Mr Savage and Caucus of Labour

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 6

Mr Savage and Caucus of Labour

Suggestion of Overruling MR. CLYDE CARR’S EXPLANATION Per Press Association. TIMARU, Dec. 22. Interviewed to-diy, Rev. Clyde Carr, M.P. for Timaru, a prominent member of the so-called left wing of the Parliamentary Labour Party, said it was general knowledge that the relations between Mr. Lee and Mr. Nash had boen somewhat strained. Mr. Lee’s position as Under-Secretary to the Minister had been purely nominal since Mr. Armstrong assumed the portfolio of State Advances and Housing. Apparently Mr. Lee's recent article in “To-morrow” brought matters to a head. In the opinion of Mr. Carr the article was well written but precipitate. It was always dangerous to indulge in over generalisation. Mr. Carr said that Mr. Lee, himself and others connected with them, agreed that the Labour Government had done a great doal to implement the Labour Party’s pledges, but in certain respects they had not satisfied, particularly regarding matters financial and banking legislation and administration generally. These, to a large extent, represented tne different attitudes of mind inevitable in any intelligent group. Though Mr. Carr deprecated and detested hero worship, he realisod that changes in leadership must never be considered without a due sen*e of their gravity. Agreements within tho party vastly outnumbered differences, just as their differences with the Opposition vastly outnumbered agreements with them. The obvious implication of Mr. Lee's article was that the present Piime Minister was allowing his sense of duty to outweigh due regard for his own health. At least that is how Mr. Carr would have expressed it. To Mr. Leo it would appear rather that it was a mistaken sense of duty and that Mr. Savage’s condition of health should occasion him even more concern from a national than from a personal point of view. Mr. Savage’s disposition to overrule the will of the caucus might be due to other causes and was a problem he considered without passion or conflict of irrelevant matters, such as what his health might or might not be. It should be dealt with promptly and effectively, however.