NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 13 February 1925

13 FEBRUARY 1925

The Prince of Wales, who will visit Southern Rhodesia in the summer, is due to arrive at Bulawayo on June 29, and concludes the tour on July 11 at Victoria Falls.

The mission of the Prince of Wales to South Africa and South America was strongly criticised by Scottish Socialist members in the House of Commons, on a vote of £2000 for the purposes of the tour. Mr Kirkwood, who was repeatedly interrupted and called to order, argued that the Prince would be better to make himself acquainted with working-class conditions in this country before undertaking that voyage. The vote was carried by a large majority.

Mr Wheatley, speaking in the House of Commons on housing experiments, said that in three months the Government had dissipated the good spirit prevailing in the building industry when the late Government left office. There was now a spirit of suspicion. Mr Neville Chamberlain, in reply, said he wanted to provide houses, and he was astonished at the persistent obstruction that came from the Labour party. He regarded the Weir houses as an emergency measure, and did not believe they would prejudice the building trade.

The Foreign Secretary, Mr Austen Chamberlain, asked in the House of Commons whether the Government were considering a new pact of alliance and security with France, said no negotiations for a separate pact with any country had been entered upon by the Government.

Dr Macnamara, opening his campaign as Liberal candidate in the Walsall by-election, said his party had suffered at the General Election for taking the right course. In its panic the country overdid it, and was now ripe for a great revival of Liberalism.