HOME AGAIN

Southland Times, Issue 20044, 4 December 1926, Page 11

HOME AGAIN

TOUR OF GREAT BRITAIN. IMPRESSIONS OF MR WILFORD. COMMENT’S ON THE GENERAL STRIKE. Mr T. M. Wilford, MJ\, who returned to ; Wellington recently after a health tour of Great Britain and the Continent, made some interesting observations on his trip to an Evening Post representative. His com- ; mentis on the general strike, the high regard in which New Zealand and New Zealanders ’ are held, and the hospitality of the British i people to visitors from the Dominion, are I especially noteworthy. Mr Wilford, who was accompanied by Mrs Wilford, said they were glad to be back. “We are both<fit and well, and realise that home is where one’s friends are,” he said. “May 1 take this opportunity of thanking my constituents again for their trust in rue; and may I tell them how much Mrs Wilford and 1 value their confidence. “We have been in England and Scotland, and have motored 3,000 miles through France, that wonderfully busy country where the franc was as uncertain as the ; incomparable Suzanne, and where unem- j pkiyment was practically unknown. “We saw the battle-scarred country, and * called at Amiens, where we saw the tablet in the cathedral erected ‘to the memory of those New Zealanders who fell in the battle of the Somme, and in the final deliverance of the city.’ We toured slowly, and as we ' fell inclined, through the Riviera, bathed in sunshine away from London fogs, and then via the City of Carcassonne and the Chateaux Valley of the Loire and Paris, to London, via Boulogne. “The winter in London with its snow, wet and fog, had no charms for us, though summer later was glorious. In Londori we were privileged to have seats reserved in Westminster Abbey to see the funeral of the late Queen Alexandra, at which a nation’s sorrow was seen and felt. No one can but remark the loyalty and devotion of Britishers to the Royal Family. EMPIRE AFFAIRS. “For months I went to the House of Commons or the Courts, watching and listening to the debates in the former and meeting the members of the Cabinet individually anil the leaders of the other parties, and many of the rank and file as well. After returning from St. Andrews, where 1 stayed for some time with the Rev. Hubert Simpson and Mrs Simpson (recently through New Zealand), and whose kindness we shall ne\er forget, we returned to London, and with our tickets of privilege which entitled us to seats in the House of Commons and House of Lords, and to the right of using the lilxrary, the smoke-room, the lunchroom, and the Terrace for tea in summer, we heard many debates and met many friends. During my last two months m London I did my best to inquire from those who could speak with authority the commercial position and outlook of our country with regard to products and exports from the Old Land. Marketing our butter, cheese, meat and apples interested me, and the development of beam wireless and naval defence and migration were subjects of all importance that I heard much about, and through Sir Howard D'Egvdle’s courtesy I was able to hear experts from various parts of the Empire discuss Empire trade and possibilities. Sir Thomas Mackenzie and 1, as ex-Premier and ex-Minister, were at the request of the Empire Parliamentary Association appointed to represent New Zealand at the Inter-nation Parliamentary Conference at Westminster, where 40 nations sent delegates. At this gathering, which lasted a week, subjects of interest in connection with Lite trade and economic production of the world were discussed from every angle by able men. Included in that week’s work was a presentation to his Majesty the King at Buckingham Palace of the delegates. At the end of our deliberations lunch was given the delegates at Christ Church, Oxford University, when Lord Birkenhead delivered an address on : world affairs. Another important gathering I attended was that at which the Right Hon. Winston Churchill presided, and the Prince of Wales was the principal guest. At this gathering, besides the Prince of Wales and the chairman, the heads of the delegations from France, Italy, China and Belgium spoke as well.

LESSON OF THE STRIKE, “I was in London during the General Strike, and attended the House of Commons at every sitting during that tragedy, and discussed the same with members of each l>olitical party. I think that Great Britain by that lightning clutch at the machinery of government has been vaccinated for our time against revolution, for the people of England and Scotland prefer to be governed from Westminster rather than from the Trades Hall. The nation to-day is licking its wounds, and the scars will take some time to disappear. When the people of the Old Land realised that about twenty men were calling out three and a-half million workers without a ballot to attack the living of 40 millions who were not on strike, they soon gave their answer. I think it was well for the world that the general strike was tried in England, for the world realises now through that effort that British stability is the mainstay of European order. The nation as a whole never wavered in the test. When the strike was over a worker used these words, which will not quickly be forgotten: ‘We, the workers, have talked of the general strike for years with reverence as you talk of God. After the strike, came the great surrender. Somewhere the shield and armour had been pierced—where we knew not. The mighty weapon has swung, clearing a false path. It has done no good. The great experiment has failed. Our faith in it has gone, and it remains a memory, an illusion, and a snare.’ Messrs Cramp and Clynes said, ‘Never again’; and Frank Varley, one of the miners’ executive, said, ‘Ai'e are deceived.’ “My impression is that the leaders deceived themselves and the workers. The workers know now that any attempt to alter Government policy by any other means than argument or the suffrage is a revolution, no matter what the kind of force employed. Out of the general strike has come a plea in every constituency by members of trades unions for legislation to require secret ballots before strikes and to make mass picketing illegal, and the picketing of a man’s private house also illegal; and further, for the protection of the worker against victimisation and intimidation for his political beliefs. NO MINORITY RULE. “Mr Baldwin know now that ‘the peace in our time’ for which he has worked will not be reached if Russia, with the aid of Cook and Co., can prevent it. I am satisfied that legislation will be brought down to kill minority rule in some trades unions in the Old Land, if the trades unions there do not put their houses in order. “I think one of the most helpful features of the Old Land is the wonderful way in which the British pound has held its own with the American dollar, notwithstanding the loss in industry of between £300,000,000 and £400,000,000 since the beginning of the coal strike. The leading men and the rank and file have faith in their country and their people, and will never despair. The General Strike cost the unions no less than £5,000,000 of their funds. And for what! “I would like to conclude this short interview by saying that New Zealand’s name stands high at Home. The hospitality we had to refuse in the first five months of our ‘visit, and the hospitality we enjoyed in the latter months, both in England and Scotland, will never be forgotten by us. England and Scotland are generous and hospitable to the New Zealander abroad.”