Ignoramus!

For 40 years wry, limping little Philip Snowden and tall, warm-hearted James Ramsay MacDonald were the closest of friends. They broke last year when Free Trader Snowden gagged at the tariffs arising from the Ottawa Conference, and resigned as Lord Privy Seal (TIME, Oct. 10). Now Viscount Snowden of Ickornshaw. he has been removed to the more peaceful reaches of the House of Lords, but his tongue is as sharp as ever. The Lords of Britain sat up last week to hear the little Viscount, stumping his canes, give his old friend as stinging a tongue-lashing as British reporters could remember.

Cause of the outburst was the refusal of the Government spokesman, Earl Stanhope, Undersecretary for War. to give the Government's definite policy for the World Economic Conference.

"I would suggest to the Cabinet," snapped Lord Snowden, "that they look into the case of the Prime Minister, not only in his own interests but in the interests of the country, for it is a positive danger to the country that its affairs should be in the hands of a man who, every time he speaks, exposes his ignorance or his incapacity. . . .

"In the statement [on the results of the MacDonald-Roosevelt discussions in Washington] it was said that commercial policies needed a new orientation. I know who drafted that sentence. The Prime Minister drafted it. The Prime Minister, as a matter of fact, is very fond of high-sounding words and I am sure he was very well pleased with himself when he got that sonorous word 'orientation' into his statement. Orientation originally meant a moving toward the East, and I suggest the real meaning of the phrase was the necessity of dealing with Japanese commercial competition [see p. 18].

"Now let us take the references in the statement to excessive tariffs, import quotas, exchange, etc. That 'etc.' is a very useful word. It is used when a person has exhausted his knowledge and information, and it is intended to convey the impression that those who use it know a great deal more--if only they chose to tell it....

"Unless the British Government goes to the World Economic Conference with a clearcut, well thought out, rational plan, we might as well abandon all hope of any practical result."

Scot MacDonald made no rejoinder, flew north to enjoy a short vacation in the soothing air of Lossiemouth. He left to heavy-jowled Deputy Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin the defense of their Government, which was suddenly attacked last week not only by the sharp-tongued Labor Peer but by a solid phalanx of Tory diehards. The Tories had three complaints: agitation against the Government's lukewarm policy in India, failure to take a half-promised sixpence off the income tax, and a demand for the removal of the heavy land tax imposed in 1931 by Philip Snowden as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Though passed, the land tax has never been enforced. Observers thought that the National Government could ride this latest crisis by promising abolition of the land tax.

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