“GET KNOCKED OUT”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 439, 22 August 1928, Page 13

“GET KNOCKED OUT”

MR. COATES ANSWERS UNITEDS REJECTION OF MERGER (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, To-day. '•The United Party’s home is within, and if they do not come in with us they will get knocked out.” said the Prime Minister, commenting on Mr. G. W. Forbes’s rejection of the invitation to join the Reform Party. Answering the invitation to join Reform and present a solid front to Labour, Mr. Forbes said the United Party had come into existence on account of a widespread conviction that the Prime Minister had proved a failure in his position and that instead of guiding the affairs of the Dominion on statesmanlike lines, with a definite goal in view, he had taken the line of least resistance, hoping to please everybody. The policy of the Government was described as a weak imitation of the Labour Party’s State Socialism and one discouraging private enterprise and initiative. “In view of the remarkable progress which *the United Party has made I can only regard the Prime Minister’s appeal as an ‘S.O.S.’ signal,” added Mr. Forbes. “While Mr. Coates would like to confine the coming contest to the Reform and Labour Parties he will find that the United Party is to be reckoned with seriously.” MIDDLE OF THE ROAD TAUNTS FOR MR. FORBES (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Regret that Mr. Forbes, one of the chief critics, was absent from the Chamber, was expressed by Mr. Coates when making his important railway statement in the House of Representatives this evening. “With Mr. Forbes absent. lam at a tremendous disadvantage,” said Mr. Coates. “Criticism of the railways was practically all he said, except for something about my being the worst Prime Minister on record. Of course, they’re not his statements —they’re only handed to him, and he does the rest.” Later on Mr. Forbes arrived in the chamber, Mr. Coates greeting him with “Oh, I’m glad you’re here; now you can check up on your errors. All the information is here. Read it, then I know I’ll have another . convert, and perhaps Mr.. Forbes will regret some of his most recent remarks about joining up with any party. Mr. H. E. Holland; I thought you both wanted to get into the same pair of shoes. Further comment was made by Mr. Coates in concluding, when he saia < f Mr. Forbes: “He is trying to keep to the middle of the road, and had better look out, or he’ll be pushed off altogether. That is quite likely to happen, or course. As I said, he can come over here. One of our side will give him a place beside him.”