INDEPENDENT STATE

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1935, Page 3

INDEPENDENT STATE

ANNIVERSARY IN LATVIA. GIFTS MADE TO ORPHANS. Children in the Latvian orphanages have had a present from the. Government, states the Christian Science Monitor. ; ■ To celebrate Latvia’s sixteenth birthday recently each orphan has received from the Prime Minister, Dr. Karlis Ulmanis, a big luscious “yellow bretzel," the Latvian birthday cake. The sixteenth anniversary of Latvia’s hard-won independence was celebrated throughout the land, as well as in those little corners of Latvian soil abroad—the Latvian legations scattered up and down the world.

Are these rejoicings justified? The question has been asked. Here the answer is not doubted. Conditions in Latvia, it is explained, are now very peaceful, and most Latvians are believed to be quite satisfied with the present dictatorial regime set up in May by Dr. Ulmanis. True, Parliament no longer functions, but its very absence has put an end to party bickerings, and through it, it is contended the country is being, saved a great deal of valuable time and money. So Dr. Uhnaris, the 55-year-old Pre-mier-Dictator, is very popular. Son of at Latvian farmer, this lifelong friend of the Lettish peasants has laboured unceasingly to raise their economic and cultural life to a higher level. In 1905 he incurred the Tsar’s displeasure for his active struggle for .Latvian independence. First Prime Minister of an independent Latvia, Dr. Ulmanis has taken a leading part in Latvian politics ever since. And as a true son of the soil, he is also the author of most of the laws for the improvement of Latvian agriculture arid < farming, which have come into force £ during the last 16 -