APOLOGY DEMANDED

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 82, 16 March 1931, Page 2

APOLOGY DEMANDED

LADY HOUSTON AGAIN LETTER TO PRIME I MINISTER DISPUTE WITH MR. MONTAGUE SCHNEIDER AIR TROPHY (Reed. 8 a.m.). LONDON, March 14. Lady Houston has written Mr. Ramsay MacDonald asking that he ensure that an apology be forthcoming to her from Mr. F. Montague, Under-Secretary for Air, for alleged insulting correspondence on the subject of her offer to guarantee the whole of the £IOO,OOO necessary for the expenses of the British team to participate in the Schneider Trophy air race. This offer, which was made on February 7, caused a great deal of unpleasantness. • The Government has insisted on a banker’s guarantee being given for the £IOO,OOO promised. This seems to have annoyed Lady Houston. At her heme in Jersey she discussed the matter with newspaper representatives. “My offer has been made,” she said, “because I am determined not to let a Socialist Government throw awa* Britain’s prestige in the air if I can possibly prevent them from doing so. I .am utterly sick of their policy of ‘Little England.’ Just imagine a Government throwing away money on opera subsidies and refusing it to help our aircraft industry.” In another message Lady Houston declared: — “When the Socialist Govern- I ment gave the paltry excuse that they could not afford the expenses necessary for England’s airmen to participate, my blood boiled with i indignation... 1 am proud to say I inherit the spirit of my forefathers, who considered one Englishman equal to any three foreigners, but this Government is trying to instil into us the poisonous doctrine that we are a third-rate Power ,and doing their best to make us so.” Lady Houston’s eagerness to assist was indicated in a telegram which she sent to Sir Philip Sassoon: “I beg of you, do set things going instantly. Tackle the right person to give the necessary orders without a moment’s delay. Do it now; do it this morning, and send the International Federation to the devil. —Yours impatiently, Lady Houston.” Sir Philip has replied that “everything is going smoothly.” “Impudence of Ruling Classes” Mr. F. Montague, Under-Secretary for Air, commented upon Lady Houston’s remarks when he spoke at a public mqeting. “Lady Houston's announcement,” he said, “is another proof of the fact that many rich people regard a Labour Government as merely a hateful interlude, during which there is called for only the barest pretence of social decency. It would have been much more sporting for Lady Houston to have made her promise in the patriotic spirit she claims to possess. “Why should she not make this guarantee? Her wealth did not drop from the skies. It has come out of the toil of the nation for whose honour she professes such pride, and while her friends in the House of Commons grudge a paltry shilling or two a week for the unfortunate unemployed man’s child, she has the bad taste to exhibit the worst sides of her political and class prejudice in supporting what she regards as her country’s vital interests. “She will have to tolerate a Socialist Government fob some time, and one day the workers of the country, who really constitute the British nation, will refuse to tolerate any longer the impudence of the present ruling class.” Poor Mr. Montague! The exchange of comments was carried a stage further when Lady Houston sent Mr. Montague the following letter: — “Poor Mr. Montague! “It must indeed he a bitter pill for you to swallow after having done everything you possibly could to dish | our airmen and prevent them taking part in the contest for the Schneidei Trophy, to find that you are now dished yourself by a woman’s patriotism. “What a disappointment for the Under-Secretary of State for Air! Not understanding the psychology of a Socialist Minister, I actually imagined that I might perhaps receive congratulations from you for what I had done, but then 1 foolishly thought that you would at least have tried to assume a virtue if you have it not— namely, that of attempting to behave as a gentleman.” i Outburst of Vulgarity \ Sir Philip Sassoon, chairman of the

Royal Aero Club, in a speech at Folkestone, also replied to Mr. Montague’s speech. Sir Philip said; “I am not going to advertise Mr. Montague’s outburst of vulgarity and spite by repeating the remarks he used. I am amazed and indignant to think that so generous and unselfish an offer, one of such importance to the prestige of British flying and to the progress and prosperity of the British aircraft industry, could have been met by such an astounding display of bad manners and bad blood on the part of the Minister who is responsible in the House of Commons for British iaviation. Higher Authority “One might have thought that the duties of his office might have restrained Mr. Montague from going out of his way to offend a lady who was prepared to do so much for aviation. But, in his answers to my own questions in the House of Commons, Mr. Montague has indicated pretty clearly where his own sympathies have lain in this matter of the Schneider contest. He has given no help at all, and I am confident that we should not have got the Government’s consent at all had not Mr. Montague’s counsels been overbore by higher authority. “Yet 1 did not expect that even Mr, Montague would have met Lady Houston’s offer by so contemptible a display of prejudice and bad temper. It could have surprised no one had Lady Houston there and then refused to go any further in the matter and withdrawn her offer, as she could have done. “We are, as a nation, very fortunate that Lady Houston is largerminded than her detractor. Grateful as we are for her offer, we should be still more grateful to her that, in spite of so gross and uncalled-for an attack, she has confirmed Iter offer.” On instructions from Lady Houston, her bankers gave to the Air Ministry the required guarantee for the £IOO,OOO which Lady Houston is prepared to give to defray the cost of Great Britain’s defence of the Schnei der Trophy. The guarantee was accepted.