EMPHATIC PROTEST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 June 1943, Page 3

EMPHATIC PROTEST

MADE BY MR LANGSTONE

AGAINST TREATMENT BY PREMIER.

DIFFERENCES OVER POST IN WASHINGTON.

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) WELLINGTON. This Day.

The differences between Mr Langstone, former High Commissioner for New Zealand in Canada, and the Prime Minister over the appointment of a Minister to Washington were further ventilated in the House of Representatives yesterday by Mr Langstone in the discussion on the Imprest Supply Bill.

He said the Prime Minister on several occasions had asked him if he would represent New Zealand at Washington. Cabinet had given the Prime Minister power to make his own selection. He was later asked and agreed to go to Washington with the late Mr Coates in connection with the establishment of a supply mission and to make trade agreements. The Prime Minister had passed through Washington .while he was there. “His last words to me." . said Mr Langstone, “were that I should remain in Washington till he returned from Britain and that he would find an appointment for me.

"I may be inferior to the Prime Minister and the Minister- of Finance, and if that is so I had no business in this House or to be a member of the Government,” he continued. “Apparently they thought so in view of the excuses the Prime Minister made to me later. As a member of the Cabinet I was treated shabbily and like a schoolboy while I was 10.000 miles away." “Mr Thorn (Government. Thames): “We have heard all that before.”

Mr Langstone: “You can go outside if you don’t want to listen. The members of the Opposition have not heard it and the people of the country are entitled to be told about it. In any organisation there has to be straightforward dealing." Continuing, Mr Langstone said that on the excuse of the deterioration of the Pacific situation Mr Nash was appointed to Washington. Apparently he was not thought fit for the job. said Mr Langstone, but he considered that was merely an excuse. It was incorrect to confuse the Washington and Ottawa appointments, as there had been no connection. The Prime Minister knew that quite well. He also knew that what he (Mr Langstone) had said was absolutely correct and irrefutable. Yet he had taken the matter before Cabinet and obtained a vote of non-confldence in him. Mr Langst’one said he did not think Mr Massey, Mr Coates or Mr Savage would have done that, “Like the Americans and Pearl Harbour. I will never forget or forgive, and I will not overlook it,” continued Mr Langstone. "When the Prime Minister thought he could play me for a sucker he made the greatest mistake of his life. He cannot do that sort of thing to me. I have worked as long in the Labour movement as he has.” Mr Langstone was interrupted by his time expiring.