The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1930 THE MUTINY SPREADS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 870, 14 January 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1930 THE MUTINY SPREADS

EMBARRASSED members of the United Party are for the most part disinclined to comment on the political sensation precipitated by Mr. A. E. Davy, but Mr. H. R. Jenkins, M.P., has been frank enough to acknowledge publicly his dissatisfaction with the same factors that prompted Mr. Davy to make his startling exposure. Mr. Jenkins intends to consult his constituents before rejoining his colleagues in Wellington, and it will not he at all surprising if several other of the United members do not adopt the same course. Even if there are no other actual consultations, there will be a good deal of quiet and unobtrusive sounding. The whole political situation just now bristles with complications, and the secret diplomacy of Parliamentary conversations will be working overtime between now and the opening of the session. In the light of the damaging criticisms made against the Prime Minister it is doubtful if the United Party can restore itself sufficiently to survive the attacks of the opposition parties in the House. Sir Joseph Ward is a man whose past statesmanship and personality give him a firm place in the sentimental regard of the country. But the very people who admire and respect him may feel that his health demands a retirement from the strains and stressed of active politics. Sir Joseph has made a remarkable recovery from an extremely critical illness. Yet a man of his age has not the reserve vitality with which to resist a repetition of such a breakdown. In his own interests the Prime Minister might be well advised to retire now, with his honours thick upon him. If his unconquerable spirit insists that he remain in office, it is not at all improbable that for periods during the session his party may be compelled to carry on without his aid. Thus the leadership of the House will again fall upon the Hon. G. W. Forbes, who is a pleasant gentleman, but a totally uninspired politician. Mr. Forbes had a chance to show his capacity for leadership long ago when h,e was the nominal head of the National Party, but the obscurity into which that organisation soon languished was not a pretty compliment to his powers.

The Government survived critical divisions last session with the aid of the Labour Party, hut the Labour Party may not he prepared to concede that support indefinitely to a party that is rent by internal divisions. Even now there are many signs that Labour will he well organised, and its candidates ready, if the present delicate political adjustment collapses. Then what will he the position of the United representatives, several of whom, like Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Fletcher and the Hon. J. B. Donald, won the narrowest of victories in three-cornered contests, and against strong sitting Labour men like Mr. F. N. Bartram and Mr. J. A. Lee? It is absolutely certain that, lacking the persuasive wizardry of the United Party’s 1928 appeal, these particular candidates, as well as others throughout the country, could not their former success. Politicians placed in such a position have every inducement to consider the practicability of a fusion. It is true that the re-alignment might not pay them in the long run, but politicians are not in the habit of looking far ahead. In any case, there is a certain moral justice in Mr. Jenkins’s claim that he, and presumably some of the others, were misled about the character and principles the United Party was to follow. They had expected some sort of mingling with Reform, a mixture of the best moderate elements in all three parties. Instead of that they got a resurrection of that negative Liberalism which in every political system in the world is battling to retain a precarious and diminishing foothold. The United Party materialised as the old Liberal Party in a new guise. More than that, it proved to be a “one-man” show. It is no wonder that Mr. Jenkins and some of his colleagues are disappointed in the strange political anomaly that they helped to evolve.