LABOUR PARTY

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21412, 2 March 1935, Page 14

LABOUR PARTY

PALMERSTON NORTH BRANCH DISINTEGRATION REPORTED (From Our Parliamentary ficporler.l WELLINGTON. March 1. Disintegration of the local branch of the Labour party is reported from Palmertton North. The branch has refused to accept the national executive's disaffiliation as legal, and has resigned from the parent body as a protest against "the undemocratic and morally dishonest officialdom that has been carried out by the national executive. The dispute is said to have arisen f-om an expression of no-confidence in the party's chosen candidate for the Palmerston seat, Mr J. Hodgens, who has apparently been given the backing of the national office. Mr E. W. Ward, president of the branch, stated that the continued refusal of headciuaricrs to receive a deputation from the branch has corneas a disappointment, and that the leader of the Opposition (Mr M. J. Savage) had said "he would not care if there were no branches in the country, as he had the backing of business men and other sensible people." "To my mind," added Mr Ward, "the rank and file have allowed the leaders of the Labour parly to run mad with the movement." Allegation Denied A denial of the allegation that he had said he would not care if there v. ere no branches of the Labour party in the country was made by the leader of the Opposition this evening, when discussing in an interview the report about the dissolution of the Palmerston North branch of the party. "I have never made any such statement," said Mr Savage. "An appeal made by me on behalf of the Labour party has been addressed to all sections of the community who render useful service. There are tens of thousands of members of branches and unions affiliated to the Labour party who are the life-blood of the movement, and it is obvious to me that during this year, which is an election year, desperate efforts, will be made by Labour's opponents, some of whom have wormed their way into the Labour party itself, to cause disruption in the ranks. I have sufficient confidence in the common sense of Labour supporters to think that their efforts will fail." Choice of Candidate Mr H. T. Armstrong, president of the New Zealand Labour party, said to-day that the choice of Mr Hodgens was the choice of Palmerston North, and the national executive had never forced him on to the branch. Mr Hodgens had been selected in accordance with the constitution of the party, and the national executive had every confidence in him. "ft is a well-known fact." said Mr Armstrong, "that Mr Ward thinks that he is the one and only person who should be the Labour candidate in that particular part of the country, and he has been using what is supposed to be a branch of the Labour party in his own interests." Mr Armstrong said that Mr Hodgens was one of the most able and conscientious workers for the Labour cause in the Dominion. If Mr Ward and those associated with him wanted to oppose him" they should do it from outside the party and not from inside. They should associate themselves with the Tory forces of the Dominion.