MR RAMSAY MACDONALD USED TO ATTEND FAMOUS CLUB.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 46, 24 February 1931, Page 6

MR RAMSAY MACDONALD USED TO ATTEND FAMOUS CLUB.

To-day’s Article

Written for the “Star

By

An Old Member.

When Mr Ramsay MacDonald and Mr George Lansbury met for the first time some forty years ago, in a basement room in Stone Buildings, Chancery Lane, it is unlikely that either saw in the other a future Cabinet Minister, nor is it probable that Mr Sidney Webb, who first met them both in this same room, realised that he and they would be members of the same Cabinet, and that Ramsay MacDonald would be the instrument of his elevation to the House of Lords. The basement room referred to —it is an office nowadays —teas then the home of the United Demo-

cvatic Club; Ramsay MacDonald, one of its earliest members, in appearance and manner somewhat like a genteel young shop assistant, was then in his envelopeaddressing days, and George Lansbury, a gawkish young man with a very powerful voice, was just beginning in Poplar to make a noise like a Labour agitator.

QDDLY ENOUGH, Mr MacDonald, in

whatever reminiscences or memoirs he has published, makes no reference to his membership of this notable club, and yet, undoubtedly, it must have been there that his career was shaped, for there he must first ha\’e realised the possibilities and opportunities of the New Labour movement and decided to take the path which has led him to his present proud position. The United Democratic Club, described exactly, was the home of intellectual Bohemia in the late ’eighties and the early ’nineties of the last century. The leading figure in its establishment was Mr Bennett Burleigh, the “ Daily Telegraph’s ” celebrated war correspondent, who proposed to use it as a source of propaganda for the rehabilitation in public esteem of Sir Charles Dilke, preparatory to his Parliamentary candidature for the Forest of Dean. Burleigh formed a committee for this purpose within the club, and I remember that I, for a month or two, acted as its secretary. Within a very short period, however, the club grew far beyond Burleigh’s original conception of it. Its membership roll swelled week by week, and it was no more than six months old when it was firmly established as the rendezvous of everybody who was anyone in journalism and literature of that day, and the centre from which radiated practically all the advanced political thought and social reform doctrines of the period. Notable Members. The Social Democratic Federation certainly antedated it, but I don’t think I am wrong in saying that the seeds of the Fabian Society and the Independent Labour Party came from it. It will well illustrate its representative character to set down the names of members that I can remember. A notable list, and remarkable for the number of still living and prominent people it includes. I am not prepared to say that Lord Haldane and Lord Oxford were members, but undoubtedly they were visitors, making their first appearance together, and having a drink at the bar, one night about eleven-thirty. J. Ramsay MacDonald was not only a member, but a regular habitue. He was a very quiet young man in those days, was never prominent in the club’s activities, and affected most the company of the Misses Thompson, two very charming lady members. R. B. Cunningham Grahame was our most picturesque and cultured member; John Burns, his great friend—they figured together in a famous Trafalgar Square incident—was his most frequent companion. Honest John made occasional appearances at the club, but I’m not sure that he was a member—l have heard that he expressed contempt for it because it had women members. Keir Hardie, also a close friend of Cunningham Grahame, was one of its earliest members. He lived then in Neville’s Court, Fetter Lane, but in its north side and not in No. 10 as was recently stated. Ben Tillett, also a member, added to the harmony of our Saturday night concerts with his “ Cockles and Mussels.” Other prominent and active members were Lord Dalziel of Kirkcaldy, then plain

John Henry Dalziel, London correspondent of the “ Scottish Leader,” not yet an M.P., but bursting with ambition to be a great orator. During the Scottish railway strike he acted as secretary to the club’s strike committee and raised large sums of money for the strikers. Michael Davitt, also a member of the club, was chairman of this committee. J. Havelock Wilson, Tom Mann (always with a blatant red tie, but before he became a publican in Endell Street), Pete Curran (a sincere and great-hearted democrat), Joseph Burgess (of the “Labour Leader”), Tom M’Carthy, George Lansbury, Harry Champion—all members—were just beginning to get their hands on the strings of the Labour movement. The Intellectuals. Greater lights—the intellectuals—were 11. M. Hyndman, Sidney Webb, Walter Crane, William Morris (his daughter May, of the “ Blessed Damozel ” face, was also a member and married a fellow member, Halliday Sparling, then Paris correspondent of the “Daily Chronicle”), and John Morrison Davidson, Jim Connell, the “ Amateur Poacher ” and writer of the “ Red Flag,” who recently died, was a frequent speaker at the club debates, the perpetrator of some wonderful “ bulls.” Dr Aveling represented the “ Freethinker ” element. Mrs Annie Besant was just beginning to take an interest in theosophy and gave one of her first lectures on the subject at the club. It was a marvellous night and we had a most enjoyable hour of free fighting in the passages outside the club room in the process of ejecting the overflow that threatened to swamp the lecture. Herbert Burrowes made Mrs Besant a member, as also her charming daughter Mabel, who married a journalist member named Scott and departed with him to Australia. Bernard Shaw.

I am by no means certain that George Bernard Shaw was a member of the club —perhaps, as his chief earnings then were from his writings as “ Corno di Bassetto,” of the “ Star,” he could not afford the subscription—but at least he was a visitor, ajnd that we had a genius amongst us we thoroughly understood. His play, “ Arms and the Man ” was produced at the Old Avenue Theatre during the club’s lifetime, and in the club was arranged and rehearsed, the famous gallery (three of us did it) which gave George Bernard Shaw the opportunity—at curtain call—of looking up and saying; “ I quite agree with you, sir, but what are we, against so many! ” I have mentioned that the club had women members, and in this connection it has to be recorded that the ugly word murder is associated with two of them. The first was a murderer’s victim, she, Grace Goodall, wife of an artist who was also a club member, was murdered in her house in Harrington Square, N.W., a few years back, and the mystery of the murder has never been solved. The other was the notorious Madeline Smith, discharged on a “Not Proven” verdict, after a sensational trial for the alleged murder of her lover. (Anglo-American N.S.—Copyright.)