Foreign News: Poltrivia

Labor. At Blackpool the labor party last week held its 27th annual conference.

The meeting, coming, as it does, soon after the recent breach between British and Russian trades unions, was noteworthy for its moderation.

The principal speaker was one-time Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald. Much of what he had to say was criticism of the conservative regime, and much was no doubt uttered for its political effect.

Challenging Premier Stanley Baldwin and predicting an early date for the next general elections, Mr. MacDonald said: "It has been delayed too long. We are ready for it any time. The Labor Party is determined to present to the Nation definite pledges of workable reforms rather than vague propaganda for a distant Socialist State."

The onetime Labor Premier again sponsored nationalization of the mines in these words: "The manner in which the mines are now conducted is a most magnificent example of the absolute failure of private enterprise in industry. There are good mine owners, but, taking them in bulk, there is not a body of employers in this country who have behaved with more tyranny—harsh tyranny—in the plain, simple economic relations between adamant Capital and subordinate Labor.

"When I left office in 1924 I really felt that if the country had 10 or 12 years of a government by men of fair minds the mining industry might turn the corner, but after my experience of the negotiations last year my mind has become narrower. I am compelled to admit, against what I would like and hope for, that there is much bitterness and much steely hardness behind velvet gloves."

Then, referring to charges that he had "groveled" before the Baldwin government, he said: "In order to stave off a storm threatening to overwhelm the workers of this country, I would go on my knees if necessary."

Reform of the House of Lords was also aired. Lord Arnold, a Labor Peer, said: "I tell you as one within it, that the House of Lords will never give Labor a fair deal. The House of Lords is blind to the signs of the times. It is callous, selfish, cynical, inconsistent, factious, obstructive, unscrupulous and utterly reactionary."

Great as was the ovation he received, it was as nothing to the hoots of mirth and the raucuous guffaws of laughter that met "Jumping Jack" Jones' declaration that "the only reform I am willing to give the House of Lords is chloroform. . . ."

Conservative. At Cardiff, Wales, the Conservative Party held its 55th annual conference.

Enfranchising women between the ages of 21 and 30 was the most important motion before the conference, and one that seemed, in the early stages of discussion, likely to be defeated.

Women of over 30 years, an age to which few of the feminine sex will admit, even to obtain the vote, have been enfranchised since 1918, but hard-hearted Tories urged that the vote should not be extended to politically uneducated "flappers"— meaning women of 21 or over.