DAIRY CONTROL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 88, 14 April 1927, Page 4

DAIRY CONTROL.

ATTITUDE OF PREMIER.

MR. PATERSON'S "GUIDANCE."

REPLY BY MR. GROUNDS

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WELLIXGTOX, Wednesday.

The following statement in reply to the Prime Minister, Mr. Coates, v.».is issued to-night by Mr. W. Grounds, chairman of the Dairy Produce Centred Hoard:— '' 'My Exporter' review, regarding which Mr. Coates has made a statement, makes quite clear the reason for ivhich it was written. After my report to the board on my return from Loudon upon Air. Paterson's activities as Government representative on the London agency, the board unanimously asked the Government to remove him. Nearly two months later the Ministei replied, not only refusing to do so, but stating that it was satisfied with the manner in which he had discharged his duties. It was then clearly my duty to justify the board's request. My statements were specific and precise and still remain unimpeachably accurate. Injustice to Industry. '"These records of actions and opinions expressed necessitated naming the personality engaged. All men Mist be judged by their actions and expressed thoughts, but of personalities in the vulgar sense, which unfortunately is the usual one, I am not interested and certainly shall not participate. I completely repudiate these suggestions l hat injustice has been done anyone by my statements. The industry and the country have suffered a deeper injustice than can yet be computed by the actions I have reported. "Mr. Coates takes one paragraph from my statement, which, he says, is wholly inaccurate, and denies accepting Mr. Paterson's guidance. I did not overload my points with evidence, thinking the barest outlines sufficient for what I had in view. I still :hink that adequate proof was provided. But let me now go further on the point challenged.

Mr. Paterson's Cablegram. "If Mr. Paterson's guidance was not accepted, how came it that at the end of Mr. Paterson'o well-known cablegram to the board, dispatched on October 23, Mr. Coates caused to be ' inserted the words, 'above message is sent with the cognisance of the Prime Minister, who requests you hand a copy immediately to the acting-Prime Minister.' He may remember that I asked him shortly afterwards if 'cognisance' under such circumstances did not indicate approval. "This cablegram was dispatched when Mr. Coates had been in London just one week, during which he was naturally preoccupied with the Imperial Conference, which had commenced its sitting. He received the first trade deputation on the morning of October 23, and on that afternoon Mr. Paterson dispatched his cablegram. Up to that point Mr. Coates had not seen Mr. Motion, Mr. Wright or myself. Tacts are chiels that winna ding.' Did these not justify the conclusion stated in my review, that 'having accepted Mr. Paterson's guidance without any proper investigation it was readily foreseen that he could not jettison his guide?'

Unity and Board's Success. "The mention by Mr. Coates of unity among the producers is painfully belated. Did not earlier opportunity present itself for an appeal for unity on a broader basis free from any suspicion of selfprotection? Did I not urge the Prime Minister to speak for the country when the editor of a defunct newspaper sent a misleading cablegram to the London 'Daily Mail,' calculated to seriously prejudice national interests? Did an earnest desire for the board's success dictate no reply to my urgent representations? Forbearance had been displayed to a fault in an endeavour to attain unity •until the essentials in successful marketing revealed themselves to all.

'"This forbearance sometimes counselled silence when truth might have urged sneech. Silence, even for unity, is not necessarily golden. It may be cowardly. Certain elements will not mixr. When these have been carefully analvsed and segregated the industry will resume, its progressive development."