NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 286, 31 October 1934, Page 9

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.

WORK SHOULD CONTINUE. PROTECTION OF LIBERTY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Oct. 29. The prime Minister (Mr Ramsay MacDonald), Mr Stanley Baldwin and Sir John Simon were to-day the guests of the National Labour Committee at a luncheon given on the eve of the reassembly of Parliament. The Prime Minister, in the course of bis speech, expressed the view that the country could not yet afford to return to party politics and said that the work of the National Government, which had done so much to restore stability, must be further developed. He expressed the determination of the Government to proceed with the Sedition Bill, remarking that it was necessary, in view of the example of what had happened in nation after nation, that they should protect their liberties against those who were using the freedom of the country to undo that liberty. Mr MacDonald, in-a reference to the question of defence, said that Britain, in order to give a great move in the direction of peace, had allowed her power of defence to go down until the point of risk had been reached. Mr Baldwin said that everything must be done to 'maintain the unity which at present existed in the National Government. Sir John Simon also expressed his belief that the existing system of political co-operation must be continued. Mr Baldwin, a Press Association cable states, said: ! ‘I tremble to think what will be the effect of a weak Government in Britain in the present condition of Europe. I do not see in the near future any prospect of returning to the party dog-fight of the old days.”