvement costing £100,000,000. He also revealed that the unemployment figures for October will show a reduction of more than 40,000 compared with September. "DISGRACE TO DEMOCRACY." Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald was howled down when he attempted to address meetings in the Seaham Division at the mining villages of Shotton and Deaf Hill. At Deaf Hill the meeting opened with the singing of the "Red Flag," and closed with marching songs after Mr. Mac Donald had vainly tried for about twenty minutes to make himself heard. At Shotton he was greeted with hisses, boos, and catcalls, mixed with applause from his supporters in the front of the audience. Miners at the back of the Hall beat a lattoo on the boards with their feet; . -'■' .

At Deaf Hill, when his voice could be heard above the din, he said: "I should like to have a cinema film made with' the noises of the scene, so that it could be shown to the people of the district, that they might hide their heads in shame that in 1935 this has resulted from education and democratic rule."

Miss Ishbel Mac Donald .spoke for about five minutes, but" was constantly interrupted. Mr. Mac Donald then said: "This thing tonight is an insult and a disgrace to democracy. These are the sort of people who have dragged down democracy in every country in Europe, where it has been dragged down by the display of their ignorance and uncontrolled passions and emotions." A woman started to sing "Pack Up Your Troubles," and this was followed by the singing of other war-time songs.