KING CRITICISED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 290, 2 August 1932, Page 5

KING CRITICISED

(Press Assn.-

mr. h. g. wells

STATEMENTS AROUSE MARKED RESENTMENT AT MEETING LABOUR PARTY ASSAILED

— By Telegraph — Copyright)

LONDON, Monday. Mr. H. G. Wells, in the course of a scathing attack on the Labour Party, delivered at the Liberal Summer School, said: "The King was so ill-advised as to depart from his proper political social neutrality and lead the movement for cheeseparing and grinding the faces of the needy in the interests of the debt collector, and not a soul in the Labour Party said what ought to have been said about the King or that miserable campaigrl of unintelligent economy which had cast a dismal shadow on the closing months of 1931." Sir Michael Sadler, who was chairman of the meeting, said he considered the reference to the King was like a very dark line in a large picture of natioiial life. He amp'lified his strong admiration and gratitude for the noble things the Prince of Wales and the Royal Family were doing for

the weltare oi the country, the relier of suffering and the encouragement of the people. Commander J. M. Kenworthjy (formerly a Liberal, but who later joined the Labour Party), commenting on Mr. Wells' statements, declared that the King aeted within the constitution. The real villains of the piece 'were Mr. Ramsdy MacDonald and Viscount Snowden, who prepared the coup d'etat months previously. Far from1 being no liabour Party voiees raised, the Labour Party were all prepared to go into th'e wilderness, as tbey did, rather than be parties to rescuing the bankers at the expense of the poor. Mr. Wells' facts were all wrong and Commander Kenworthy expressed disagreement with his criticism. "The King took the new Cabinet's advice that economy was absolutely necessary, but the Labourites declined to accept the policy," said Mr. George Lansbury in an interview. "Nobody knows better than Mr. Wells that it is nonsense to say that Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, Mr. J. H. Thomas, and a few others represented Labour."