19 NOVEMBER 1937, Page 6

A story about Ramsay MacDonald reaches me from a Liberal

M.P. In the early days of the 1929 Parliament Labour had not given up the hope of securing some Liberal recruits. This particular Liberal was talking to the Labour Prime Minister one day behind the Speaker's chair when Mr. MacDonald said to him : " Well, are you coming over ? " The reply was an emphatic negative, which the Prime Minister turned off with same adroitness by asking, " What were the words Isaac Watts used in that hymn ? " and proceeding to quote with considerable verve.: " Could we but climb where Moses stood And view the landscape o'er ; Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood, Should fright us from the shore."