HOPELESS WRECK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 161, 10 July 1928, Page 7

HOPELESS WRECK.

S. AFRICAN LABOUR.

Leader And Members "Drummed

Out."

POLITICAL SENSATION.

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.)

(Received 10.30 a.m.)

CAPETOWN, July 9. *

The Labour party conference summoned the National Council, formerly the governing body, and resolved to expel from the party Colonel F. H. P. Creswell, Minister of Defence and leader of the party, ten members of Parliament and a number of leaders throughout the country who were supporters of Colonel Creswell.

The bitterness of the speeches shows that the party is hopelessly wrecked.

One member of Parliament referred to Colonel Creswell as a political blackleg and another wanted Colonel Creswell "drummed out of the regiment, and his buttons cut off his tunic."

The Minister of Labour, Mr. T. Boydell, who is a supporter of Colonel Creswell, says that the expulsion is invalid as the expelling body was irregularly constituted. Others express gratification at the decision. The query now is: What will the Government do?

The National Council decided to notify General Hertzog of the expulsions. It is understood that he and Dr. D. F. Malan, Minister of Education, favour Colonel Creswell's effort to secure clean administration, while Mr. Tielman Roos, Minister of Justice, takes the opposite side.

The position has been accentuated by Dr. Malan appointing a follower of Colonel Creswell as chairman of the Rand. Water Board, a £2000 a year job, not having consulted Cabinet.

The Nationalists will be pleased at the dissolution pact if it is assured of a majority at the general election, but as there are many doubtful seats it ie expected an attempt will be made tc remove Colonel Creswell from politics.

Colonel the Hon. Frederick H. P. Creswell, D.SO. (awarded 1916), is Minister of Defence for the Union of South Africa. He was born at G|)raltar on November 13, 1866, and was educated at Bruce Castle and Derby School, England, and later at the Royal School of Mines. He has engaged in mining in Venezuela, Asia Minor, Rhodesia, and Transvaal, and he managed the Durban Deep Mine before the Boer War. He enrolled as a lieutenant in the Imperial Light Horse Brigade on the beginning of the war, and on his resumption of mining on the Rand was appointed general manager of the Village Main Reef Mine. He took a prominent part in opposing the introduction of Chinese labour to the Transvaal, and resigned the managership of the mine in 1903 He afterwards took part in a successful movement for the abolition of Chinese labour, and was elected to the Union Parliament in 1910. Later he became leader of the South African Labour party. On the outbreak of the European war he helped to raise the Rand Rifles Regiment, which took part in the South-West African campaign. Subsequently he joined the Bth South African Infantry, with which regiment he took part in the East African campaign as second in command, and later as commanding officer.