THE AUCKLAND WEST BY-ELECTION

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 192, 10 May 1940, Page 5

THE AUCKLAND WEST BY-ELECTION

Messrs. Lee And Barnard Criticized MEETING ADDRESSED BY MR. ARMSTRONG (By Telegraph —Press Association.) AUCKLAND, May 9. The activities and recent utterances of Messrs. Lee and Bnrtfarcl received a good deal of critical attention at a by-election meeting tonight, addressed by the Minister of Health and Housing, Mr. Armstrong and the official Labour candidate for Auckland West. Mr. Peter Carr. "The Labour party can only be defeated by internal dissension.” declared Mr. Armstrong. "If people can’t pull any longer with the party, let them get. out. and carry on from the outside, not behind the backs of their colleagues while they are inside.” The Minister went on to assert that Messrs. Lee and Barnard bad never been elected in their personal capacities. but only as pledged supporters of Labour, if he were in their present situation, he said, every known principle of political decency would impel him to resign his seat and let The electors say whether they still wanted him. The two members knew that if they did so they would not stand a ghost of a chance of being re-elected. .Mr. Armstrong emphatically denied Mr. Lee's reported statement that Cabinet had favoured a lower rate of old age pension than that now paid, and that a group of members had persuaded Caucus to decide otherwise. The fact was. be said, that Caucus had never taken a vote on the subject. but had unanimously approved the present rate when it was brought forward by Cabinet. The Minister said the main trouble had been that there was not room in Cabinet for everybody, and everybody could not be Prime Minister.