Sir J. Ward Denies Leadership Rumour

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 455, 10 September 1928, Page 8

Sir J. Ward Denies Leadership Rumour

RETURN BY AORANGI WILL NOT TALK POLITICS “I cannot at the moment %* y anything definite regardmg politic* generally,” said Sir Joseph Ward when interviewed by a SUN repor. ter after his arrival by the Aorang,. “I do not expect to make any statement for several days. T HILE passing through Winnipeg i was interviewed at the railwar | station by a reporter who said he had [heard that I was likely to stand again I in New Zealand as leader of a partT. II said that I had received a cable from a friend in New Zealand advising m* | that the United Party was meeting c® I September ?-5 and that it would elect its leader at that meeting. “I had no communication from any of the leaders of the party asking me to be the leader, and I so informed my interviewer. | stated that the message was a private one and that it contained all that I knew of the position. “I have not seen the published inter* view, but it is quite evident that a wrong impression has been conveyed. I mad© no statement in Canada or elsewhere that I had received any invitation to become the leader of a party. I was asked by the Press in Canada to discuss politics in New Zealand, and 1 replied that I was too far away ami that, in the circumstances, it was impossible for anyone to do so. “Since leaving New Zealand I have been busy all the time, and I have not attempted to influence the course oi politics in this country in any way whatever ’’