MR. L. M. ISITT’S POSITION.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1922, Page 5

MR. L. M. ISITT’S POSITION.

AN EXPLANATION AND A WARNING. THE PERIL OF EXTREME LABOR. Christchurch, Dec. IS. In an address to his friends and supporters, Mr. L. M. Isitt, M.P., said that throughout tho campaign for Christchurch North some of the most devoted workers on his committee were staunch members of the Reform Party. He wanted to say that the pledge that secured that support was not on hi.« part a bargain. The secretary of the Reform League would tell them that he made it plain to them that while, of course, he was very anxious that Reform sohuld not run a candidate and so increase the chance of a Red Fed getting in, his pledge of 1922 was his pledge of 1910. It was not h matter of convenience, but of conviction, and whether or not Reform determined to run a candidate hfe pledge would remain unaltered. After thanking the Liberals and the Welfare League for the help they had given him, he said there were one or two things he was very anxious to utter. .Some of .his Liberal friends he-l thought his position extreme, but it was the result of careful consideration Tn his opinion, not only the Dominion, but the British Empire, wae face to fare with a menace in comparison with winch the differences between the two loyal parties were insignificant. For years he had been trying to convince his brother members, both Liberal and Reform, that the Extreme Labor Party were making rapid dual progress—progress in the strength of their revolutionary Socialistic convictions and progress numerically. He had been thought an alarmist. Very few members believed Extreme Labor would add to its strength in the election; but now they had doubled their number and he understood that their vote amounted to over 150,000. The question was, how were they to meet this growing danger? In the past both Liberals and Reformers had been to blame. 'They had yielded and been placative where they ought to have stood firm. They had been idle and silent where Red Fed.?, Sundays and week days, were ceaseless in their propaganda. If they really loved their Empire and believed in constitutional Government it behoved both parties to meet propaganda with propaganda, apd throughout the years, not merely at election time, to go in for organised resistance. —Wanganui Chronicle’s special correspondent.