PROPOSED GENERAL ELECTION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 39, 9 November 1918, Page 3

PROPOSED GENERAL ELECTION

Sir,—l notice from your paper that some Labour men—at least .members of Parliament, who particularly wish that designation to bo affixed to them—are clamouring for a general election. They have also expressed their appreciation of tho op.'nions of such men as Mr. Arthur Henderson, Mr. Phillip Snowden, . ,nnd Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald. These men are more.or le?s pacifists, wlio would havo settled the war long eince by "negotiation." But it is with regard to Mr. Arthur Henderson on ,the question of a general election in Great Britain that I wish to direct your readers' attention. Mr. Arthur Henderson has expressed liimseiE as decidedly opposed to a general election daring the war, and he asks these questions:— "How could the Government hope to give undivided attention to the war'and look after, their electoral interests? If it was necessary to havo a National Government when the first and second Coalitions were set up, why should the policy of a National Government be departed from during hostilities, as it would inevitably be if an election were forced upon the country? An election would not be justified by any defects in the personnel of the present House of Commons unless it could be shown that the House was preventing the_ Government carrying out its plans, military or otherwise" Now, Sir, these people who call themselves Labou T members,, and who want to be. accepted as Labour members by the general public, and who profess to follow such men as Mr. Arthur Henderson, let them adopt and express the same views as this Labaar leader with regard to a general election in New Zealand. And if they have never done'any good in tho matter of helping to win the war they might be doing some good, by following Mr. Arthur Henderson in tho matter of a general eleotion,—l am, etc., LIBERAL.