SPEEDY CONVERSION

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1929, Page 12

SPEEDY CONVERSION

AIR. JOWITT SEEES “GREAT LIGHT” London, June 13. Since a Chinese general who had been converted to Christianity ordered all his brigade to be converted and baptised in a river, there has been no instance of rapid conversion equal to that of Air. Jowitt, now Sir W. A. Jowitt, to the orthodox Labour faith. He fought, and won, the election at Preston hi the darkness of Liberalism, but within two days or so of his return as a Liberal, he suddenly saw a great light, and was formally received by Air. MacDonald into the true fold. Mr. Jowitt has always had a good deal of sympathy with Labour, and during the last Parliament he frequently voted with them, but he fought as a Liberal, and his speeches in exposition of the Liberal cause left nothing to be desired. His letter to the Prime’Minister announcing his adhesion to Labour failed to explain the motives which prompted this sudden change. The nearest parallel in modern politics for such a speedy conversion is to be found in the Home Rule struggle in 1893. Air. Gladstone had sent one of his supporters to the House of Peers, but when the Home Rule Bill followed him, he finally felt compelled to vote against it. He made a very confused and embarrassed statement of his reasons, and Lord Rosebery icily remarked, “The noble lord wears his coronet like a crown of thorns.”