“SOLDIER OF PEACE”

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 21

“SOLDIER OF PEACE”

Mr. MacDonald’s Vigorous Address FORGETTING PARTY Bridge Building From “Is” to “Is to Be” “The movement that induces the whole world to be at peace will have made the biggest and the most fundamental change that has taken place in the world since the creation of man. If I could abolish armaments to-mor-row, away they would go. But I cannot. I have got to accept armaments, which I hope will diminish —and which I work day and night to diminish—and I will accept no defeat in that matter,” said the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald,'in an address at a National Government demonstration at Southampton on November 9, reports the “Manchester Guardian." Mr. MacDonald, at the beginning of his speech, at once recalled the occasion nearly 40 years ago when he fought his election at Southampton. “I can assure you I am specially pleased to experience facing a Southampton audi- ' ence once again,” he said. "A friend of mine sent the other day a quarto four-page address with which I am still familiar, although it was issued something like 40 years ago It was a record of the position which I took up in those days when a great many of you who are now interested and active in Southampton polities were still in the custody of nurses. Since those days much water has flowed under tile bridges, but the direction in which the water has flowed has been straight and consistent. "That sheet to which 1 refer was written in 1895. One feels old age almost as a crime. But this is what I wrote then: ‘AL this moment, when so much is uncertain, there could be raised no cry more fata] to our well-being, general progress, and good government than that which you hear in Soutbami>ton —Party, party. Against that cry of my opponents I am to raise the answer: Principle, principle. 1 am bound to neither Toryism nor Liberalism.’ A considerable amount of consistency exemplified in the passing of those years,” he exclaimed. Forgetting Party. “To-day again I stand before you as one who, in a national crisis, has said it is the duty of every good citizen to forget party. In normal times, yes, in quiet times, yes, in times when the foundation of your State is well laid and is not threatened with collapse, yes—go on with your party fights, go on with your contest. “But in days when the political, economic, and industrial foundation of your .State is being pressed and is threatening to crack, then every man, whatever his theories may be, whatever his outlook may be, should join together for the time being in order to see to it that the foundations stand the strain, because neither Liberalism, Toryism, nor Socialism can be built in a State the foundations of which have yielded to stress and strain. “In these days of National Govern- • ment by a combination of men who believe that party politics must subserve national ends —(A woman’s voice: “They got you there!”)—l want to inculcate the truth that the great movement which saved this country in 1931, and is going to hold fast to what It gained and make good for the people the sacrifice they underwent then is still inspired by a combination of parties in order to advance the common interests of national wellbeing.”. "Defending Liberty” Referring to the Armistice Day service, Mr. MaclJOntild said that as he stood at the Cenotaph he registered once mote a vow that we should be one of the instruments in making war a thing of the past. “There is a strange agitation on just now,” he said. “People are unhappy and disturbed, and when that is the psychology of a country it is very easy to make the 'country run after things which are attractive but unsubstantial. “The other day when we wanted to defend our liberty we were told that we were destroying it. ’ Liberty every bow and then requires to be defended, and we require to be careful just now that the means taken iti other places to destroy it are not going to be allowed to be taken here for the same purpose. Liberty of thought, opinion, and life within social bounds is stronger to-day as the result of that legislation than it was before the legislation was passed.. Government and Peace.

"Then there is the whole question of peace and war. I read that there is a feeling growing that the Government is not so zealots in the pursuit of peace as it ought to be. I tell you that is not the case.” Mr. MacDonald said that the National Government had done much for peace, and added: “To-day, in spite of the prospects, our faith is undiminished. Our hearts may be sad—mine certainly is—but I have handed in none of my papers of enlistment in the army of peace. I am still in the ranks of that army, a fighting soldier, to remain there and act there and strive there as long us there is breath in my.body and persuasion in my lips. “Do not encourage any of those disputes within the ranks of the peace organisations of the country. At this time union, fellowship, and recognition of reason for differences of outlook and handling are essential. There is no one way to peace. Until you have the mind of peace you will never get the form of peace.

1 The “Is” and “Is to Be.”

“The great practical problem of every politician who has got a vision of his task and is not a mere time-saver is to build a bridge to span the space between the “Is” and “is to be.”

“While he is building that bridge those of finicky minds and meticulous intelligence will be able to say to him fifty after day: ‘Look at your miserable bridge.’ If we pay too much attention to men of that type we wilj never finish our work. But with the principle of peace in our hearts we shall go on building, and you will be on the other side before you know you have arrived. (Cheers.) "But while they are there we have got to devise the best way to handle the problem. There is only one of two ways: One is to nationalise the whole of your armament production. That me/ins that the State itself must build factories. Having built them, if we could manage it, those State factories would not have enough to do to keep them at work. That means State capital, which should be spent on social services, sunk in those factories and staffs enlisted for

irregular employment with a tremendous increase in casual labour. Controlling the Trade. “That is not a proposition which any practical politician would countenance on any account whatever. The alternative is that which this Government is carrying out. We must control the trade. There are very few real armament firms, and the problem is not the production of armaments but the sale and export of them. If our armament firms supplied odrselves alone there would be no problem. It is when they try to make a market for their goods in foreign countries^that all those evils begin to accumulate which are vitally disturbing the lives of our people. Unemployment and Housing. “Then there is unemployment. This week in the House of Commons there will be various announcements about Government action. We are facing the problem. say ‘Why are yoti not doing something?’. We.have reduced the number by 900,000 and we are striving to reduce it until it becomes normal. You may say the product of our work is not much. But if Hie Opposition were in office it ■would be still, less. “I stand here to-night regarded by some as though I had left the people and class where all my life-roots are. I Stand here because I believe I am the guardian of working-class interests.” On the subject of housing, Mr. MacDonald said: “What we have to’do is to doom the slums, and we have done it. It is going to take a year or two. We are not only going to doom slums, we are going to doom overcrowding. Next session the House of Commons will be almost entirely absorbed by an important bill relating to the Government of India, but we are going to find time to pass.legislation which is going to doom overcrowding as we have already doomed the slums.”