BRITISH POLITICS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLI, Issue 20308, 6 January 1936, Page 11

BRITISH POLITICS

CANDIDATES FOR ROSS CROMARTY United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received January 5, 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, January 4. The Ross Cromarty Conservative Committee turned down Mr Malcolm Macdonald’s candidature, and declined to invite him to address a meeting. Mr Malcolm Macdonald later announced that he is contesting Ross Cromarty as a National Government candidate. A newly formed branch of the Labour Party at Dingwall adopted Mr Hector McNeil, who opposed Mr Walter Elliot, for Kelvingrove, to contest the Ross and Cromarty seat. Mr McNeil has accepted, and will b3gin his campaign immediately. CABINET CRITICISED PRESS ALLEGATIONS AGAINST MR MACDONALD United Press Association—By Electric Telegra oh —Copyright LONDON, January 3. The political correspondent of “The Manchester Guardian” says: The first indication of the national Labour members Cabinet’s attitude to the Hoare-Laval crisis, appears in an article in the national Labour “Newsletter,” which, if not actually written by Mr Macdonald, cariies his approval. It contains some of the sharpest criticisms of Mr Baldwin and Sir Samuel Hoare voiced in or out of Parliament. It deplores Mr Baldwin’s promise to abandon personal contacts between Foreign Ministers, in favour of diplomacy through Ambassadors, and points out that methods of the old diplomacy are unsuited to a world where rapid action is often vital. Personal contact between responsible Ministers should be one of the most effective aids to peace and understanding. The fact that the HoareLaval conference was singularly badly mishandled, is no reason for condemning such meetings, except for the purpose of escaping from a tight corner.

“The Newsletter" disposes of Sir Samuel Hoare In a single sentence, saying that no Minister has the" right to exceed Instructions and then to claim the shield of joint Cabinet responsibility. The editor of “The Newsletter,” Lord Elton, writes that Sir Samuel Hoare left the impression of a man too tired and nervous for great affairs and Mr Baldwin wielded no magician’s wand. Prompt Denial. Mr Ramsay Macdonald, dneying that the article in the “Newsletter” intended to attack the Government, declares it is sheer mischief making to say it was an attack on anybody.