LASHING TONGUES

Hokitika Guardian, 12 October 1929, Page 2

LASHING TONGUES

ELECTION- PERSONALITIES. • BITTER RECRISjIiNATIpHS.; PRIME MINISTER,GIVE?! THE LIE.BRUCE ON HUGHEfe AND HUGHES on bruce; / ; ;/ SYDNEY, September 27.

The people ( in New ‘Zea|and M ddii’t know anything about politics— is, politics as played by the phi jghtened politicians in AustraUp.-i political game here,' the-issuO is not one-6f, policy, though, • to' bp; spre,'. policy-* i/s mentioned here and Jherei' v The liamentary candidate’ whocatches th a 1 imelight and figures - jpcisfi. i»i. .'thei 'eyO of the intelligent- elector is . hot the. man yvith the • feouhdest; policy, •• l|u't -lje: who has the most‘.virjilept ybOahtiiary. For if you'doti’f ahusey ipsu^, v ha|uhir niate and otherwise, Jibe! 'pouroppohept—well, in the eyei bf .the-jnoddrh' sensatiohdbving, .pfthis county, you aren’t. worth reporting’, and; yOu may go hang (for * v .dflr pend upon poster's ’ Winch Solmpfily -for vite ; the ; electors tb .‘gfvO’. you 1 thfejr votes—and by their', reproduction l p| your S most plainlywarri them not tOv'.;'. r ’i ' - No; the man wljo' getW |lie r ;vote of the, scrap-loving •. Australian» t elector these - days is the 'irihn- whp' ean hipii destructively assail; thp olJftPK acter and .reputation,pi;';il^ptliflr; : |s»_ low in the ,roof 4 vindictively vitriolic; manner,.• . Crowdsi-tvilV.": Bsslstdr'ldfmeetings, and available space ip;; the Even Mr Bruce, our veay iuperior statesmanlike PrimeMinister* With the delighted apprpyal Of iKfifr’id; newspapers, “ taken ’off the glpyeiji.JF and now “ shows himself as afightef’'? —by which is' meant' e r ' seended to the level of his alleged trhducers, and utters language that has. hitherto been foreign to the gentleman of soft phrases -and;Opats. ; ?

“ BUTER < *\. >■' ; 0.. >•» 4-V - 4 ,V- N , Mr Bruce Hughes of being A bitter and; vengeful posed from and for the last successor in the cOnspjridg, with enemies of the putty. Government. To adds- tb»t Walter Marks,-a ;mepit|aV of ernment party, voted against instigation of Amermap; - interop (there was a fixed be]jp'f'pp' W®' many people that ly- interested industry—of, whicli H)pr/ anon), that Mr Marks tip. by: sonal vanity—and that,' anyway, anybody who knew Mi’ Maries }snew that Mr Marks didn’t count. The deprqeation is ‘‘ pretty rich, ’’’'cohsideHng .thtit Mr - Marks counted ; jn|t bno. vote; top many for Mv'Bruce in this final diyis|pn. oa the Hughes amendment that, sent, Bruce out of office'} i'{' And, the Prime Minister declared, he had evidence that Mr Marks ;j)ad* been ; for three years < conspiring; will) Mr Hughes and ~ihe eneihies .yof ,the National party to bring ,ahdut |W downfall of. the ; Government, Reason being that Mr Marks Was hot, included in the Bruce Cabinet. . y T.:

HUGHES DRAWS THE CROWDS. Mr Mirks ’opened his campaign at Bondi on Monday, night supported by Mr Hughes. “What’s on at BondiP” the stranger would wonder. For, from six o’clock until after eight, trams and buses to the famous beach Were packed

and motors scooted along in hundreds/ The Casino, a hall capable of acco'm- > modating 3000, was packed by halfpast seveii, and outside a crowd of from 7000 r to 8000 peole stretched from the walls of the building right back to the esplanade, to hear the speakers per medium of the amplifiers. Every few minutes trams, at dead speed, clanged 1 their way through the mass of humanity, the careful manner in which they were taken through being a remarkable tribute to the skill of the drivers and the good temper of the people. That the* great majority of the crowd was, “agin the Government” was soon unmistakably . demonstrated for Marks, the candidate for Wentworth, was applauded at almost every sentence and when he publicly gave the lie to the Prime Minister the cheers were deafening. “I demand that the Prime Minister apologise to I me,” said Marks, after quoting the charge of Mr Bruce that he had conspired with Hughes and others to wreck the Government. “I say that statement of the Prime Minister’s is a dastardly lie 1 he shouted. * ' (Cheers and yells of approval, “That’s the stuff to give him.” “Put the boot in Wally,” and other approving and encouraging remarks.) And then suddenly, the crowd yelled in an ecstasy of merriment. “What brought about the downfall of Spain ; what brought about the downfall of the French monarchy; what brought about the downfall of that mighty nation Germany?” asked the speaker, “Billy Hughes!” yelled a stentorion voice. 1 do not'recall ever hearing so thunderous a roar of laughter. It was minutes before the speaker could be heard again. $

COARSE, COMMON FELLOW. , ’ t . ...... A little later a perfect frenzy of cheering, broke out in the hall, and sensing its meaning, the thousands

outside took it up until its echoes resounded' over ‘the bay and rang out among the'rocks of Ben Buckler. “ Billy” :'fiughes had arrived! Now they would hear something compared with which the denunciatory phrases of Mr, Marks would prove to have 1 been mild <®mjfient> . / . 'Mr Hughes 'opened slbwly, as is his wont, and then .warmed up to : the defence: of .“my friend, Walter Marks .whom the Prime Minister has so scurrilously maligned.” Encouraged by* cheers, Mr Hughes then heaped opprobrium: on the Prime Minister, “who sdugh't to confuse the minds of the peole. by vulgar. personal abuse and vile'innuendo. ... This man, usually so Vlbef ; from the common herd, has revealed himself, in his moment of paSßibh,. > ...shows himself to he really a coarsb, common fellow. .. . There is' something despicable and pathetic in . this’’•great issue that the Prime Minister “should descend to such a level,” \ • '

And as to ,Mr Bruce’s statement that a vote for Mr Hughes was a vote fori Mi’ Theddore—“what effrontery, what flatulence, what brazen impudence 1” • \ .

“If,” said Mr Hughes, “it were not for Mawell, Marks, Mann and me, the electors would have been sold like bullocks at Smithfield We made Mr Bruce face his masters—that he cannot forgive.”

, “GO TO uLAZES!” V ;; ; ' : S, 'i / And the saine nigjit Mr Bruce was being enthusiastically applauded at Brisbane . when he said that cinema and foreign interests were spending £20,000 to run a Candidate to oppose the Government, butvthat they could “go to blazes ” as far as he was concerned. But'Mr Marks, accused oflbeing financially interested in the picture busihas publicly declared that he has not, nor never did‘ have, one penny piece so invested, and that the same truth applied to every member of the Marks family. Nationalist manifestos declare that directly and indirectly, Mr Hughes has plotted and planned revenge; that in his “campaign of hate” he has not con sidered any interest other than that of W. M. Hughes; and that “his earlier outpourings of patriotism have been overwhelmed by the outpourings of personal spleen.” Of the Speaker (Sir Littleton Groom, who refused to give his casting vote in favour of the Government), it is alleged that ‘he nurtured resentment 1 over his removal from the Cabinet,, And of Mr Marks: “Vanity has been his downfall If Mr Hughes hinted at making a real Minister of him, and if the great movie picture magnates named him as the future Prime Minister—even if it did cost them £20,000 —Mr Marks’ tragic vote is; easily accounted for.”

To which Mr Bruce adds that the pictures have gone to Mr Marks’ head and Mr Marks doesn’t know what he is doing; and addressing a meeting of ladies at Bondi, jeers at Mr Marks as as insanely vain “political Mary Pickford.” “The tool of the cinema interests,” is another of the Prime Ministers contemptuous references to Mr Marks, .because Mr Marks is against the proposed Federal amusement tax. At North Sydney, Dr. Nott, the endorsed Nationalist candidate, expressed regret at having to oppose ■ “His old friend” Mr Hughes—and then proceeds; among other things, to call Mr Hughes “traitor,” “spiteful thorn,” and “ hypocrite.”

And in Melbourne Mr Maxwell refers to the Bruce-Page Government as “a set of mongrels,” while in Queensland, Theodore, abusively assailed by the Nationalists, accuses Bruce and Latham (the latter being the Federal Attorney-General) of ‘ * sheer, dirty blackguardism.”

Fancy this kind of political campaigning in New Zealand 1