THE BRITISH ELECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 275, 20 November 1931, Page 6

THE BRITISH ELECTIONS.

E. Gibson has got the meaning of my letter all wrong. I never thought that anybody would take the first part of it as anything but (to use a slang phrase) a skit on the Con° servatives, as it was a great joke when I was a child that the Conservatives waited their chance to get in, and would then pass something they had been opposing for years. I should not have said they passed everything as the Liberals got the best of them sometimes' Fancy taking me for a Conservative! Why] I was a member of the Socialist party -thirty years ago. And at that time Snowden, Clynes, Iveir Hardy, Mac Donald and others used to lecture for us and tell us what could, be done if they were in Parliament. One of their ideals was shorter hours of labour, and that with all the inventions in machinery that were coming along we would not have need to work more than six or probably four hours a day. (Loud applause.) Why they have not been advocating it for the last two years is a mystery to me, as it is the only way unemployment will be solved. Then there would be no need for unemployment insurance. That was why I was angry with Miss Bondfield, as she must have known there was a better way than domestic service for the girls. Domestic work will 'be done cheerfully when it is regarded in a proper light, and not looked on as if the girl was a mild sort of an idiot, as is the case at present. E. Gibson accuses mo of saying "Away with the 'dole'." Now if she read my letter she would have seen that I said "the -people seemed to be saying away with the 'dole'," which is quite another thing to my saying it. Miss Bondfield's exact words, as I read them in the "Star," were that she thought domestic service was a good substitute for factory work. Now Miss Bondfield knew if the girls once got into domestic service they would 'be right out of their union. Therefore they would never again he eligible for unemployment insurance. They would bo out of it and no trouble to anybody. Does not E. Gibson see the point? Here is the election result of -Wallsend: Miss Irene Eard (Con.) 25,999, Margaret Bondfield (Lab.) 18,393. One of us does not know what she is talking about, and it is not me. (Mrs.) M. A. McLEOD. ■