LABOUR ATTACK on The Civil List

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 109, 25 May 1937, Page 7

LABOUR ATTACK on The Civil List

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..I ■ llll #1 ' I' ' " TOO MUCH POMP & ClRCUMSTANCE" * Maior Attlee Protests At "Parading" Monarchy AMENDMENT LOST

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(Received 25, J.30 p.ra.) LONDON, May 24. Durmg the House of Commoiis debate oli the Civil List, Major C. R. Attlee, leader of the Parliameaitary Labour Party, protested agaiuift- ihe excessive hoosting of Royalty in redent years. He said that Labour members did not waiit to run the Monarchy on clieap lines, but they were not prepared to accept the standard laid down by the Givil Ljst. There

MAJOR ATTLER *hould be a revision in consultation to see how the Royal Family could best be iitted into democ-J raoy. The question of whether thc time had a,rrived to modify the "pomp and oircumstance" of the monarchy was raised by Majoi Attlee, when the Chancellor of the Exehequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, inoved a series of resolutions giving effeet to the recommendations of the select committee on the Civil List, whieh maintained the total at £410,000, Mr. Chamberlain explained that no provision had been made in the event of the marriago of Princess Elizabeth, because the committee felt that it was impossible at present to know what would be the conditions then prevailing, or what provision, i£ any, it would be proper to make. Major Attlee, in moving that provision be limited to a year only, said that the Labour Party 's opposition was not associated with republicanism or running the Monarchy "on the cheap," but tbey could not acquiesce in establisbing false standards for a long period. The present conception of suitable provision rested on an idea of a century ago, "We live in a democratlc age ' and do not ,make a god of an orJdnary man. The King rules not only here hut In the Dominions, those great democraciei where people are socially more democratlc than here." to the Coronation, Major Attlee eald: "There is no question that people like a certain amount of pomp and circumstance, 1 hut there i* a difference between occasional displays of pageantry and a continuous ohservance of ritual. It is not right thst the * King should he expected always to live on parade or that he and his family should always he In the puhlic eye. * "There has heen in recent years far too much hoosting of Royalty in the Press and over the wirele&j.

lo is unfair to the Monarch and unhealthy to the community." : Major Attlee said tliat he did not under estimate the importance of the Monarchy, but the greatest of its responsibilifciea was not comparablo with the responsibility of the House of Commons. There might be grave political mlschief if the conditions under which the King lived meartt cutting him off from the masses of the people or surrounding hira with in•fluences operating in oue direction only- - "We are looking to the future, and believe that the country is moving rapidly from a clase state to a classless State," he eoncluded. " We do nct believe that enveloping the Royal Family with a continual round of obsequienee mahes for the strengthening of the Monarchy," Mr Winston Churchill wondered where Major Attlee had been during the past few weekft, in which there had been a ftlear manifestatlon that it was Ihe ypish of an overwhebning raajority ! all parties that the pomp and circum•teaee associated with the Monarchy

should not be cleared away m thede modern dajs. Denying that any town iu Britam was stirred to its depths by the Coronation or that' any big seotion of the population wanted "bunting and Uunkum ' ' Mr James Maxtou (lndepeudent Labour) argued that the cost of thc laouarcliiul system was heavier thau necesg&ry. Sir Archibald Sinclair (Liberal) said that the Monarchy was performing a vital service. He agreed that greater simplicity was de&irable but tho present King and previously King Edward and King George V. had shown keennese to make access to the Court easy for all sections of society. He was surprised that Major Attlee blamed the Press whieh kuew the interest that people took in the Royal Family, Colonel J. C. Wedgwood (Labour) asked: "How could the King get the feel'ings of the people when he only read newspapers of the governing classes?" The Labour amendment was defeated by 204 votes to 104, after which the resolutious were approved.