(2 of 2)
Jeers at Seaham. A piquant interlude last week was James Ramsay MacDonald's expression of a will to fight again for his seat in Seaham. This coal-mining constituency four years ago returned him to Parliament after he deserted the Labor Party and formed the National Government only because he was unopposed in Seaham by a Conservative candidate and because the Laborite coal miners' wives voted for silver-haired, throbbing-voiced Ramsay while their husbands called him a traitor blackleg, and worse.
Roared a Seaham miner at Lord Privy Seal MacDonald last week: "After 40 years of public life telling funny stories, aren't you sick and tired of it?"
"I shall not be tired," came the indomitable old spellbinder's retort, "I shall not be tired, my friends, until I have redeemed such a person as the one who put that question."
Anyone of less character than Scot MacDonald would never have fought Seaham four years ago, and last week his friends said they hoped his present visit was merely an exploring expedition.
No longer the Pacifist or Socialist he once was, Mr. MacDonald is honestly Conservative in mind today. When he told Seaham last week that the Government must win in order to pursue their welfare work and social services, there were jeers, shouts of "The Government wants to be returned so as to build battleships!"