MR ARCHER AT TIMARU.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18426, 6 July 1925, Page 11

MR ARCHER AT TIMARU.

TO T712 IDITOr. OF "THB PM3S."

Sir. —I have read tho letter of '•Believer in Loyalty to Your City" in this morning's ".Press," and just wish to write a low words to reassure him. Because of Mr Archer's position, ho is, from the point of view of education and Christianity, well above tho average Labourite. This being so>, and he, a leader, being abio to utter in public tho kind of thing your correspondent complains of, it is obvious that the Labour cause must continue to retrograde and writhe impotentlv in tho turbulent, slough in which it exists. If honest and able men are Labourites —which is improbable—they get pinker and pinker us their honesty and ability carry them to eminence. So one should really relish, rather than ci'ticise, such emanations as Mr Archer's, for the average New' Zealand voter 13 reasonably intelligent nnd will vote for safety, and merely be disgusted and alarmed hv the vapounngs of extremists. (Vide Franklin election, where much talking by Labour leaders turned the late Mr Massey's majority into a bigger one.—Yours, etc., * THE MAX IN THE STREET. July 4th, 102-1 TO THE EDITOR Or "THE rHES.'I." Sir, —Mr Archer's reported statement that all "Christian,? should be members of the Labour Party," and that, ergo, our Lord is its head—calls to mind a story told by t-lio late Sir Henry Wilson, Chief of Staff of the British Army (luring the war. A thrice-wounded British soldier was attracted by a crowd at the Marble Arch corner of Hyde Park, listening to a "tubthumping pacifist," who, observing the soldier, remarked: I am no militarist: T. belong to the great pacifist army, and God is my Colonel; to which the soldier gave the brief reply—"Well, if you do, you must be a d——d long way from your barracks.!" —Yours, etc.. ONLOOKER. July 4th, 192-5. TO THZ XDITOB OF "THE PEE9S." Sir, —lii answer to the letter of "Believer in Loyalty to Ypur City," in "The Press" - of tlie 4th inst., I feel I should reply and say that Mr Archer is perfectly true in his statement -when he says that there are houses not fit for habitation, in this city. Perhaps your correspondent does not como. in contact with these t hovels aud the occupants as I do, and as a sympathiser of these people .I think your, corresjjondent ought to take a look round for himself and realise the sufferings of these people.—Yours, etc., ONE OF THE SUFFERERS. July 4th, 1920.