PRACTICAL FRIENDSHIP

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4323, 20 July 1937, Page 7

PRACTICAL FRIENDSHIP

GIFTS TO HR RAMSAY MACDONALD INCOME ON £40,000 FOA LIFE Mr Ramsay Mac Donald, to whom a lifelong friend, Sir Alexander Grant, has bequeathed the annual income on £40,000 for life, is one of many statesmen whose services to their country have been rewarded by their admirers. Gifts of this kind are regarded as honourable recompense for the financial sacrifices incurred by being deprived of the opportunity to earn an income in commerce or the professions (says the ‘Melbourne Argus’). The bequest announced in a cable message published recently recalled an incident in Mr MacDonald’s political life which caused excited political discussion some 13 years ago.

Sir Alexander Grant in 1924 gave Mr Mac Donald a motor car and shares to the value of £30,000 in the firm of M'Vitie and Price, biscuit manufacturers, of which he was the controlling director. Sir Alexander Grant had then recently been honoured with a baronetcy, and Mr Mac Donald was Prime Minister Sir Alexander Grant became anxious for the health of his friend when he learned that Mr MacDonald was imperilling his never toorobust health by overwork and by travelling to London by the underground railways. For that reason, and because be considered that it was undignified for a British Prime Minister to "travel by such means, he gave to his friend not only £30,000 worth of shares, but also a motor car. When public criticism developed, Sir Alexander Grant found it desirable to make a public explanation. He said: “ Shortly after he bad become Prime Minister" Mr Mac Donald stayed with me in Edinburgh. He was looking very ill. When 1 learned that he was travelling to London by the underground railways, 1 felt that he was overdoing things" For instance, after he had delivered a fine speech at the Pilgrims’ dinner, he took the train to Chequers, where an old Ford motor car was waiting. * suggested that I should give him a motor car. Mr Mac Donald replied : ‘ There are only three people from whom I could accept one. You are one of the three.’ That is the whole story. I think that the nation ought to be grateful to me for doing something to preserve the health of a man whose work is national.”

OFFER OF A MOTOR CAR. Mr Mac Donald also explained He said that when he became Prime Minister the proudest man in the country was his old friend Sir Alexander Grant, who wished to contribute to his comfort by the gift of a motor car. Mr MacDonald said that he would be content with hiring a car, because when he relinquished office he would probably be poorer. Furthermore, the possession of a car would not be in keeping with his simple habits. Sir Alexander Grant then offered to invest £30,000, the income from which should be at Mr MacDonald’s disposal while he kept the car. At Mr MacDonald’s death the car was to revert to Sir Alexander Grant or his heirs. Mr Mac Donald made it clear, further, that Sir Alexander Grant had received a baronetcy for public services, including the gift of the Scottish National Library, "it was also revealed that Sir Alexander Grant and the Prime Minister had been schoolfellows. There was nothing improper in the circumstances. It was (jointed out by the ‘ Morning Post ’ that the _ shares were on public record at the registry in Edinburgh, and that there had been no secrecy in the matter. The comment faded into innocuous jesting, but before it had trembled into silence it was announcecl that Mr MacDonalcTs final gesture ” was to relinquish the gifts. A fitting finale was a cartoon by “ Poy,” published just after Mr Baldwin had been returned to power, defeating Mr Mac Donald in the General Election. It depicted Mr Mac Donald driving into the desert with a tin of biscuits, and Mr Baldwin driving a six-cylinder Victory motor car bearing the label: “ Ihe gift of John and Jane Citizen.” ° Many statesmen have been embarrassed‘by what Tennyson called

that eternal want of peace Which vexes public men. Mr Mac Donald was not among these (though he suffered poverty in boyhood), but it is notorious that some of his padiamentary associates were thus unhappily situated.

GIFTS IN AUSTRALIA. Private gifts to worthy servants of the State have not been restricted to Britain. There have been several noteworthy cases in Australia. Upon lelinqiiishing the office of High Commissioner of Australia in 1915 Sir George Reid was presented with a large sum (it has been said £20,01)0) by his close friend, Sir Samuel M‘Caughey, the wealthy pastoralist of New South Wales, whose gifts and bequests, amounting in all to more than £1,000.000, were among the most generous benefactions ever known in the Commonwealth. As a consequence of Ins friend’s generosity, Sir George Reid was able, in the following year, to enter the British House of Commons a member for St. George. Hanover Square Another Australian statesman whose services to his country were substantially acknowledged by bis friends was the Federal Minister for Health (Mr Hughes), who, on November 25, 1920. received £25,000 from a group of Australian citizens, including many returned soldiers and from friends abroad. The gift, which was made publicly at a gathering in the King’s Hall, Sydney, was a practical expression of appreciation of Mr Hughes’s services to Australia as Prime Minister during the war and at the Peace Conference.