TALK OF NATIONAL PARTY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19641, 8 November 1933, Page 7

TALK OF NATIONAL PARTY

POLITICAL GOSSIP IN BRITAIN SOLID FRONT MAINTAINED BY CABINET United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received November 7, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON. November 7. Does Mr Ramsay Macdonald’s speech imply the pending, or eventual formation of a distinctive National Party? is the question discussed in most journals from theif own political angle. “The Daily Telegraph’s” political correspondent says: “The Government’s present intention is to fight the next general election as a National Government. There is no truth in the suggestion that the Conservative Party will be asked to sink its separate identity. Closer co-operation between the Conservatives, National Liberals, and National Labourites will be the slogan. Any suggestion of the Conservative Party following some kind of merger, requiring a new label, would be opposed in the Westminster constituencies. “The Daily Express” political correspondent declares that plans for the formation of a National Party are in full swing. Mr Macdonald, Mr Baldwin, and Sir John Simon do not consider the time ripe for a bold announcement, but are content, at present, to say that there must be no return to party government. They prefer to wait for a new party to happen, just as the National Government happened, and they will continue working to ensure that this happens as soon as possible. The National Government is co-ordinating with the committee, with the object of reorganising the political activities of that committee which should be watched. VIEWS OF LEADERS OF GOVERNMENT. UNITED FOR COUNTRY'S GOOD. British Official Wireless RUGBY, November 6. Mr Ramsay Macdonald, Mr Stanley Baldwin and Sir John Simon were guests at a luncheon given by the National Labour Committee, and each spoke of the value to the country of National Government In overcoming the crisis, which led to its formation, and in tackling the difficulties which still had to be overcome. The Prime Minister said: “The three of them separated in political ideals, were united in their objects, and formed a combination which not one of them would break so long as there was national need for its continuance. He believed that since the National Government was formed two years ago, it had been the greatest steadying force in the whole world.” Mr Baldwin said Britain is in an incomparably better position than she was two years ago, but there was much still to be done, both nationally and internationally, which required that they should continue to maintain the closest collaboration. Above all they had to make people realise tho real need for the preservation of democracy in Britain, and the National Government, he maintained, were the guardians of real social democracy.

Venturing on prophecy, Mr Baldwin said in whatever form the next election came, unquestionably the great issue would be: “Are we going to tread in the path of constitutional democracy, or are we going to scrap it?” There could be only one answer to the question if all who believed in constitutional democracy stood together and fought out the issue. Sir John Simon declared that the old controversies that divided parties were dead, because each party made its contribution to what was now a common national possession. “I was brought up in the strictest school of Liberalism, and I claim that the contribution of Liberalism in the last generation was immense and beneficient.” Referring to the old free trade versus protection controversies, Sir John Simon said both sides now realised that in this complicated modern world there was no single and simple formula which would get them through their troubles. Past party controversies were dead. He said: “Let the dead bury their dead. There is a great work to be done, but it can only be done if we work together.”