CABINET VARIANCE

Northern Advocate, 23 August 1924, Page 5

CABINET VARIANCE

RUHR AND RUSSIA.

MACDONALD ACTION RESENTED. AN ELECTION LOOMING. (Received 9.50 a.m.) LONDON, August 22. ' Although Mr Philip Snowden repudiates the idea that his public declaration that he is profoundly dissatisfied with the London agreement because it does not provide for immediate evacuation, of the Ruhr means a split in the Cabinet, it is known that the friction between him and Mr Ramsay MacDoiaald has reached a crisis. Mr Snowden, as Chancellor, has ranged himself beside the hard-headed bankers who do not share Mr Mac Donald's idealism and are unlikely to subscribe to the German loan unless the Ruhr is evacuated, thus giving Germany economic freedom. Mr Snowden is also opposing Mr Mac Donald's Anglo-Soviet agreement. He Avill not countenance the Exchequer guaranteeing a loan to Russia. It is learned that Mr J. R. Clynes and Mr J. H. Thomas also oppose the Anglo-Soviet agreement, which was the outcome of Mr Mac Donald's eleventh-hour intervention in the negotiations. Mr MaeDonald did not inform his Ministerial colleagues to what he had committed the Cabinet until the agreement was an accomplished fact. The Ministers resent Mr MacDonald's assumption of independent powers. The Labourites are afraid that the House of Commons will reject the agreement and force an early election on the Soviet issue disadvantageous to them instead of the Government choosing its own time and selecting a fav-oiu-able election cry.

The Council of the London Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution disapproving the proposed Anglo-Russian Treaty.—Sun.