Lords & Lab.orites

Every bigwig of London finance was there. Rich peers rubbed shoulders with richer bankers, richest merchants. Tall, stooped Chancellor of the Exchequer, Neville Chamberlain, stalked goutily in, followed by spry, fox-bearded Governor Montagu Collet Norman of the Bank of England. They had all come to the Mansion House, ornate official home of Lord Mayor Sir Percy Greenaway, to dine with him before he is succeeded Nov. 9 by the Lord Mayor-elect, Alderman Charles Henry Collett (TIME. Oct. 9). Speeches after the guests were full of noble viands and rare wines consisted of direct hits by Chancellor Chamberlain and Governor Norman at the British Labor Party which is urging that His Majesty's Government adopt "Roosevelt methods" in finance and public relief.

Chancellor Chamberlain scored what he called " 'imaginative finance,' although in private transactions it goes by a shorter and less creditable title." He predicted a return by Great Britain to the gold standard at the earliest practicable moment for "there is no monetary standard that can command such confidence as gold."

Almost Kiplingesque was Governor Norman's speech. Britain had grown great by evolution, he declared, while other nations tried revolutionary panaceas essentially un-British. "We shall have many difficulties and much criticism," cried Governor Norman, "but I console myself with this thought: 'The dogs bark but the caravan passes on.'"

Not far away in Hastings the dogs were barking sharply. Delegates to this year's convention of the British Labor Party cheered violent, scrubby-mustached David Kirkwood, M.P. when he attacked Governor Norman's quiet fiscal sway over the City as "a more effective Dictatorship than Hitler's in Germany or Mussolini's in Italy!" Warmed up by Dave Kirkwood, the Conference passed a resolution pledging the Party to oppose any return by Britain to the gold standard. Fresh cheers broke out when fiery Ben Tillett, a leading agitator in the first and only British General strike (TIME, May 10 to 24,1926), cried with obvious reference to the City: "There is an influential section of our own financial and political leaders and our British munitions magnates who in their hearts are siding with Hitler. Such men in England are already wondering if they, too, won't be obliged to resort to the methods of the present German Government to control the British working class.

"We may have to face later on what our comrades in Germany are now suffering. . . . Let us show our financial and political masters by the help we extend to the German workers that we will fight for our own class in this country if it is ever necessary."

The Conference next decided, with Spartan courage and perhaps a dash of self-interest, that a boycott of German goods, though it would hurt German workers for the time being, is after all the best way of helping them, since it might lead to such misery as would promote a revolt against the Nazi State. By a rising vote the delegates pledged members of the Party to buy no German goods, urged them to contribute to the relief of refugees from the "Hitler terror."

Sensation of the week was a resolution introduced by Labor's left-wing "Socialist League," headed by Sir Stafford Cripps. Soon adopted, it pledged the Party to refuse support to any British Government attempting to make war, and to stop hostilities if necessary by organizing a General Strike. Since the House of Commons, now dominated by Conservatives, has made it a crime to organize a General Strike (TIME, July 4, 1927), Labor's resolution smacked of treason.

Obviously Labor was only barking, since its Party cannot come to power without a general election and the Conservatives can prevent that until 1936 if they continue to stick together in the House. Great barkers themselves, delegates to the annual Conservative Party Conference met last week in Birmingham, bailiwick of Chancellor Chamberlain. As speaker after speaker called for a bigger Navy. Army and Air Force, the Conference hall throbbed like a gong with well-bred, rumbling cries of "Heah! Heah!"

As usual this die-hard baying was led by cherubic, ebullient Winston Churchill and dapper, militant Baron Lloyd of Dolobran. They managed to whoop through a resolution recording "grave anxiety in regard to the inadequacy of the provisions made for imperial defense." but after that the Conference sobered down, ignored Firebrands Churchill and Lloyd, voted confidence in canny, bumbling Party Leader Stanley Baldwin and in the man who really runs the Party behind Mr. Baldwin's amiable front, stern, driving Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain.

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