RED FLAG LAH-DI-DA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19061, 4 July 1925, Page 16 (Supplement)

RED FLAG LAH-DI-DA.

NEW LABOUR SONG WANTED.

Mr. Ramsay McDonald was given an enthusiastic Welsh welcome when ho visited Newport recently to preside at an Eisteddfod, promoted by the Newport Labour Party. In pleading for congregational singing in the Labour movement, Mr. Mac Donald said;—" My great quarrel with the ' Red Flag ' is that it is not good enough. We still want our great Labour Labour song which is .not a ditty. . The ' Red Flag' to mo is too much of. a ditty-r-a "Lah-di, Lah-di Lah-di Da." Wales and Scotland, he said, both had great national songs and march tunes, and he suggested a competition between them for tho production of the best Labour Marching Song which would really enshrino in itself the fighting spirit of tho Labour movement. Acknowledging the presentation of two volumes of Welsh songs to him, Mr. MacDonald said that Labour had an inheritance to cherish in popular song and folk music. It was just as essential to revive folk music and get our working men and women singing as it was to build houses and revive trade. If tho Labour movement succeeded at all, he concluded, if would make, their industrial towns once again nests of singing birds.