UNCONVENTIONAL PORTRAIT OF PEER: LORD STRABOLGI SUMS UP AFFAIRS

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 32, 20 January 1939, Unnumbered Page

UNCONVENTIONAL PORTRAIT OF PEER: LORD STRABOLGI SUMS UP AFFAIRS

Forecast Of Events Given By Britain’s Deputy-Leader Of Labour In Special "Record" Interview

®@ Heir to an old British peerage, dating from 1300, Lord Strabolgi arrived in New Zealand last week on. Exhibition business. . ® Much interviewed, Lord Strabolgi, who reconciles the positions of an hereditary peer, a captain of industry in tubular steel, and -DeputyLeader of the Labour Party in Britain, granted the "Record" a few moments on a_ busy afternoon, ® Story printed below gives an unconventional portrait of a peer and his terse, direct, sometimes cryptic, replies ‘to the "’Record’s" questionnaire. ACING his private sittingroom at the St. George like a quarter-deck, except that he wore morning clothes instead of uniform and his suede shoes made no sound as they went into the earpet, Lord Strabolgi, DeputyLeader of the Opposition in the British Parliament, was in the middle of a busy afternoon when the ‘‘Record’’ saw him by appointment. The sitting-room was filled with’ Lord Strabolgi, a business associate, a lady seerectary, cigar smoke from cigars smoked by his lordship and business ‘associate, fhe ‘‘Record’’ rer vr and a telephone. The telephone was holding the floor. Every two minutes it rang. In between answering the telephone, his lordship glaneed at the ‘‘Record’s’’ list of typed questions, moved over to the reporter and dictated his answers with astonishing mental speed. Qs the tables of the room wera two hotel tea-sets, a bottie of Vichy water and a tin of 50 Gold Flake cigarettes. On the writing table was a little ‘‘Where Is It?’’ book, and on the top of the cover, printed in ink, were. the words ‘‘New Zealand.’’ When read from the top down, the effect was disturbing: ‘‘New Zealand, Where ‘Is 1t?’’

Down in the street below the window, traffic poured up and down. The city thought it was being busy. It should have taken a look at Lord Strabolgi and learned a bit about being busy. Lord Strabolgi read over the first question on the ‘‘Record’s’’ list sotto voce and answered it. The telephone rang, and his lordship made some arrangements for his tour up north, to Gisborne, Tauranga, Rotorua. As he got instructions over the telephone about planes, hotels, times of arrival and departure, he repeated them aloud. The lady seeretary took them down. THE telephone stopped for a moment, and Lord Strabolgi came back to the questionnaire, gave his views on the Spanish question, clearly and suecinetly. The telephone rang again. Lord Strabolgi answered it, spoke to it, broke off to ask

what date was next Tuesday, didn’t anybody know what date was next Tuesday? Nobody knew, except the business associate, and he was one day out. He said the sixteenth. Time was going by. Lord Strabolgi began to answer the ‘‘Record’s’’ questions in monosyllables. ‘Vag? **No."? ‘*Emphatiecally not.’’ Once the ‘‘Record’’ ventured to make a suggestion: ‘"Would you please elaborate on that?’ ‘‘No,’’ said Lord Strabolgi. later, once again, when Lord Strabolgi said there was every chance of Labour being returned. the ‘‘Record’’ _ said: ‘Would you please elaborate on that?’’ ‘‘No,’’ said Lord Strabolgi, politely but firmly. ‘‘I am trying to help you. I haven’t the time. I have an important

business man on his way here to sea me."’ The telephone rang again. IS lordship returned. to the questionnaire, the business ealler entered, accepted a seat, deelined a cigar. Lord Strabolgi glanced at the last question. ‘""No,"’ he said. ‘‘Emphatieally not.’’ The ‘‘Record’? reporter wanted to ask him to elaborate, but felt that the answer would certainly be: ‘‘No. Emphatically not.’ The telephone rang again. Giving it up, the ‘‘Record’’ reporter got up to go. "*Good-bye,’’. said his lordship. ‘‘Thank you so much.’’ With his right hand, he shook hands. His left was still holding the telephone to his gar. N those few minutes, highpressure Lord Strabolgi had managed to give some interesting snapshots of his views for (Turn to page 2.)

LORD STRABOLGI SUMS UP--- Cont’d. from P. 1.

the ‘‘Record’’ on a wide variety of topics. Some of his views were terse, some cryptic, all interesting. Here are questions and answers, is it true that there is a growing tendency towards Fascism in Britain? There have been rumours of Press control by Lord Halifax. No, said Lord Strabolgi. English people won’t stand for it, and Fascism there has lost ground. The present Government in England would like. to control the Press, but have not been able to get away with it yet. Asked whether there was any truth in the statement in the British House of Commons by Liberal Geoffrey Le M. Mander that newsreel films of Czechoslovakia had been banned for political reasons, Lord Strabolgi said there had been some unofficial pressure through the American Ambassador. _ Is the Spanish position not a paradox? asked the "Record." Is it not true that appeasement can only come through a rebel victory which will challenge Britain’s position in the Mediterranean? . The Spanish position is not a paradox, said Lord Strabolgi, but a scandal and disgrace. Rebel victory would be very dangerous for British interests and French interests and for democracy everywhere. Therefore, in their owm interests the democracies should see that the Loyalists receiyed assistance. How? asked the "Record." By giving the Loyalists the Fight to buy arms, said Lord Strabolgi, by denouncing the so-called Non-Intervention Committee, which has been a faree and has hod its rulles

violated by the dictators, and restoring the status quo before the committee came inte existence. fs a@ General Election likely? Will the British Government go to the country? Not till the autumn, when they have to, said Lord Strabolgi. If a man knows he is going to be hanged and can chcose his time, will he cheese the spring or the autumn? ; Is there a chance that Labour will be returned in Britain? Every chance. . What is the general attitude in Britain about returning the former German colonies? . Dead against. What more does Germany . want for her Empire? . All she can get. Is there ever a likelihood at some future time of Britain uprooting herself and going to Canada or Australia? ae .: _ No.

Are serious crives likely in the year 1939? it depends how seriously we take them. Will the Duke of Windsor go back to England? Yes. Asa peer. Should not Britain set up a Ministry of Propaganda to combat the propaganda of the totalitarian States? No. Emphatically not. N all his public statements since he came to New Zealand, dark, massive Lord Stra--bolgi has stressed the fact that the real danger to world peace and the Empire at present lies in the position of Spain. Fascist victory in Spain, he considers, would make Britain’s

strategie position serious indeed from the naval viewpoint, both for the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets. European dictators, he says, are bluffing, stirring up the waters of world affairs so that they can catch the fish. Germany and Italy, he holds, are not in an economically safe position to go to war, but the best people in Germany would weleome a war solely for the purpose of ridding the country of the Hitler regime. Just a million and a half of the members of the Nazi Party have got control of the means of Government-police, weapons, and so on-have coerced the vest of the people. Danger is that dictators in Germany and Italy may de-

cide on war as 2 last desperate throw because of growing economic difficulties or internal dissensions. Against this is the American change of attitude under Roosevelt, and the fact that Britain is becoming much more powerful with a strona Fleet and an Air Force that is growing rapidly in numbers and efficiency. Declares his lordship: ‘‘If one looks back through history, one finds that as a rule a big war oceurs only onee in a hundred years. It takes that length of time to reeover from one, be in a position to foot the bill for another."’ LU his life impatient of official red-tape, Lord Strabolgi has ever given his opinions with ardour and sailorly eandour,. But for a lecture at his prep. school, which fired his imagina-

tion with tales of Polar explaration and eventually made a sailor of him, he would have entered the Church, post-war politics might have been less lively. As Lieutenant-Commander Kenworthy, before he su¢ceeded to the family title, he was a brilliant younger men}ber of Parliament on the Labour side. Title of his lordship, pionounced Straboji, is hereditary, goes back to 1318. Present holder suceeeded in 1934. His life has been crowded, stormy and colourful. He:helieves that "‘by the time most of us have diced through natural eauses at the aecepted age, my generation will have lived through the most interesting and exciting period of Higpopean history since the dow all of the Roman Empire."’