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7 JULY 1924

Édouard Marie Herriot, the French Premier, speaking at Troyes, said that his Government had two primary duties-to assure France’s credit and to organise peace. The first step to the latter must be the solution of the Reparations problem.

So far 77 ballots have been taken in the Democratic Convention at New York without a candidate being nominated for the Presidency. A conference at Cleveland, Ohio, has adopted Senator La Follette as an independent candidate.

Notwithstanding a suggestion by Lord Buckmaster at the Court of Inquiry that action on both sides should be postponed for a month, the strike in the building trade, which involves 600,000 men, began throughout the country.

The first attempt to lift the scuttled German destroyer V. 70 in Scapa Flow failed, the chains snapping when the vessel had been raised seven feet.

Mr Justice Feetham, the chairman-designate of the Irish Boundary Commission, announces that, with the approval of President Cosgrave and Sir James Craig, the informal discussions suggested by Mr Ramsay MacDonald is proceeding, and that facilities have been promised him for a tour of the border of a purely private character. He expresses the hope that during these discussions there will be abstention from controversial comment by the Press, both in Ireland and Britain.

6 JULY 1924

The French Government were accused of stopping a peace agreement by undermining the British Government’s negotiating stance.

Jean-Pierre Vaquier was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to be hanged.

The Democratic candidate for the Presidency remained unconfirmed and there were disputes between a number of Ku Klux Klan groups.

5 JULY 1924

Édouard Marie Herriot, the French Premier, sent a Note to Great Britain stating that the French Government does not consider itself bound by the British suggestions accompanying the invitations to the forthcoming Conference in London.

Mr. Odell, a member of the Everest Expedition who saw Mallory and Irvine nearing the summit of the mountain, relates the story of the final attempt. He is of the opinion that the two climbers were successful, and that they perished in the descent.

The United States Democratic Convention at New York had taken 61 ballots, when it adjourned at one o’clock yesterday morning, without being able to nominate a candidate for the Presidency.

As from January 1 next year the name of Christiania, the capital of Norway, is to be changed to Oslo.

The Prince of Wales arrived in Paris. He will be present to-day at the opening ceremony in connection with the Olympic Games.

Mr Ramsay MacDonald, the Prime Minister, speaking in his constituency (Aberavon Division), said that until they were defeated on something of real importance the Government were going on. He did not believe the country wished to have an election at all.

“The country is realising that its hope for the future is with our party,” says Mr. Baldwin, the Unionist leader, in a letter to Captain Beamish, the Unionist candidate for the Lewes Division of Sussex.

The Summary Jurisdiction (Separation and Maintenance) Bill passed report stage with amendments in the House of Commons.

4 JULY 1924

The second reading of the Seditious and Blasphemous Teaching to Children Bill was agreed to in the House of Lords, and the House also disposed of the Commons amendment to the Prevention of Eviction Bill.

Scottish Estimates were discussed in the House of Commons. On the vote for agriculture the Secretary for Scotland said that one of the most gratifying features of the Scottish Board’s work had been the response of agriculturists to the proposals for research. But millions of pounds were lost to the farmer annually because of the determined individualism of his methods of buying and selling. He urged farmers to prepare for continued competition from abroad by organisation at home.

A Paris telegram says that French opinion is beginning to concentrate, not without anxiety, upon the forthcoming Allied Conference in London.

Ramsay MacDonald, the Prime Minister, who is touring his constituency (the Aberavon Division), spoke hopefully of the coming Allied Conference, and said that one thing which the Labour Government had given the country during their five months of office was honest administration.

Notwithstanding the decision of the building employers to withdraw the lock-out notices, the operatives resolved to adhere to their decision to strike to-morrow failing an increase of wages and provision for a guaranteed week.

At the Congress of the Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire in London a resolution was carried – only some half-dozen delegates voting against it – urging the adoption of a liberal and generous Inter-Imperial Preference, as most desirable for furthering Imperial development and attaining the ideal of eventual freedom of trade within the Empire.

3 JULY 1924

The building trades employers have decided to postpone posting lock-out notices for a week, pending the proposed Court of Inquiry.

The Cabinet, acting on the advice of the Committee of Imperial Defence, have decided against the Channel Tunnel scheme.

The Reorganisation of Offices (Scotland) Bill, the object of which is to give statutory authority to arrangements which have been made for altering the constitution of certain public offices in Scotland, passed second reading in the House of Lords.

The Committee stage of the Finance Bill was continued in the House of Commons, with discussion chiefly on clauses relating to Income Tax.

General Hertzog, the new South African Premier, in a speech at Pretoria, said that Great Britain should and always would be, as far as he and his Government were concerned, their first and chief friend. They were in the midst of an industrial epoch in their history. To develop their industries would be in consonance with the motto, “South Africa First.”

A special correspondent at Ottawa, in an article on Canada and the Lausanne Treaty, refers to the demands of the Dominions for a fuller share of control of foreign policy, and to the suggestion of Mr Ramsay MacDonald that the whole question should be investigated by a Royal Commission. Our correspondent says that the development of the British Prime Minister’s detailed views will be awaited with great interest in Canada.

2 JULY 1924

The Public Health (Scotland) Amendment Bill, the object of which is to enable Public Health Authorities in Scotland to assist necessitous persons in obtaining insulin treatment for diabetes, and to provide medicines for sufferers from other diseases, was read a second time in the House of Commons.

An announcement that the report of the Departmental Committee on Taxation and Regulation of Road Vehicles, dealing with the existing system of motor taxation, will be soon available was made in the House of Commons by the Minister of Transport. The signatories of the main report, he said, had arrived at the conclusion that no method of administering the motor spirit duty could be contrived which would not inflict grave inconvenience, or which could be relied upon as a revenue yielder.

Interesting revelations of foreign policy are contained in a Blue book giving the history of the negotiations for an Anglo-French Pact.

Further efforts will be made to-day to avoid a lock-out in the building industry, and in the event of neither side being able to make a concession which would form the basis of joint negotiations, the Minister of Labour states that he will make a suggestion which might provide a way out of the deadlock. The suggestion is understood to mean the reference of the dispute to a Court of Inquiry.

At the World Power Conference at Wembley, the power resources of the British Empire and the United States were discussed.

1 JULY 1924

The German Government, in their note acceding to the Allies’ demand for an inspection of German armaments, declare that Germany is reduced to a state of complete lack of military armament without parallel in the history of nations. “This”, says the note, “is why the German people is quite unable to understand that any fear should be entertained that such a Germany constitutes a menace to the peace of Europe, and that more apprehension is not felt on account of the fact that the idea of general disarmament has hitherto made no appreciable progress among other nations”.

The Bishop of Oxford’s Liquor (Popular Control) Bill, which proposes Local Option for England, was discussed in the House of Lords on second reading.

The House of Commons was occupied with the Committee stage of the Finance Bill, and inflected upon the Government their seventh defeat, carrying by 220 votes to 165 an amendment, which the Chancellor resisted, exempting from duty entertainments on behalf of philanthropic, charitable and educational objects.

Answering questions in Parliament about the Sudan, the Prime Minister regretted that statements had been made in Egypt, and action taken to create trouble in the Sudan which could only be explained as an attempt to force his hands.