POLITICAL FRIENDSHIPS WHICH AMAZE FOREIGNERS

Evening Post, Issue 86, 11 April 1936, Page 21

POLITICAL FRIENDSHIPS WHICH AMAZE FOREIGNERS

Mr. James Maxton, leader of the Scottish left-wing Socialists, and Captain V. Cazalet, the Conservative M.P., are going down to the East End together shortly to study conditions among the very poor, says a writer in the "Daily Telegraph."

The• long-standing friendship which exists between the fiery little exteacher with the long hair and the former amateur squash champion who has sat on the opposite side of the House for twelve years, is only one example of M.P.s with diametrically opposed political views who are firm friends in private life.

One of the most outstanding friendships is that between Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Lloyd George. While the wartime Premier was writing his memoirs, extracts from which appeared in the "Daily Telegraph)" he sent many of the proofs to Mr. Baldwin, who wrote back the most cordial letters to his political opponent.

Mr. Baldwin has another friend in Mr. Winston Churchill, which no doubt explains why in none of his speeches criticising the Prime Minister has Mr. Churchill ever said anything personal.

This friendship began when Mr. Churchill was Chancellor of the Exchequer and the 'two,.were neighbours in Downing Street; -.'Mr. Baldwin-has often dandled ■one,ofMr. Churchill's children on hiS'kneei-. .... :

Still another- iclose- friend of the' Prime Minister is Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, who has also retained several of the comradeships He formed during

his political career before the formation of the National Government.

At the time when Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Philip (now Viscount) Snowden were at one another's political throats, when the latter was Chancellor of the Exchequer, the two opponents were exchanging baskets of fruit over their garden walls in Surrey during the weekends.

Viscount Snowden lived at Tilford and Mr. Lloyd George at Churt. Many a time they met to talk over some gardening problem or had "singing evenings" at one another's homes.

Mr. Churchill and Mr. David Kirkwood, the. quick-tempered Socialist, are two men who impressed one another the first time they met. ■ This was in 1917, when Mr. Churchill was head of the Ministry of Munitions and five years 'before Mr." ' Kirkwood ' entered Parliament.

Although holding such opposite views,..these seasoned politicians often meet as friends. .

Mr. Maxton has another friend on the Conservative benches in Mr. R. J. Boothby, who is also a close acquaintance of Mr. Aneurin Bevan. Mr. Bevan rose from the pit to become an executive member of the South Wales Miners' Federation. He went to the Central Labour College when nystagmus forced him to give up his work as a collier. ':'•■■

These are not isolated cases. Foreign visitors to the Houses of Parliament are amazed to see political enemies enjoying a cigar together after dinner or strolling arm-in-arm along the Terrace. ~ ' .