LABOUR’S CAUSE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 October 1924, Page 5

LABOUR’S CAUSE

— BRITISH PREMIER, . FINDS ENTHUSIASM GREATER. THAN EVER. BEFORE. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. (Received Oct. 24, 11.20 a.m. . LONDON, Oct. 23. On his return to Aberavon after another 500-mile tour, Mr MacDonald stated that he found such enthusiasm in the Labour cause as he had never seen before. LONDON, Oct. 23. The Conservative leader (Mr Stanley Baldwin) spent yesterday at the Conservative headquarters. He addresses a meeting at Gravesend to-night and travels north on Friday for a series of meetings. He will tour the Manchester area on. the eve of the poll. The Daily Telegraph says encouraging reports continue to reach the Conservative headquarters from all over the country. The party is striving not only for a clear but for a working majority, and in order to ensure a stable Government, which the country desires. The Conservatives ought to register a net gain of at least seventv seats. The Morning Post says that the Premier (Mr Ramsay MacDonald.) has now stated that the Socialist Party stands absolutely for the. fulfilment of the Labour Party programme of 1923, and has nothing to amend or withdraw. The most striking feature of yesterday’s speches was Mr Lloyd George’s attack on Mr Baldwin, made at Haverford West, where he declared that the Liberals did, not vote in 1923 in order to put Labour in, but in order to put Mr Baldwin out. Mr Baldwin had made a mess of every business lie liad in hand. “Wc cleared out the people who were unfit for their .job,” said Mr Lloyd George. “We ask for support on the ground- of a stable Government, but Mr 11. H. Asquith was in for eight years, I was in for six, and Mr Baldwin could not keep himself in for six months. He just staggered, stumbled and fell into the ditch.” Mr Lloyd George concluded by advising electors to take the middle path between Conservatism and Socialism. A sharp controversy has arisen owing to the following statement by an unnamed official at the Labour headquarters: “We welcome the pact between the Conservatives and the Liberals. The sooner we have only two parties and no Liberal Party the better.” „ Despite a statement from the Labour headquarters deprecating rowdyism, a number of meetings of Conservatives and . Liberals were broken up. Sir' Robert Horne was obliged to abandon his speech at Glasgow* last night and several were ejected, the scenes causing women to rush towards the platform for safety. Later Sir Robert Horne answered questions amid great disorder, Mr Asquith had practically a similar experience at Paisley. The audience sang “The Red Flag,” and the meeting was brought to a standstill temporarily. During a disturbance at a Conservative meeting at Lambeth? Baths one of the stewards was struck on the head with a. spanner. The chairman read the Public Meetings Act of 1908 in the presence of the police. The meeting became more peaceful and concluded with the National Anthem, followed by ‘“The Red Flag.” Mr Hogbin, the Liberal candidate for North Battersea, was injured, 'but not seriously, by a stone flung through the window of his motor car. Admiral Taylor (the Conservative candidate for Finsbury), who commanded the Renown during the Prince of Wales ’ Empire voyage, persisted for nearly two hours and was eventually howled down. A youth shouted: “You are the man who gave the order to the sailors ‘On your knees, you dirty dogs,’ ” The admiral, clenching his fists, thuncleTed: “That is an infamous lie.” He explained that the slander related to an incident long before the Avar in which another officer, being of short stature and Avishing to haA'e his instructions understood by all his men, gave the usual gunnery order:*“On the knee.” Election rowdyism is spreading. Colonel Sherwood Kelly (Conservative candidate for Claycross) left the platform and administered a straight left and right to an interrupter who dubbed 'the speaker a liar. Sir Alfred Mond declares that the Labour headquarters is sending out bands of trained interrupters, Avhich shoAvs that the Labour policy is based on the Russian model of breaking up meetings, heading to dictatorship.