MACDONALD’S CHANCE?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 768, 14 September 1929, Page 11

MACDONALD’S CHANCE?

MAY CALL ON COUNTRY FOR MAJORITY CONSERVATIVES WARNED (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) LONDON, Friday. The ‘‘Morning Post’s” political correspondent suggests that the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, thinking himself to be in a strong position after his settlement of international questions, and following upon the presentation of a popular Budget by Mr. Philip Snowden, might go to the country next year with a plea to be released from his minority handicap. He might ask for a working majority. The correspondent warns the Conservatives to be prepared. NEW WORLD SPIRIT PRAISE FOR MACDONALD GOVERNMENT (Australian entd N.Z. Press Association) GENEVA, Thursday. The signing of the optional clause of the International Court of Justice is discussed by Professor Don Salvador de Madariaga, formerly head of the • Disarmament Section of the League of Nations and now Professor of Spanish at Oxford University, in a notable article in “Le Journal de Geneve.” This publication is extraordinarily influential in Europe. The professor says: “What a wonderful spectacle it is to see great Powers rushing to sign the optional clause. Why has this act, which was regarded as folly in 1924, become wisdom in 1929? The circumstances certainly have improved in the interval, thanks to the Locarno and Kellogg Pacts and The Hague agreement, but undoubtedly the real explanation must be attributed to the changed attitude of Britain. TWO GREAT HOPES "The obstruction of Britain under her last Government was responsible for a, period of stagnation. The new spirit brought by the MacDonald Government explains the movement in which we are rejoicing today. “This must make the people of Britain understand their responsibility. If they stop the League stops. If they advance the League advances. “From the present Assembly there shines out two great hopes—the conversion of the United States and a real reduction in armaments. The League is ‘delivering the goods.’ “Mr. MacDonald may find his best route to Washington is through Geneva. By her situation in contemporary history Britain is forced to be the leader of the nations and therefore the servant of the international community."