STRONG DENIAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26634, 3 December 1947, Page 6

STRONG DENIAL

ANY KIND OF ALLIANCE

COMMUNIST AND NATIONAL PARTIES

P.A. GREYMOUTH, Dec. 2. An emphatic denial that the National Party and the Communist Party were allied in any way was made by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland, to-night. He was referring to a statement on Communists made by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, at Greymouth. The National Party has not and never has had anything in common with the Communist Party. We have never been supported by the Communists, and if any assistance had been offered it would have been refused smartly. “The Communists have always supported the Labour Party,” Mr Holland added. “There are no Communists or ex-Communists in the National Party, but there are in the Labour Party. “I can say this quite emphatically: That while I have any say in the management of the National Party or in the formation of any future Government no Communist or ex-Communist will receive an appointment of any kind. “It is only a few years ago,” Mr Holland went on, “since the Prime Minister stated, after making sympathetic reference to the Russian Communist State, that the Labour movement in New Zealand was part and parcel of the same movement throughout the world. New Zealand will recall the famous statement made by Mr Nash on his return from Russia published in the official Labour Party newspapers that the Soviet system of economic planning was better than under any other form of Government he knew of.”