PROPHECY FULFILLED.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 June 1924, Page 10

PROPHECY FULFILLED.

THE GIFT OF CHEQUERS. “A pretty prognostic is being fulfilled in the person of the. Prime Minister at Chequers,” says the Daily Express. “The last time Lord Lees stayed there, before giving 'up his home to the Prime Minister, he was filled, like one of the old seers, with the spirit of prophecy. He wag leaning over a gate, looking at his purebred Herefords, when the inspiration came upon him. ‘I look forward to the day’—he said to his companion—‘when a Labour Prime Minister shall be in 'power, and shall come down here like King Arthur, to ‘cure him of his grievous wound.’ He explained what that mental and moral ‘wound’ was. ‘The great danger of Labour in control,’ be argued, ‘is that the experience of Ministers will have been wholly, in tonus, and their minds and interests will have become absorbingly urban and oppidan. My hope is . that they will come down here to' Chequers and unconsciously absorb the spirit of the deep, deep country.’ He pointed to that green and spacious valley; cut off from the world, a thousand miles in spirit from London, a piece of English England of irresistible influence. He spoke of the power of Chequers thus directly preserving the health of the English people through their Ministers. ‘lts work.’ he said m effect, ‘is to deurbanise the minds of British rulers, especially if they have been bred in towns.”