LABOUR’S FALL

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 October 1924, Page 5

LABOUR’S FALL

TO TAKE PLACE TO-DAY. labourites NOT FOOTPADS. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT. Received Oct. 8, 11.30 a.m. , r LONDON, Oct. 7. Mr. MacDonald, in a speech at the Da hour Conference in London, said that when the time came the Government would dissolve. Delegate s to the conference would return to their posts and sleep in their ai ™ ur until the word was given. Ihe Labour Party would take the held not to defend itself, but to attack its enemies. A , „ . ’ LONDON, Oct. 6. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald (the Premier) on • being specially interviewed by the Review of Reviews, made the most frank and outspoken statement on the political situation so far offered. He sakl: “Just when I was tired, but elated, at reaching a satisfactory basis in the -Turkish negotiations, there came, like a thief in the night, a Liberal demand for a select committee to inquire into the withdrawal of the Campbell prosecution. lam ready for that subject to be debated in the House of Commons, but is it fail; to ask us to accept a sort of roving commission to examine every letter the minute we are asked to submit our case in advance to a select committee, on which our opponents, in accordance with furnr respective strengths, hold a majority of 7to 3? In other words, the parties voting against us will be our judges. They hold the Government’s reputation in their hand. The issue should be tried in the House of Commons, when the responsibility for complicating the issue by preventing the work we are trying to do m the public interest, could fairly be publicly assessed. Though we have not a majority, we are entitled to' fair play. We are not a gang of footpads. “It seems to me that the Irish difficulty is the most urgent, and there will be danger if a Cabinet crisis or dissolution l is brought about by the Liberals’ and Conservatives’ action. It will be inevitable that such action will he regarded by the Free State as a British trick to evade the fulfilment of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. There is an ungentlemanly taint about ohe' situation. “‘Taking the Russian Treaty, the Liberals say they are ready to make a treaty, but they would not give guarantees. If the v Liberals believed in the principle of a treaty, why have they not approached us to see what could best be done? They have made no approach, but gave notice of an amendment in the Campbell matter well knowing the consequences. In a are playing the party game. I believe the country will judge rightly between us.” ELECTION NEXT MONTH. LONDON, Oct. 7. Universal opinion in tlie lobbies is that Cabinet intends that the Government shall fall on Wednesday. This is confirmed by the Daily Herald’s announcement that Labour will fight, and that this is the unanimous decision of Cabinet. The general expectation is that the polling null be fixed for November 8. The real issue of the election will be the Russian Treaty, which alone caused the acute development of the Campbell affair. Twenty or thirty Liberal members of the House of Commons, who doubt the wisdom of their leaders’ condemnation of the Russian Treaty, will meet privately in London on Tuesday; In view of the election, the Daily Herald has launched a clearer food campaign condemning the alleged combines which have a growing grip .on the nation’s food. It instances the recent rises in wheat, flour, tea, butter and sugar, and tabulates the generous dividends of the big food distributing companies -as evidence that they are passing on sufferings to consumers. Mr. Lloyd George, when discussing the influence of the wildmeu of 'the Labour Party, said : “I remember talking to Mr. Hughes. He was once a Labour leader and acting as a Labour Prime Minister, but he told me that he found the position quite impossible. Cabinet would meet and decide on a certain course, and then a meeting of the extreme men outside would send a deputation and say: “We cannot have this. You've got to go faster.” They dictated to the Wight, Left and Centre, forward and backward, until Mr. Hughes, who was not a man to be bullied, for he is a "Welshman, said: “I am not going to stand it any longer. Government is impossible.” so be broke away, and that ended the Labour Government in Australia for a great many years. Mr. Neville Chamberlain, speaking at Rugby, said: “We want to get rid of annual elections, which upset business and disturb trade. We must get rid of three parties and secure a strong, stable Government. As it is impossible for the Liberals to win. I suggest they help us to defeat the Socialists.” LABOUR’S COURSE. LONDON, Oct. 6. It is regarded as significant that Mr. Patrick Hastings, who is not a. member of Cabinet, attended a Cabinet meeting this after non. when consideration was given to the course to be adopted by the Government in a vital debate on Wednesday on the withdrawal of the Workers’ Weekly prosecution. It is understood that deliberations have not changed the position already mentioned, namely, that the Government will insist on a decision by a House of Commons vote, and not by an inquiry, whether by a select committee or a judicial inouiry, and that, if the Government is defeated, a general election will follow.