“SURE OF HIS PLACE IN HISTORY"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 42, 12 November 1937, Page 5

“SURE OF HIS PLACE IN HISTORY"

-PresB A8BD-

Tributes to the Late Mr. Ramsay MacDonald

THE KING'S MESSAGE

(By Telegraph-

-Copyriiilit.I

(Received 12, 8.45 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 10, In the library of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald 's home at Hampstead his sons examined piles of cables and telegrams and messages from members of the Royal Family, statesmen, and gersonal friends throughout the world. The King sent a telegram: "It was with deepest regret that the Queen and I- received the news of the sudden death of your father, by which a remarkable career of great distinetion was brought to a close. Knowing as I do how highly my father valued his loyal and devoted support during the years when he held the great office of Prime Minister, I share the grati'tude that will be felt throughout the Empire for a life given unsparingly to the service of his fellow-inen." The late Mr. MacDonald 's sons Malcolm and Alastair listened in the Sergeant-at-Arms ' gallery to the tributes paid in the House of OommOns. Mr. Malcolm McDonald said to-night that it was too soon to arrauge the funeral. The ship would not reach Bermuda until November 15. The Australian Associated PresS is informed that a memorial service will be held at Westminster Abbey, where a burial, site will probably he offe'red, but Lossiemouth is the most likely burial-place. The Secretary-General of the League of Nations, M. Avenol, has cabled the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Anthony Eden, expressing the Seeretariat Js own grief and conveying condolence to the Government and to Mr, MacDonald 's own family. The Times, in a leader, says: "His action in 1931, marked as it was not only by the highest sense of public duty but by his most considerate handling of many of those who came tp hate him, was the most eonstruetive and culminating nction of his career^ and they will endorse his, own refusal to regret it despite the obloquy, particularly cruel to his sensitive nature, to which it exposed him. "He is' sure of his pla,ce in history — and it will be a High place — not merely because he happened to be the first Prime Minister of bpth a Labour and 'a national Government, but because he certainly took risks for what he thought right, and that is not a mab ter of chance but of character. "What- was that character? His foes Vhave called it vain and confused; neutrals, enigmatL; and friends, sublimely yet practically idealistic. The truth is that the character of men in the public eye cannot be accurately summed up in a single adjectiv© or in any number of similar adjectives."