A PARTY IN DIFFICULTIES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1728, 19 April 1913, Page 4

A PARTY IN DIFFICULTIES.

There is no question just now upon which the Opposition arc more sensitive than the question of the Leadership of their party. One has only to remark on the leadcrless state of tho party to set the antiReform press in'a flutter of excitement whilo those members of the party whose names hayd at been mentioned as possible aspirants to the office usually hasten to assure tho world at large that nothing was further from their thoughts. Following on our recent comments on the possibilities of the situation, there has been the customary denials and explanations and all the rest of it. The one outstanding feature on this occasion is the helplessness of the anti-Reformers and their utter dependence on Sir Joseph Ward. There is no ono in the >party, apparently, who sufficiently commands the confidence of its members to make him acceptable as leader except Sir Joseph Ward. This, perhaps, is not surprising I when account is taken of their performances last session; but their plight must be desperate indeed when they are forced .to fall back On one whom whatever may be said in his favour, oan only point to a record of failure as tho leader of a. political cause. It is still fresh in the minds of the public how the huge "Liberal" majority which Sir Joseph Ward inherited from Mr. Seddon crumbled rapidly to pieces under his leadership; and yet so bankrupt of men of weight and ability is tho party to-day that it is forced to fall back on the leader who led it so ill and landed it in disaster. But so discredited is the party that even _Sir Joseph Ward appears to be disinclined to place ffimself again at its head. Last session ho. issaic 1 to have refused the leadership, and so far as is known he has not changed his mind on the subject. It may be hero remarked _ that amongst the endeavours being made by. those i who are trying to rehabilitate the party is an attempt to indued-Labour to return once more to the "Liberal" fold. Now that they are out in the cold, the front-benchers of the antiReform party and the anti-Reform press have developed a quite amusing concern for the welfare of the Labour . party, and one of their plans for its advancement is to find it a leader, pi course, there could be no more suitable leader of tho Labour cause than Sir Joseph Ward. Labour, wc know, at the elections of 1911 did its utmost to eject him from office, but- that was more than a year ago, and -Labour to-day, so tho _ unhappy remnant of "Liberalism" is seeking to convince itself, will now welcomo him as its saviour. It is really a delightful situation. Labour which we have been told for months past has set out to carvo its own political future is to be stopped in its tracks and led back once more—by.rewards to, its leaders and by kindly promises to its more guileless rank and file—to bolster up Wardism. It may "be that some of the leaders of the LabourSocialist party may be tempted to betray the cause of Labour and make it once more the tool of a discredited party. Such things arc possible, but we suspect that our anti-Reform friends who are plotting in _ this direction' are going to meet with disappointment, and in more ways than they at present imagine.