MR. R. A. WRIGHT AND THE S.D.P.

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3058, 20 April 1917, Page 8

MR. R. A. WRIGHT AND THE S.D.P.

Sir,—ln your issue of yesteiday. you roport that -Mr. K. A. Wright, replying to an interjection, declared that tho Social. Democratic Party of. New Zealand had two wings, oiio industrial and the other : political, that tho industrial wing had its headquarters in Brussels and the political wing.had -its

headquarters' in Berlin." You also crediii Mr. Wright with ' saying: "It [the Social Democratic Party] was a German organisation. When I o'amo to study the-situation I found that the two wings wore closely united, and that tho political branch was tho dominant one. Tho less said about tho Social Democratic Party tho better. The) people of New Zealand will not stand a German organisation." Of course when Mr. Wright lefers to tho respective headquarters of tho "industrial wing" and tho "political wing" of tho Social Democratic Party he means the International Trade Union Secretariat on the one hand an'd tho International Socialist Bureau on the other hand..The International Socialist Bureau is the international political organisation of Labour, and it was to this bureau that the Now Zealand Social Democratic Party decided to affiliate. Mr.Wright says it is a German organisation. How much reliance can be placed on Mr. Wright's asseition will be seen .when tho facts are stated. This "German" organisation, up to the war, always had its headquarters in Brussels, . Belgium. Since tho invasion of Belgium, tho bureau has made The Hague its headquarters. Its.chairman; is.M. Emile Vaudervelde (Minister_oE Munitions in tho Belgian. Cabinet), its secretary, is'M. Camillo. Huysmans (a. Belgian member'of Parliament),, and ono of its executive members is M. Albert :Thomas (a-member of the French Cabinet). The latoKeir Hardie, one of tho grandest figures in the-. British' Labour movement, .was-an executive member up to tho time of his death, and Mr. Arthur -Henderson (a. member of the British' Cabinet) is an executive member of tho British section. Tho British Labour Party has been and still is an affiliation of the bureau. Is it necessary to say anything further? - To put it as-mildly as -possible, Mr. -Wright's, statement, was not founded on fact.-It is a.fair thing now to ask Mr. Wright to unequivocally say -whether ho made his statement knowing it to bo inaccurate or merely on tho impulso of an angry moment bursting through an intense.lack of information; If, Mr.: Wright/ made his statement knowing it to- be inaccurate, and solely for the purpose of damaging his political opponents,, it isfor him to say whether his tactics entitle him ..to the confidences of the-electors. If his statement w.->.s mado ; purely in ignorance, surely the fact that a candidate 'for-ft. public position .could bo capable of endeavouring to injure his opponents by tho use of a statement the truth of which he had roadcjio attempt to verify is sufficient to disqualify.his claim to be seriously regarded. As.a former member of the Socialist Party, in his redder and moro militant days, Mr. Wright surely should have known the true position of the.organisa.tion.—i Ura ' GtC - J ; Itt. HOLLAND. '