MODERATES AND EXTREMISTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10296, 3 June 1919, Page 2

MODERATES AND EXTREMISTS

. I MR HOLLAND IN REPLY TO MR VEITCH. Before ' commencing his address at the Alexandra Hall on Sunday evening on the subject of the conscientious objectors, Mr H. E. Holland, M.P.. made some reference to tile recent attach on himself by Mr Veiteh. M.P. Boiled down, he Hoad, Mr Veitch’s main complaint was that the Labour organisations of Wanganui had uecidcd to call for nominations for tiie selection of a candidate to contest the electorate in tnn interests of Labour. The method adopted by Labour at Wanganui, he said, was the method of choosing Labour candidates in every electorate, and he and every other Labour member had to submit to it. Mr Veitoh wanted an exception to be made in his case, and because it was not made he seemed to have concluded that he (Mr Holland) was responsible. It bad been quite open to Mr Veiteh to qualify for and submit himself to the democratic method of selection by ballot on a preferential voting basis; but instead of doing this, ho had recklessly rushed into print, denounced the action of the local Labour bodies as a challenge to himself, and, with Gilbertian bravado proclaimed that he was prepared to accept the challenge. Mr Holland went on to deny the accuracy of Mr Veitch’s statement that his entry into Parliament had resulted in destroying the harmony of the Labour party. He pointed out that Mr Veitoh was one of the men responsible for inflicting the Massey party on New Zealand. According to one of the Liberal papers, Mr Veiteh had since repented of that. act. But he along with others, was also responsible for inflicting the companion evil ol conscription on the country; and when that measure, coupled with the refusal to recognise religious and conscientious objectors to military service, had resulted in filling the jails witn prisoners and the laud with fugitives, Mr Veiteh had cist his vote lor the Government bill which disfranchises for ten years some thousands of ttu Government’s opponents, alter some hundreds of them had ulreauy sufferer, one, two, and even three punishment,for the same ‘‘offence.” These late: votes of Mr Veiteh had been cast in defiance of the ver.-, definite—practically unanimous—conference decisions of the workers ol New Zealand. Not only was this so, hut for quite four years Mr Veiteh had not been a member of any political Labour organisation, and ho had no! scrupled to go before the Auckland Chamber of commerce and slander the Labour movement for the edification ol Labour’s opponents. These things notwithstanding, Mr Vertch had been permitted to attend the caucus of the Parliamentary .Labour party until the beg.uuing ol last session, when Mi Eraser and he (the speaker) pointed out. the illogicality of al.owing an independent member in no way bouuu iiy the party's policy to take part in determining the party’s course of action in the House—a course the Isibour party members themselves were pledged to shape, , in accordance with the party’s platform as determined at the annual conference. Mr Veiteh himself had concurred with them in this respect, as also did every menibci of the party, with the result that an arrangement was arrived at uudei which the Laboui party was to hold its own caucus separately, afterwards meeting such of the independents a» might be willing to work in with the party on general lines. There was no truth in the statement made by .ui Veitoh, and backed by a Liberal weekly paper, that ho (Air Holland) had been responsible for discord in the parly. The party meetings, on the contrary, had been marked by a degree of harmony tha.i did not charm tense the meetings of any other party; and, to put it in the very mildest way, it was peculiar that it was only at that late hour, when the Liberal party was essaying the impossible task of floating its 'wreckage ofl

the political rooks, that Mr Veiteh, from outs.de the pale of the Labour party, discovered that he (Mr Holland) was ‘‘temperamentally impossible” within the party. The Labour party itself was the best judge of that matter; and they would not lose sight of the fact that a LTueral scheme was afoot to disrupt Labour if it. could for the purpose of achieving Labour’s defeat at the polls. Labour was quite capable ol managing ’ts own affairs, and really did not need advice from poisons in no way connected with its organisations nor yet in sympathy with its supreme objective. The workers who formed the membership of tho Labour party were determined that whoever wanted to represent them. must first be selected by themselves and be bound by the policy laid down by the Labour organisations. It did not matlei whether a man classed himself as “moderate” or “extremist,” this was the only method by which ho could claim to figure as a political representative of LaTiour; and Mi Veiteh, if he became a member of a political Labour organisation, would have exactly the same rights as any other me.mber, no more and no less. One thing was certain, the speaker declared. The day Had long gone when either the misstatements of Mr Veitoh or the untruthfulness of a Liberal paper could hope to divide the forces of Labour for the salvaging of that confusion of political debris which sought to call itself the Liberal party.