7 NOVEMBER 1931, Page 13

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I was shocked to

see the Spectator omitting the funda- mental cause of the downfall of (not Labour, but) the official Labour Party at the General Election : it was the moral issue. Here was a party that had in committee agreed to every one of the MacDonald Party proposals, even to " cuts " in the dole, and many of them to imposition of tariffs. Yet they not only denied these things in public, but circulated fresh fictions about the safety of Post Office savings. Both Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Snowden countered these statements and accused the party officials of " running away " from their own signatures. That is why most of us, of all schools of thought, voted as we did. It was a moral, not a political, issue.—I am, Sir, &c.,