BIRTHDAY DINNER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 83, 28 November 1931, Page 5

BIRTHDAY DINNER

(Press. Assn.—

TRIBUTE TO MR. RAMSAY MacDONALD BY SCOTS

-By Telegrapli — Copyright) .

Rec. Nov. 27, 5.5 p.m. LONDON, Thursday. Seven hundred Scotsmen attended a Scots birthday dinner to Mr. Ramsay MacDonald. The Earl of Elgin presided and read congratulations from people right throughout the world including Mr. R. B. Bennett, Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. G. W. Forbes, Prime Minister of New Zealand, and General Hertzog, Priane Minister of South Africa. Pipers preceded Mr. MacDonald who was accompanied hy Miss Ishbel and the Messrs Malcolm and Alastair MacDonald, in the Connaught rooms, which were decorated with white heather tied with the MacDonald tartan.. The Prime Minister received an ovation. Replying to the toast to his health, which was proposed hy Mr. John Buehan and suppdrted hy Lord Inchcape he described the hard experience of his life and recalled that the very thought of the Poor Law dole so horrified one, that he had almost been induced to suicide rather than accept. They needed to get back that spirit into Scotland, to prevent the stagnation of its life, which was becoming prevalent. The Archbishop of Canterbury said that when a leader had been needed in.a time of crisis the nation turned to a Scotsman. Sir Robert Horne stated that Scotsmen had played a conspicuous part in the development of the Empire.