Dear Sir

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 46, 6 November 1946, Page 4

Dear Sir

Letters to the Editor must be clearly written on one side of the paper only and where a nom-de-plume is used the name of the writer must be included for reference purposes. The Editor reserves the right to abridge, amend or withhold any letter or letters.

MR SULLIVAN’S ADDRESS

Six’, —As I. was unable to be present at the meeting I was interested in your report of Mr Sullivan’s address. I note that he was in good form and spoke forcibly and convincingly. I am afraid some of us are not so easily convinced but we must make allowance for Yoo-Hoo whose enthusiasms are so easily aroused.

Mr Sullivan told th® meeting that Labour is looking back on past achievements and has no future policy, he then told them that Labour’s future policy was complete socialism etc. If Mr Sullivan were engaging someone for an important. post would he not want to s»e references. Labour has references from the past and is proud of them, the Nationalists also have references but their references will not secure them the job of governing the country. Those present were told that the electoral boundaries were altered to benefit the Government. The Nationalists opposed the legislation on these grounds but when the findings of the Commission were published were they not jubilant because the result in their opinion favoured them. On the other hand Labour maintained the boundaries should be altered as a matter of justice regardless of which party benefited.

Listeners were told about conditions in other countries during the slump, most of us are chiefly interested and know most about our own country and are still wondering why thousands went short in New Zealand when at the same time there was an over abundance of food, wool for clothes and blankets, heating and cooking materials and all the cement and timber needed for houses. The Paper Mills were mentioned and Mr Sullivan expressed his opposition to import control and of the intention of the National Party,, to set up a Board of Trade to control imports. Has not the import control policy been to the benefit of the Mill and how will the Mill fare if free paper imports are allowed when things overseas return to normal as they, are so rapidly doing. Does Mr Sullivan suggest that we can maintain our standard of living while competing with the cheapest from overseas on' an open market. Mr Sullivan stated that Italy gpd Germany started as Socialist nations, was not Mussolini a renegade Socialist, as is Mr Sheat, Nationalist M.P. and one or two other National candidates.. The first thing Hitler and Mussolini did when they gained power was to persecute the Socialists, they dosed them with castor oil amid £he applause of the Tory press and politicians of every other country, they put them in concentration camps, had them tortured and assassinated them. In their opposition to socialism the Nationalists have more in common with Fascism than has the Labour Party.

I am sorry that Mr Sullivan went into the political mire to fish out the burned votes, the disinheritance lie and the suggestion that the Labour Government would extend the life of Parliament, as his own party did. This sort of thing appeals to a few but is it worth while? I suggest that Mr Sullivan spend the time he gave those matters in telling why his Party when in power taxed women and girls for unemployment benefit but failed to pay them anything when unemployed. He could tell us how these women and girls were expected to live and how a large number of them did live. He could tell us why his Party put on the Sales Tax and why they raised the rate of exchange. We would like to know why they are so keen for workers to own their homes when they evicted workers from their homes because they were unable to keep up payments under Government mortgages. He could tell us why it is better for a farmer to get 8d per lb. payout and walk off his farm than it is for him to pay off his mortgage and buy a car with the guaranteed price and then he can tell us if there is anything easier than making a lot of promises which one knows one will not be called on to fulfill. And finally he can tell us what Abe Lincoln once saidt Yours etc., T. A. CONNERY.