Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1924 THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 941, 13 February 1924, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1924 THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER.

It is) still early to pronounce judgment on tiie policy of the new British Government, but it is fairly apparent, from the messages alreudy received, thdt extreme Labour counsels are not at all likoly to be acted upon by the administration which Mr. Ramsay MacDonald has formed with the help of two or three Conservatives and some Libei als from his own party. Although a Socialist by conviction and a man who has risen from obscure surroundings, Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s activities n political life since his assumption of the party leadership in 1922, appear to have been concentrated upon the norc reasonable and practicable objectives of the Labour Party, with which he was first connected as secretary from 1900 to 1911, when he was first elected as leader of the party. He retained that position until 1914, when, as a protest -against the war, he resigned the leadership, only to resume it again in 1922. His resignation in 1914* was due to his support of the Socialist protests entered against England’s decision to enter the war, and lie vas one of the promoters of me mass meeting, held in Trafalgar Square on the eve ol its outbreak. At that meet ng resolutions were adopted calling rpon the citizens of London to express “their deepest detestation of the international war that seems to be on tl e point of breaking out, and upon the workers to unite to prevent their respective Governments from engaging in war.” As one of the founders ol the Independent Labour Party, composed almost wholly of Pacifists, Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s attitude during the war was anything but satisfactory to a very large number of Labourites and it is' interesting to recall the fact that, at least two of his present colleagues (Mr Arthur Henderson and Mr J. R. dynes) holding important positions in Cabinet, were members of the National Ministry under Mr Lloyd George, which rendered such admirable service in stemming the activities of the Pacifists, whose policy would have endec, in the virtual victory of the Central Powers, had it been possible to enforce it. Mr MacDonald’s pacifism was responsible for his defeat at the general election in 1918, when his Leicester constituents showed their disapproval of his actions by rejecting him is their representative. He has written voluminously on political and social questions, the- publications for which he is responsible including “Socialism and Society,” “Labour and the Empire,” “Socialism and Government, “The Awakening of India,” “The Socialist Movement,” “The Social Unrest,” “National Defence,” “’['lie Government of India,” and "Parliament and Revolution.” He also edited the “Socialist Library.” He is a skilled debater and has been described, in an impressionist sketch, as “a graceful speaker. There is no man on either side of tlie House of Commons to-day,” the writer stated, “of whom it could lie said that he is the toaster of MacDonald in a set debate or speech, or in the rapid out and thrust of an unexpected attack. Lloyd George would, perlii p.s, lie his most doughty antagonist. But Lloyd George is emotional and perfervid, where MacDonald is generally reasoning and argumentative. To the non-partisan onlooker it would appear that a tactical blunder was made in supplanting a leader like J. R. Clynes, with his coolness, sense of values and belief in moderation, with so advanced a Radical as MacDonald.” The writer adds that “Ramsay MacDonald is as pronounced in his views as when he first began to attract tlie attention of the Labour Party in partii ular and the British people in general. . . . his flirtations with the Soviet were probably the decisive factor in the determination of the Radicals in the Labour Party to have him its leader.”