EX-MINISTER ATTACKS LABOUR PARTY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 224, 10 December 1927, Page 13

EX-MINISTER ATTACKS LABOUR PARTY

POLITICS IN N.S.W. SOVIET METHODS ADOPTED ; Speaking at a luncheon given by the Constitutional Association, at which he was the guest of honour, Mr. T. D. Mutch, AI.L.A., ex-Minister of Education, said that the Labour movement in New South Wales was no longer the movement to which he had given aqUarter of a century of work and service. “The Labour movement in New South Wales,” said Mr. Mutch, “is based on the Russian model without any question, without any doubt. Not only its general scheme, but also its methods, are those adopted by the Soviet. Russia has direct representatives in New South Wales, and they are doing the work they are paid for.” Mr. Mutch went on to say that the example of Trotsky was a striking example of the methods adopted by the Soviet organisation with its members, supporters and sympathisers. The same methods were being pursued in Now South Wales, and they would continue to be pursued as long as the organisation remained in the hands of those who had captured it. It was not necessary to be a member of the Labour Party to-day to control the movement. It was found that it was sometimes better not to be a member of a firm when more business could be done by not being a member. Changed Principles “So far as I am concerned,” declared Mr. Mutch, "I say that the principles of the Labour Party have been so radically changed that I can no longer accept them.” He added that he was hopeful that the Federal members of Parliament whose positions were imperilled as a result. of the change that had been visited upon the Labour members of the State Parliament would take active steps at the next Federal conference to create a new form of organisation altogether in this State, and to revise the organisation in other States. ' He was very doubtful, however, whether the Federal members would have the courage to stand up and fight the issue. The cowardice of the Federal members during the last New South Wales election was responsible for defeat of the labour Party. It was an amazing thing that the Labour Party, in the state it was then in, should have polled so many votes. That was because so many people were not influenced by principles or facts, but cast their votes blindly. “I say very definitely/' said Mr. Mutch, “that the evidence indicates that the attempt successfully made to capture the A.L.P. executive in this State and to turn it into a miniature Soviet will be extended to every other State in the Commonwealth and it rests with the elected representatives of the people in this and the other States to take steps to put in a foundation that will enable them to appeal with confidence to the electors. Attack on Mr. Lang “The Labour Party in New South Wales.” Mr. Mutch added, “has been cursed by being led by a man with oblique mentality—Mr. Lang. I think that if he had had the courage and honesty to stand up for principles he knows to be right, instead of pandering to numbers, it would have been better for the Labour movement in New South Wales. If he had had the courage of Mr. McCormack in Queensland, the disaster that has occurred in New South Wales would never have happened.” Mr. Mutch concluded with a word of warning to young men with political aspirations, advising them to become financially independent before seeking Parliamentary honours. He had seen many men, he said, voting in and out of Parliament for things they knew to be wrong, and upon which they had expressed opinions to him opposite to those expressed by their votes, preservation was the law of memoers of Parliament as it was with other human beings. “I have not changed,” said Mr. Mutch, “but the constitution of the Labour Party has been completely changed and changed in a way that leads to degradation, and certainly contributes to its non-success politically.”