LETTER IN THE "STANDARD"

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22506, 14 September 1938, Page 10

LETTER IN THE "STANDARD"

|REFERENCE TO LEADER OF OPPOSITION EDITOR EXPRESSES REGRBf I [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.! WELLINGTON. September 13. Reference to the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. A. Hamilton) in a letter which was published in a recent issue of the Labour paper, the “Standard,” has prompted the editor of the paper to write to Mr Hamilton, stating that an “extravagantly worded political allusion” was in no way directed against his personal honesty.

The relevant quotation from the letter in the “Standard” is as follows: “The days are numbered now, and will swiftly pass until in November next the opposing hosts will meet in New Zealand’s Armageddon which will decide her future destiny, and to her people shall be given the opportunity to make their fateful decision. What shall their answer be? Shall it be Christ or Barabbas, Savage or Hamilton, the saviour or the thief?”

The editor of the ‘‘Standard/’ in his letter to Mr Hamilton, dated September 7, states that his attention had just been drawn to a correspondent’s letter in which appeared an extravagantly worded political allusion. He had not read the letter previously, and he hastened to assure JMr Hamilton that the allusion was l wholly political, and in no way directed against the latter’s personal honesty, which no one would question. He personally regretted the publication of the letter in the form in which it appeared.