SLUR FROM AMERICA

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 936, 1 April 1930, Page 9

SLUR FROM AMERICA

VITRIOLIC ATTACK ON RAMSAY MACDONALD BRITISH PRESS AROUSED LONDON, Sunday. Newspapers give prominence to an open letter to the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, published in the Hearst Press, In the United States, attacking Britain’s part in the Naval Conference, and asking Mr. MacDonald whether he is the friend he pretends to be, or the slyest, trickiest diplomat that has come out of England since Balfour sank the American navy at the 1922 conference. The Foreign Office declines to indicate feeling in official circles, but newspapers of every shade condemn the attack. The “Sunday Times” says: “Mr. MacDonald has critics here on other issues, but he has the nation’s backing in his unwearying effort to achieve success at the conference. The British public will agree the strictures are reckless and blackguardly.” The “Daily Express” hopes Mr. MacDonald will not be deflected from his firmness against the embroilment of Britain in Mediterranean conflicts by the gale Hearst is blowing across the Atlantic. The “Daily Herald” says the attack is a culmination of the Hearst Press in an attempt to check progress toward naval disarmament. “Hoover, and not Hearst, speaks for America," it says. The United States delegation refuses to comment.