MR. STANLEY BALDWIN

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 126, 23 May 1932, Page 6

MR. STANLEY BALDWIN

GREAT ACT OF SACRIFICE SOCIALIST SON’S TRIBUTE ■ In an article in the Sunday Chronicle Mr Oliver Baldwin, the socialist son of Mr Stanley Baldwin, leader of the British Conservative Party, makes a graceful reference to his distinguished father. He made reference to the sacrifice made by his parent in war-time. “It was about 1921 that my father first told me of his great deed of sacrifice. He told me how, during the war, he had been disturbed at the money his investments were bringing him in from the production of war material, and how he had felt it to be blood-money. He had therefore made calculations and decided to hand to the State every penny he had made in excess of what he was receiving before the slaughter began. It came to £125.000.

“My father said ho had asked my mother’s permission before he gave it to the country and she had, agreed What did I think about it? It ‘was not my money; it was not my affair, but I admired them both for the decision, and said so. The result of that gift has brought my father’s income to less than it has ever been since 1908, and many of his cherished dreams for the future have consequently vanished.

“It is a pity that those of his political persuasion who oppose my father so bitterly cannot have as clear a conscience as he possesses, and it is incredible to think that only one other man in England followed his appeal, when he gave the money, to do likewise.

“Though in politics we look -at things from a different angle, I am immensely privileged in being from the stock of one who has given a greater example of material sacrifice to this country than any Prime Minister of any country since the world began.’’