THE LABOUR MASQUERADE IN AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3050, 11 April 1917, Page 7

THE LABOUR MASQUERADE IN AUSTRALIA

MR. HOLMAN SPEAKS OUT., In support of the return of Mr. Manning in the second ballot, for Albury, Mr. Holman, the New. South Wales Premier,' addressed one. of the largest meetings ever Held at Albany. Mr. Holnian, devoted a. large portion of., his.-speech, to the attitude of the P.L'.L. in regard to conscription. Since the electiou-xjf Mr. Storey ~and his party, had sought reiuge _in the'nearest drain-pipe,' having", refused his challenge as to whether or , not they accepted .thejate-.voter-as- one favourable ta:-qqnscriptipn .in ,the State. • Tho oysterJ:dirmbnoss of the P.li.L. party showed that the raising oT the "conscription tissue by. their .opponents was a (leliberat.e-ii.e; got up for, electioneering purposes.:'. The'late campaign had •been nothing short of.a conspiracy to propagate lies for ,-paKy'"'purposes.. This new. and dangerous departure was apparently the .'sign manual of tho new political Labour party in this State. If the P.L.L.'party took the view today that it adopted before tho elections In regard to conscription, then thero Bad been a great victory.for those who advocated compulsory service., (Applause.-)' However,- his .party clainied no more now than it did before the elections. It had-nothing to-do with imposing terms' of military service. The real verdict of the elections, he said, was' the preference of the peoplo to bo governed on sound line's' rather than by an irresponsible clique. (Applause.) The total differenco between the original Labour pledge and the pledge now exacted by the P.L.L. was that in the first case tho constituents approved of the (platform: To-day tho P.L.L. controlled the position as far as the endorsed candidates wero concerned. Iti the past a candidate could assure his constituents what wan his attitude on public questions for the three years' Parliamentary term. Today, however, the" candidate's hand 3 were tied by the conference, so that he woe unablo to tell tho poplo what his platform was, because the unknown private coterie known ns the PX.L. would after conference compel tie candidate to adopt entirely different views from those held by him for months before. This interference with the personal liberty of members had fuuda-' mentally altered the whole position. He and. the other twenty-two members who had been expelled by the P.L.L. refused to yield to the diotation .of the league, simply because 'of the recognition of their responsibility to their constituents. If ihe zeal of the P.L.L. to purify the -movement' by' expelling the_ pioneers was due solely to "tne opposition to conscription, how was it that four anti-conscriptionists had also been expelled? ' The movement which now masquer aded under the name of the Labour party, Mr. Holman said, ivaß no longer the movement for which he and others had struggled for twenty-five years. The Labojir movement had not been built up by "direct action" and the tactics of the 1.W.W., and it never would he. (Applause.) There r.eed be no fear that the new National party would be conservative and reactionary, or that the humanitarian policy.of tho Labour party in the past would b'e imperilled. ' The National party would protect the great and fundamental principles of democracy, and so that every man and woman in Australia Could look forward with hope and confidence to a continuance of the humane legislation which formed the idesle of every democrat.