LABOUR PARTY AND THE DEPRESSION

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22506, 14 September 1938, Page 7

LABOUR PARTY AND THE DEPRESSION

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. , Sir, —If you correspondent “Elector” was as politically alive as he would have us believe, his letter regarding the refusal of Labour to join the Coalition would never have been written. The story he tells of Labour’s refusal to ‘join the Coalition is contrary to fact, and for his sake the true

story might as well fee repeated. The members of the Labour Party in the House were not asked to join any true Coalition —all they were asked to do was to withhold all opposition. A true Coalition would have given Labour, United, and Reform representation in the Cabinet and a definite say in the framing of the policy to be followed. No such offer was ever made to the Labour Party and no one—either in Parliament or out of it—can refute that statement. What was asked of the Labour Party was its approval of a policy which, as subsequent events proved, was disastrous to the welfare of New Zealand. To suggest that Labour refused to join a Coalition that was for the benefit of New Zealand is ridiculous in the extreme. A calm review of the position proves that had Labour joined the Coalition under the terms offered, a policy in direct conflict with Labour's principles would have been put into operation, and Labour, with little or no say in its framing, would have had to bear the blame. The fact that Labour was too wise to be fooled is an annoyance to its ■ political opponents, but it is no excuse for a misstatement of facts. The references to asking Professor Algie questions is too amusing altogether. Those who heard the professor sidestep and dodge the vital issues when last he was in Christchurch know that it would be .useless expecting a plain answer to a plain question. This wily apostle of “freedom” is an adept at that worst of all sins—telling halftruths—and that is worse than deliberate lying. Let the professor explain in detail what he really meant when he said, ‘The way to Socialism is through the ballot box, but I fear that the way out does not lie through the ballot box.” Let him answer, also, the question he refused to answer about freedom in Samoa, and maybe we shall then be prepared to ask a few more questions.—Yours, etc., J. ROBERTSON. September 13, 1938.