The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) SATURDAY, JAN. 26th, 1924. THE LABOUR PREMIER.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 January 1924, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) SATURDAY, JAN. 26th, 1924. THE LABOUR PREMIER.

10. Non. James Ramsay Macuonalii, M.P., whom the British political situation has thrust into the Premiership anil on tu the Treasury Bench, has the distinction of being the least known leader of the Opposition in the Commons outside the shores of England. Certainly, India celebrates his name, because a few years ago ho went tu India, and the sumo qualities which have kept him the Labour leadership through the past Parliament there won ji'in the somewhat misunderstanding respect of every Oriental apostle of freedom whom lie met. A writer familiar with his career declares that Mr Macdonald would, if he were asked to describe the particular school of thought to which lie adheres, immediately profess himself a Socialist. He was horn a Socialist; more than that, a Scotch Socialist, and, therefore, beyond conversion. His views were not even toned down or modified by the. experiences of tap Great War, during which he played a part none too popular, either with the Government or with the more moderate war-working section of Lalour. No places in the War Cabinet or Privy Council for Mr Ramsay Macdonald! let Air Arthur Henderson and Mr ,1. It. Clyncs do what they w-nild. Appeals about national danger left his course unswerving. Even a caiefully oiganised lour in Franco in J 917 could not make him budge. So when he came up for election in 1918, the electors ol Leicester rejected him with considerably more force than they had over before rejected a candidate. Then, in March. 1!>21. he stood at a hyeelection for East Woolwich, supposed to he one of the most radical seats of the East of England—but not radical ei out'll to accept Mr Macdonald ami Ins war-time record I Finally, at the 1922 elect inn. lie achieved the extraordinary distinct ion of being about the on 1 v Scotchman in the realm to represent a Welsh constituency. That Leicester should this year have oast out Mr. Winston Churchill, and that Mr MacDonald should have reached No 10 Downing Street, proves how far British politics have veered away from «ar-time inllucncos. That he should lie in such a position as the head of British Labour, which somebody has toimod “»s fascinating an amalgam as Burke’s tos sol a tod pavement,” says a good deal not only for his courage, but for his ability as a diplomat. It is no eu:- thing to handle any party of IS2 members and keep them whole, but to reconcile such extremes as Mr Sidney Webb, the Fabian, and the rougher class of mining representative, and to dovetail peacefully into the mass rich dabblers in democracy, like Miss Susan Lawrence, who bouses here socialism in an expensive flat in the exclusive Adelphi. is a task to make an ordinary party leader to take to his heels. I here I, no evidence that Mr Macdonald is having a nightmare about it, and tho only time his popularity in the party sagged during the last Parliament was when he committed tire abominable crime of dining at Buckingham Palace in the dress of ceremony! Deeply shocked at that faux pas were the reds of the party, and, presumably, equally shocked the Countess of Warwick and several honest, toilers of the party, who themselves have a splash of royal blood in their veins front a century or two hack. But to-day, Mr Ramsay Macdonald is Prime Minister of Great Britain, and so the whirligig of time works its strange political evolutions.