"EXIT LABOUR—IN DISGRACE."

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 250, 21 October 1924, Page 7

"EXIT LABOUR—IN DISGRACE."

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I invited "Judge Not" to disclose his identity to mc, privately, so that I might determine whether or not it was worth while to repel, privately, his personal attacks 'and insinuations. As he has chosen to repeat his personalities and banalities in public, that invitation is hereby withdrawn. ' He lias disclosed quite enough to make mc shun any closer contact with him. His last letter reveals him as holding to the doctrine that "the end justifies tlie means," in other words, the 'antiChristian plea, "Let us do evil that good may come." That is his defence of Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald, who (he repeats) requires no defence, as by his transgression a "great cause" is furthered. I repeat that, if the leader of a gicn* cause makes a grave mistake, that cause must suffer loss. The present "exit in disgrace" from otiiee of 'the Labour party is but an instalment of unerring retribution. As personalities are evidently in order, I claim tlie right to reply to the latest. I am accused (1) of having pilloried Mr. Mac Donald; (2) of not having offered a reasonable defence of him; CI) of hasty and unchristian judgment; (4) of attacking "Scotland's magnanimous and glorious dead"; (5) of calling Christ's opinions and commands "banalities." Every one of these five allegations is false. I did not pillory Mr. Mac Donald; when an accused person pleads guilty he puts himself in the pillory. I did defend him by saying lie had merely made a mistake; in the matter of judgment, he saved mc that trouble by his plea of guilty. As to Scotland's glorious dead 1 made no mention whatever of them. I defy "Judge Not," or any one else, to quote a single word I wrote on which such allegations can be truthfully based. As to banalities, to those in his first letter he adds by quoting the saying "Let him who is without sin," etc., as though it had a bearing on the matter in debate. Christ's sayings aie never banal, but their misapplication is. l-et mc point out that He who took the part of an erring woman against an angry crowd also said, with reference to those who devoured widow's houses — "Ye generation of vipers! How shall ye escape the damnation of hell?" Was that harsh and tin-Christian judgment on evil-doers? No; it showed true discrimination. There is to-day too mucn mawkish and false sympathy with all wrong-doers. T apologise for having to take so much space to repel anonymous personalities, which I wished to keep out of your columns. Let your correspondent sign his name to his letters if he is not ashamed to own up to his opinions.—l am, etc.. J. LIDDELL KELLY.