DETRACTORS OF THE PRINCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18950, 23 February 1925, Page 9

DETRACTORS OF THE PRINCE

; OUTBURST IN COMMONS. j * ' ' MR. KIRKWOOD THREATENED LETTERS FROM LOYALISTS, i REBUKED BY COLLEAGUES. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright,. (Received 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON. Feb. 20. The Evening Standard says that ; since the speech made in the House of Commons by Mr. D. Kirkwood, Labour i member for Dumbarton, in which he at- ' tacked the Prince of Wales, he has ro- ] ceived 300 letters of vehement protest ' against his statements on that occasion. j 1 Some of the writers threatened that j Mr. Kirkwood will "quietly disappear J some night, and never be heard of ! again." Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald, in the I course of a speech at Swindon, referred ! to Labour members' criticism cf the Prince's tour. .He said: "If we send an ! official representative to tho Dominions or to a foreign country, whether ho be ! John Smith or the Prince of Wales, we ! should pay his expenses. It is not con- | sistent with the self-respect of the i people or tho Labour Party to tell them ! to pay their expenses out of their own j pockets. We are too big for that sort ; of thing." j Mr. ,T. R. Clynes, formerly Lord Privy I Seal in the Labour Cabinet, in a speech : a Hornchurch, said the attack made by j tho Clydesido Labour members on the Princo showed that Labour had the gift of taking the unpopular course without just cause or advantage to itself. Without consulting the party Mr. Kirkwood took his own line of action, and memj bers of the party, including its leader, j were then asked why they did not foli low the mover of tho adverse motion into tho lobby. This was a comic conception of disJ ciplino and loyalty, remarked Mr, ' Clynes. Ho went on to say that the ' Prince's visit to South Africa was not to bo for pleasure, but was an act of public j duty to the Empire over which he | might reign some day. Tho Prince was | no more to blame for the conditions of | the working classes on the Clyde than I was any member of the House of ComI mons * _______ I ~