Labor's Week

COMMONWEALTH (British Commonwealth of Nations)

During the past week the following Labor news was noted: P: Premier Macdonald contemplated sending a Labor Mission to the U. S. to explain the political aims of the Labor Party.

P:Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer, declared that the Government was not willing to dispose of its shares in the Anglo-Persian Oil Co., as such a sale would deprive the Navy of one of its principal sources of oil fuel and would force the country to depend on foreign oil companies. (There was a rumor that the Labor Government would sell this stock.) P: John Hodge, prominent Laborite and ex-Minister of Labor and Pensions under Lloyd George, said: "The great combines which are being formed in this and other countries are simply an evolutionary process and as soon as the steel, iron and tinplate works are all in one big combine it will be easy to socialize it."

P:At Carlisle, Premier Macdonald said: "We are going to do everything we possibly can to make the Labor Party a greater power than ever. . . . We have inherited a great mess and our duty is to clear up that mess." P:It was rumored that the Premier may go to Rome to confer with the great Benito.

P:Lord Haldane, Lord Chancellor, a Liberal in the Labor den, gave the lead to the Socialists by cutting down his large salary ($42,500). Patrick Hastings, Attorney General, was reported to be sticking to his $29,750 salary and to his fees which easily reach $125,000 a year. John Burns, Minister of Health, boldly asserted that he intended to stick to every penny of his $8,500 a year.

P:Recognition of Mexico by Britain was forecast.

P:John Davies, Under Secretary of State for Home Affairs, hinted that abolition of capital punishment might be possible in the near future.