DUKE OF WINDSOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22878, 5 November 1937, Page 11

DUKE OF WINDSOR

AMERICAN "VISIT LABOUR OPPOSITION SPEAKERS' ALLEGATIONS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received November 4, 9.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON. Nov. 4 Mr. Charles Bedaux, owner of the chateau in France in which the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were married, announced that the investigation of the Duke into American labour conditions would occupy 37 days. He said it -would embrace the 15 basic industries, including machinery, oil, chemicals, textiles, tobacco, steel, rubber, paper, timber and food. The Baltimore branch of the American Federation of Labour has passed a resolution condemning the visit of the Duke and Duchess, especially to Baltimore. It has warned trade unionists of the "potential threat to free labour and free democratic government of slumming parties professing to study labour." Speakers at the meeting at which the resolution was carried denounced the Duke for his visit to Germany and for seeking labour information from Herr Hitler. They also asserted that the Duchess, while she lived in Baltimore, showed not the slightest sympathy with the problems of labour or of the poor. Some speakers attacked the association of the Duke and Duchess with Mr. Bedaux, whom they charged with the authorship of a vicious labour system designed to lengthen working hours. Stating that they would embarrass every Briton they meet, Mr. Hannen Swaffer, well-known London journalist, before sailing from New York for England, denounced the decision of the Duke and Duchess to visit the United States. He said: — "I accompanied the Duke of Windsor when he studied housing in Wales. If he were half a century in the United States he wouyl know no more thar. he does now. He is just a middle-aged man married to a middle-aged publicitycrazy woman. "Her former home in Baltimore is ! the best show in America. I stood in the lucky bath. In my opinion the Duke ought tc put her back in it." The last reference was to a bath allegedly vised by the Duchess, in which the majority of visitors to her former home stand or sit "for luck." The British Broadcasting Corporation does not propose to relay the Duke's broadcast on November 12, which will I be the first since his abdication speech.