The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1939 THE CAPITULATION OF SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21360, 1 June 1939, Page 8

The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1939 THE CAPITULATION OF SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS

Sir Stafford Cripps’s capitulation before the firm attitude of the conference of the British Labour Party, will probably have a salutary effect on the recalcitrant wing of the movement. It is interesting, nevertheless, to note the terms that have been laid down for re-admission of Sir Stafford and his fellow “rebels”: “If our application for readmission is granted,” says the letter to the conference, “we shall exercise freedom to impress upon the party the necessity for making effective opposition to the National Government and to oppose every tendency to cooperate with that Government, which we regard as the gravest menace to the working class of Britain. We shall abide by the decision of the conference regarding the Popular Front because if its tactics are rejected its immediate practicability is destroyed.” The decision of the conference and the dramatic turn in events showing the expelled members of the Party making application to be restored to their places within the movement, would seem to suggest that Sir Stafford Cripps has been taught a salutary lesson. This clash did not come as a surprise. For some years the offending leader of the disturbers of peace within the Labour movement has been regarded with outspoken disapproval, because his utterances have been out of tune with the views of the Labour Party. The Popular Front blunder was but the culmination of a long series of what have been described as “silly speeches.” Some months ago, the Labour Lord Mayor of Manchester (Aiderman Joseph Toole) caustically criticised Sir Stafford Cripps for his slighting references to the Crown and the Monarchy generally:

“My tour has convinced me,” said the Lord Mayor who has just Inspected the coronation decorations in the poor quarters in Manchester, “that when Sir Stafford Cripps alluded to the Coronation as bunkum he was once again talking without thinking. I suppose there was no bunkum about the occasion when he went down on one knee before the father of the present King to receive his Knighthood. There is not much bunkum about the country which gave him riches in addition to his title and his standing, and whatever bunkum there may be in it, this country is good enough for Sir Stafford to invest his money in. “The silly speeches of Sir Stafford during the last three or four years have done great damage to great causes, and his latest remark, coming at a juncture when the country has enough trouble to face, and when the King and Queen have to carry such a heavy burden, is an act of great disloyalty; and if I were guilty of it, I should resign my title. Loyalty to the King and Constitution is a voluntary act, and so too is disloyalty. It is a pity Sir Stafford should refer to the Monarchy as the ‘chief prop’ of the political position of a party, for every schoolboy knows that the Monarchy in this country is not a prop for any political party but the pinnacle of our democratic Constitution.

It was generally agreed that Sir Stafford Cripps's “silly speeches” came very badly from one who owes his position, his authority, and his eminence to the free institutions which thrive under a democratic constitution. The sequel which resulted in the expulsion of Sir Stafford Cripps and his rather foolish co-partners in the Popular Front stunt, was not unexpected. The British Labour Party will not tolerate crass foolishness on the part of any of its ordinary members, much less on the part of men whose cultural qualities and influence in the everyday affairs of the nation. This is not inexplicable because no movement with the wide ramifications of the British Labour Party could tolerate the creation of disintegrating caves within its own organisation, or overlook barefaced violation of pledges that must be taken before full membership is conferred.