AN OUTSPOKEN LABOUR CANDIDATE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2492, 12 October 1922, Page 3

AN OUTSPOKEN LABOUR CANDIDATE.

A few weeks ago Mr H. .J. Farrent, the selected Labour candidate for Invercargill, made an affirmation with respect to his religious faith and his'loyalty to his country which created wide interest. The recent attitude of the parliamentary leader of the Labour Party on the Turkish'crisis has led him to make his attitude'on that question perfectly clear. It was rumoured that he- had relinquished his candidature as a protest. When asked by a Southland Times reporter whether the rumour was founded on fact, Mr Farrant stated that it was not entirely without foundation although it was not true that he had relinquished his candidature.' A meeting of his committee had been held on Wednesday evening arid although he had not suggested resigning, lie had stated that he was considerably perturbed by the unpatriotic sentiments given expression to by the Leader of the Labour Pa rtf. While he agreed with Mr Holland that the matter should have been referred to Parliament, he did not agree that it should have been referred to the people, and he wholly disagreed with Mr Holland's speech when moving the amendment. He considered that Mr Holland was not speaking in the name of Labour throughout the Dominion and he was certainly not echoing his (Mr Farrant’s) sentiments. • The attitude he took up was that if his sentiments were challenged by the Labour Party he would stand down as the official Labour candidate. He would rather do that than be associated with the unpatriotic remarks made by the Leader of the Party."