“FRAUDULENT MYTH”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 340, 28 April 1928, Page 9

“FRAUDULENT MYTH”

LABOUR AND EMPIRE DAY WARM DEBATE IN COMMONS

(United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian P.A.—United Service)

Reed. noon. LONDON, Friday. the House of Commons, Mr. G. J. C. Harrison, Conserva- * tive member for Bodmin, moved the second reading of the Empire Day Bill, • providing that all elementary schools close at noon on May 24.

Sir Thomas Davies', Conservative member for Cirencester, as an old schoolmaster, in seconding, suggested that the forenoon of Empire Day be spent in the schools instructing children in the potentialities of the Empire. Mr. A. V. Alexander, Labour, Sheffield, in moving the rejection, said the precedent might be followed with demands for school holidays to celebrate the first of May, or "Co-operators’ Day.” Mr. Alexander said he was once permitted to question schoolboys on history. He found they knew the names of all Henry the Eighth’s wives, but that they, had not heard of Robert Owen, and did not know the dates of the founding of the co-operative trade union movements.

Mr. Maxton, Labour, described the Eill as a fraudulent myth. Empire Day was associated with objectionable militaristic practices. The Bill was a pettifogging attempt, he said, to use the schools to propagate a Tory conception of patriotism. Lord Eustace Percy said local authorities should be consulted before deciding on the holiday. There was no reason why the Bill should not be read a second time. Mr. G. D. Hardie, Labour, said that if they wanted to teach the children real English history, they should tell them the story of the Portland, Atholl and Percy families. Why was the Haig diary to be kept secret for years. Was the truth so damnable that children could not be allowed to understand it? The Bill was talked out.