MR MacDONALD

Hokitika Guardian, 18 October 1929, Page 6

MR MacDONALD

(United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) OTTAWA, Oct. 16. Rt. Hon J. ltamsay MacDonald, British Prime Minister, to-day addressed the Canadian Club at Toronto. The Government of Britain, he said, had before it the problems of developing the unity of the Empire and strengthening tnose intangible bonds of affection and pride which bound its children in the Dominions to the hearth-stones of the Mother Country. Continuing Mr MacDonald said that Britain had no desire to interfere .with the affairs of Canada, though the Mother Country watched them with affection and careful interest. If he was to make any suggestion, it would be that, in economic affairs, we should operate more closely. He proposed to go into no details at this point. His friend, Rt. Hon J. 11. Thomas, had made specific suggestions as to how Canada could help Britain. MAnything you can do along the lino, suggested by Mr Thomas,” he said, “would be welcomed by the whole Government.”

Mr MacDonald rose to great heights when he turned to the moral responsibility of the Empire. “The nation which has no moral message,” he said, “is decadent. We must remember the British Commonwealth of Nations ! We must keep our flags flying!” ANOTHER ADDRESS Mr R •amsay met at Toronto the fifteen hundred delegates of the American Federation of Labour, who had just concluded their convention After receiving with Miss Ishhel MacDonald, one of the greatets ovations which he has been accorded since his arrival in America, Mr MacDonald, when he rose to speak, was interrupted by further applause. He said: “I have been introduced in the name of the great office which I hold; but I want you to feel that, Prime Minister or not, I am still the old workman that I was horn—a workman who is distinguished hv his mentality and point of view in Britain. I am a Party man here to-day. I do not represent the nation. On our side Labour is working out a policy of evolutionary means. The revolution which we believe in is the revolution of the ballot box. Von can make no permanent changes in the constitution of nations unless you appeal to sound moral sense!” A WARNING. He said that Labour was the proper forum to appeal to in seeking world peace. “You” he contended, “have to pay the debts of war in the fullness of time. All classes have to share the sacrifice in war, but taken in the mass, Labour hear- the burden. Jf there should bo another war. the sacrifices and pains of labour will he greater than in the past. In the next war, death will bo dealt out. not only on the battlefields—it will he dealt out from the bottom of the seas and the height of the heavens. The civilian population will drop down in the streets, and die from mysterious attacks of poison.” Mr MacDonald was introduced by President William Green, of the American Federation of Labour. Mr Green ‘aid : “He is among true friends today! We knew him in the old days ns the chief of the Labour Party. We know him to-day as the spokesman of Britain.”

Miss Islibel MacDonald also spoke