MR. BRANDON'S MEETING

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 132, 21 February 1918, Page 6

MR. BRANDON'S MEETING

DOMESTIC QUESTIONS IN WAR TIME. Mr. A. de B. Brandon addressed a meeting in the Masonic Hall, Boulcott Street, last night. Mr. E. F. Hadfield presided. The chairman addressed the meeting at some length on the claims of Mr. Brandon to the suffrages of the electors, and ridiculed the attempt made to describe adherence to Mr. Brandon as almost disloyalty to the Empire itpplf. Mr. Brandon began his address by explaining that he was standing as a protest against the attempt to introduce the American political machine

into country. He said that it had boon claimed thatvthe 'Prime Minister had consulted the electors of Wellington North. That consultation, he- declared, was nominal only, and the peopjo present were not all electors of Wellington North, and those who were electors of Wellington North were not in accord with the proposal to nominate Mr. Luke. It was said that he had been asked at that meeting to stand as a candidate, and that he had declined. This was contrary to fact. It had been said that his name had been suggested for nomination. That statement also was contrary to fact. He spoke of the advertisement appearing in Tub Dominion yesterday under the heading, "Attacked from Behind. ,, Ho denied having said that there was a danger of the vote being split and of an enemy of the Government getting in. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "the man who wrote that statement has written a deliberate falshehood." Ho said that he had never been asked the question of whether he would support the continuance of six o'clock closing. On this and other similar questions he wished to have present legislation remain unaltered. It was not proper that the community should be rent asunder on domestic questions during the period of the war. When question time came the chair man insisted that nil questions put should bo written. Some few were presented in writing, but one or two men in the audience steadfastly refused to write their 'queries, and in the end prevailed upon the chairman to allow them to speak them. They were going on with so many questions, however, that Mr. Brandon declared that he would answer no more, and the meeting then closed.