The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “ The West Coast Times.” MONDAY, MAY 9th, 1921.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 May 1921, Page 2

The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “ The West Coast Times.” MONDAY, MAY 9th, 1921.

A DISTINCTION AND A DIFFERENCE. It is pleasing to note that Mr i. M. Wilfred the leader of the Liberal Party has promptly offered a spirited rejoinder to the cabled accounts of Sir James Allen’s signed article in the Manchester “Guardian” on New Zealand politics. The reply -was called lor certainly, and that it has been delivered so promptly is an indication that the leader of the party is wide awake, and watching events closely. If Sir James Alien’s cabled statements are correctly attributable to him, then ho is guilty certainly of ‘stabbing the Liberal party in the back’ ns Mr Milford sums up Sir James Allen’s nefarious act. The ex-Minister asserts that there is no difference between the Liberal and Labour parties', and as the context shows he has the extreme section of Labor in mind, the assertion might l>o described as deliberately false. Sir James Allen was a member of the National Cabinet, and surely remembers the service the Liberals did their country in that period. „ By no stretch of thy imagination could he honestly associate Liberals and. Extreme Labour with a joint attitude or anything in common regarding the desire to win the war. None should know hotter than Sir James Allen of the services rendered by the Liberals, and the sacrifices they made of their own political interests to serve their country when it sorely needed their help. I here is a wide distinction between Liberals and Extreme Labor as Sir James- Allen would associate the parties, and none should understand also, the difference better than the High Commissioner: As the comment stands it is a reflection rather upon Sir James Allen than the Liberals, because it is palpably untrue. But the remarks of Sir James Allen suggests a line of thought, and that is tho real fusion which we believe will acome again between Liberals and sane Labour. Sir James Allen is looking to the time when there will bo an Opposition consisting of Labourites dominated by extremists. We look to the time very near at hand, we opine, when there will be an Opposition of Liberals and Labour, led as in the old days of the late Mr Seddon, by a single leader, and in that day it will be an Opposition to count in the poliI tical fortunes of this country. The j sane party in the ranks of Labour — ’ which according to Sir James Allen numbers three-fourths of the whole—is shortly organising itself, and this 1 great voting force organised and alert to its opportunity at the ballot box, will dominate the political situation in this country. There is a natural affinity between Liberals and Labor. They were associated in the past, and under congenial conditions were the political power in the land. It is not too much to believe that those times will come again. The government of the country at present leaves much to be' desired. In finance alone there is confusion bei cause of the lack of foresight in rej gnrd-to the inevitable consequences of ! failure of the authorities to read the : signs of the times aright and prepare in advance for the inevitable. The one sided nature of the Government has 1 produced a class form of administration to which the people are now wide awake and there is something more ' than a desire for a change, the demand is growing arid finding expression in many ways. The time is therefore rather opportune for a rnpproaelunent : between Liberals and sane Labour, and Sir Janies Allen’s cheap jibes on the question seem to suggest that the hour r„ r almost struck. Now that Mr Wilford has bestirred himself, he might appear in the lime (light a little more. There is cceasidn now for more to be heard from tlie Liberals, and as the ac--1 credited spokesman, he might well take the platform and begin to enlighten s he frop]e on the? aspect and

trend of Government under present conditions. With sano and moderate Labor also moving in a similar direction, the two parties would not he long before they would find their political paths converging, and in the encl the fusion we have spoken of would be possible at the cross roads where the ! parties would junction and then set out on tho broad political highway leading the/people on the journey to the political haven where they would be.