“TRAITOR IN THE RANKS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 337, 24 April 1928, Page 9

“TRAITOR IN THE RANKS”

P.P.A. Lecturer Annoyed

PRIVATE LETTER PUBLISHED

THERE is a traitor somewhere in the Reform ranks and it is for the Reform people to find the man who made this letter public,” declared Mr. Howard Elliott, national lecturer for the P.P.A. in the course of an explanation to an audience in the Town Hall last evening upon yesterday’s revelations of the political intentions of the Association.

UR. ELLIOTT expressed annoyance that the document should have been published at all. “We say that the letter was sent addressed personally and. marked ‘personal’ to each member of the Reform Party. That the letter has been put into the hands of a pressman indicates that there is a traitor in the Reform ranks. Now that it is made public, however, we do not wish to retract it. There was nothing in it that we did not mean and no sentiment expressed therein that will not be carried out.” A Voice: Will you read it? Mr. Elliott: No, I am not going to read it. Get a newspaper and read it.

Mr. Elliott then went on to refer personally to the Prime Minister. Nothing that had been said or written had anything to do with Mr. Coates personally. “I have written to Mr. Coates,” he said, “and assured him that so far as his character and he, himself, individually, are concerned, we, as an association, have the highest respect for him. Our issues with him are altogether political, therefore none of the rumours that are being circulated have been issued by the association.” There had been a rumour that Mr. Coates was not temperate in his habits, but he, Mr. Elliott, had seen him so frequently during the past two years at all hours of the day and night that he could saj r definitely that it was a deliberate lie. It was unfair to say that a man who occupied his position was unworthy of it because of some personal habit of this kind. The lecturer then referred to the statements of Mr. E. A. James, secretary of the Reform Party, dealing with Mr. Dallard’s appointment to Control-ler-General of Prisons. Mr. James had failed to add that the obvious reason for the appointment being opposed was because it arose from the Baume case in which the Reform Government had connived at one of the most disgraceful miscarriages of justice that had ever occurred in this country. Mr. Dallard had proved himself unsuitable for the position, as was sh~wn by the substantial complaint of cruelty made by a recent escapee from prison. Affidavits supplementing this man’s statement could be produced. He was willing to discuss the Dallard appointment and the Baume case, but

he assured liis audience that his revelations would not reflect on the Reform Party. “While we have given a great deal to the Reform Party,” Mr. Elliott said, in touching upon the financial side of politics, “we have not received into the association one penny-piece from the party; we will not take money from any political party because we must remain free from every party and maintain the principles for which the association stands.” In a general commentary upon sectarianism, Mr. Elliott explained that | Roman Catholics could introduce the | sectarian element as much as they liked, but as soon as Protestants conI gregated and wished to assert their ; rights, this was called sectarianism. It was the Roman Catholics who first introduced sectarianism into politics. They had used their church and their spiritual organisation to achieve this end, telling their people how to vote and for whom to vote. In criticism not a word was heard about this.