WARM CRITICISM OF LABOUR

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1929, Page 9

WARM CRITICISM OF LABOUR

LORD BIRKENHEAD LOOKS BACK. “THIS AMATEUR DIPLOMACY.” By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 5.5 p.m. London, Nov. 30. The Earl of Birkenhead, speaking at a Conservative Association meeting, declared that the tone Mr. Philip Snowden adopted on the Continent in insisting on something regarding which the Conservative Government would be equally consistent but more polite, was alien to British diplomatic traditions. “It is astonishing,” he said. “London should gallop forward and acclaim Messrs. MacDonald and Snowden and confer on them the freedom of the city. “It was in the balance in 1914-18 whether the Empire survived or smashed when Mr. Snowden contributed a constant stream of defeatism and Mr. MacDonald excited only a strike of the mercantile marine when it refused to convey him to a Soviet conference,” continued Lord Birkenhead. “A combination of the other parties could turn out the Government. I would rely on the common sense of the people to turn it out when it was grossly wrong rather than maintain it by fundamental hypocrisy. Unless it is controlled .it will destroy the whole basis on which our relationship with Egypt depends and bankrupt us in our obligation to maintain the rights of civilised countries there. If the Government can escape its obligations to Europe it will prove itself a political infant. “There is no immediate prospect of Dominion status for India; would dissolve India in anarchy. I wish some son of toil and a competent trades unionist were the Indian Secretary. It is not the place for a second-rate Parliamentary filibuster, and I hope those who must decide the question will not be influenced by this amateur, sentimental diplomacy. We are finding work for more men in England than were employed in July, 1914. Our right to large scale migration has been greatly restricted. The Government places burden after burden on capital. We shall soon find a quarter of a million brighteyed boys who should be seeking work but are receiving the dole.”