SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 5, 6 July 1939, Page 17

SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS

PARTY EXPULSION

GIVEN A HEARING

AIM WAS LABOUR'S RETURN

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.) ;

LONDON, June 1

: Sir Stafford ' Cripps, one of Great Britain's most brilliant and wealthiest barristers, has been expelled from the Labour Party. After months of argument and dissension, caused by his "revolt," the party conference voted' for his removal by a majority of 5 to 1,! or 2,100,000 votes to 402,000. Two questions were decided by the expulsion: First, whether an eminent I member should be at liberty to* organise the conversion of the Socialist Party to the programme which -he - thought electorally advantageous; " secondly, whether the party was' prepared to proclaim • allegiance to the."United Front" of, Communists, Independent Liberals, and all manner of other independents of the Left, which it has again and again refused to join. Some time ago Sir Stafford circulated- to local associations a memorandum urging the Labour Party to join the other parties' in fighting 200 seats: which the Socialists could not expect to win themselves at the next General Election, His suggestions did not have the approval of the party executive, with the result, as one speaker at the conference said, the Socialists "have spent nine blasted month's in a preelection year doing just nothing else but arguing the toss about Cripps." . CAREFULLY-PREPARED ■■_•■••■ 1,. ". ARGUMENT. •' ■' . '. ■' The conference agreed to Sir Stafford Cripps's' request to. be heard before he was judged. It was a. carefullyprepared argument to convince the con- ] ference that the principle of survival in any democracy was freedom of discussion ,and. that no pressure: or control should be permitted to limit the exposition of rival policies. His only offence, he declared, had been the circulation within the party ' of a memorandum which the executive had declined to accept. Sir Stafford Cripps disclosed the fact that he would have withdrawn the memorandum if the executive had been willing to take action towards unity in the 200 constituencies. in which Labour's electoral chances were hopeless. The speech contained no retraction, or qualifications of his. stand, and inleffect Sir Stafford Cripps called on tlie conference to choose -between, him and; his policy and the executive and its policy. ■ •■'"•■■". "A number of unpleasant., statements have been made about my wealth by members of the executive," he said. "While I was in the party they never showed,any objection to the. fact .that Learned a large income. Indeed, at times df was regarded as something of an asset to the party. It is said that what I did could only have been done by a rich man. I realise .that to raise £24," which was the cost of circulating my memo, was outside the reach, of any poor man. But it is a strange application of the principle, that there should be an equal law for rich and poor to penalise, a rich man 'for what he does when it would.be in order for a poor man to do it if he could get a rich man to help him to do it. ..These arguments have been spread about to stir up class prejudice in the party— a prejudice which I have noticed is singularly absent on other occasions, especially when the party desires to' raise funds. ! HERESY HUNTING. "I have always fully appreciated," he added, "the careful scrutiny to which middle-class people v like myself are subjected if they join the . Labour Party. That prmcipie, when applied .to individuals because of their political opinions, is apt to-, become mere camouflage for ..heresy-hunting." Sir Stafford said the Socialist Party would die if they destroyed healthy criticism like his. Without.free and unlimited discussion any organisation, he said, must become static. No one suggested expelling Mr. Lansbury or the pacificists, although in some cases they actually favoured Mr. Chamberlain. Why shouid they expel him. when his only purpose was to give the Socialist Party a programme on which they j could defeat the Government and put i the' Opposition in power? "If you | share my views/" he said, "I hope] you will reverse the decision of the j executive arid assert in your., domestic i sphere those liberties which are dis- \ appearing so rapidly throughout the world." MATTER OF PARTY DISCIPLINE. Mr. Hugh Dalton replied that no one had been expelled from the party for merely holding an opinion. The expul-. sion had followed the refusal of an undertaking to adhere to the constitution, the principles, the policy, and the programme of the party. It was clear to the executive that Sir Stafford Cripps would not have accepted as fin*al the decision of a special conference if it had been adverse to his view. Party discipline required that minorities must submit with good grace to majorities. After the vote Sir Stafford- Cripps, said: "I do not contemplate applying for readmission. I have known for a long time that the trade unions are opposed to me,.and they are the great mass of the party. I shall continue to sit on the Opposition front bench in the Commons. I do not think my position in the constituency party will be interfered with. They have already made a practically unanimous vote in my support. I think the executive of the party will disafnliate my constituency party and .they might consider putting up an official candidate."