WITHIN THE CONSTITUTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 48, 26 February 1923, Page 4

WITHIN THE CONSTITUTION.

The barring of Communists by the Scottish Labour party, reported in our cable news to-day, is a healthy but not a surprising augury. Industrial Scotland sent a iarge iDouy of advanced Labour men to Parliament at the la?t election. Many of them had given trouble during the war, and some had been deported from vital munition areas. According to a special correspondent of the "Times' , who interviewed some of the members of this •'Parliamentary black squad,"' as they have been nicknamed, after their first session, they went to Westminster

as Constitutionalists, and nothing had happened to cause them to change. Mr. Newbould, the solitary avowed (. om-

munist in the House, "is a pariah among them." For example, there is Mr. Kirkwood, a deportee of the war. Mr. Kirkwood had previously moved Mr. Newbould to sharp reproach by declaring that he put his country first and would take no orders from Moscow. To the

"Times' , correspondent he said that their Parliamentary experience had taught them that they must get a majority before they could do anything really effwe-

tivo. Another member had got the impression that •Tight through the House there is an earnest desire to make things better than they are." and a third, who in the words of the correspondent "had left Glasgow wearing tin- label 'High Explosives, with I are.' " paid v similar tribute to his opponents, lie had ■been "immensely impressed" by the-ir manner of stating their case, and he had no doubt as to their sincerity. The vote recorded to-day is only one of many proofe that constitutionalism holds the field triumphant.