CHEERED AND HOOTED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 36, 5 October 1931, Page 3

CHEERED AND HOOTED

(Press Assn.—

MR. MacDONALD MEETS HIS CONSTITUENTS AT SEAHAM REMAINS A SOCIALIST

-By Telegraph — Copyright).

Rec. Oct. 3, 5.5 p.m. LONDON, Saturday. Though the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald subsequently expressed his pleasure with the reception given him af his meeting at Seaham, his constituency, Mr. W. G. Coxon, the local Labour Party secretary, who had received a reminder from headquarters that nobody who had been expelled from the Party was eligible for nomination for election to Parliament, announced after the meeting that the party would adhere to its decision to secure another representative. Mr. MacDonald, who wore a red carnation in his buttonhole, smilingly stepped out of his motor-car to face a assemblage of a hundred delegates, over whom a working miner, Mr. Thomas Nelson, presided. Police reinforcements, whose presence were due to rumours of a Communist demonstration which did not materialise, placed a cordon around the Prime Minister's car. Fully three thousand people outside the hall applauded and hooted Mr. MacDonald raising his hat in response and bringing forth shouts of "Good old Mae."

Murmurs lapsed into silence as the Prime Minister shook hands with Mr. Nelson and nodded to Mr. Coxon. He mounted the platform pale, but determined to expound the causes of the crisis. Mr. MacDonald concluded by saying: "I have been a life-long Socialist and I shall always remain one. The national emergency compelled me to take the steps I did. The classes I represent would have been the first to suffer if the crisis had not been met." The walls of the hall still bore thr 1929 election placards "Vote for MacDonald."