HOSTILE ATTITUDE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 93, 20 April 1932, Page 9

HOSTILE ATTITUDE.

MR. COATES AND LABOUR. ORGANISING OF UNEMPLOYED DUTY OF PARLIAMENTARIANS. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Amid a hubbub of interjections, which made his words at times scarcely audible, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coatcs, in the House last night, criticised the remarks of members of the Labour party at public meetings, in support of his contentio?! that they must take responsibility for the trouble that had rendered necessary the introduction of the Public Safety Conservation Bill. Mr. Coatcs said all Governments had beard the cry that they must resign, lie did not think Mr. Holland realised li's responsibility. There had been a nervous tension among the Labour party during the debate. They had endeavoured to control their words, and had tried to keep their real feelings under control. Referring to Mr. Jordan's statement, that the Labour party stood for law and order, Mr. Coates read a reported statement, attributed to Mr. A. S. Richards (Labour, Roskill), at a meeting of relief workers, that he objected to the presence at the meeting of five constables. He. was also reported to have asked why they should be insulted by blue-coats being sent to their meetings.

Mr. Richards: Quite so. Did you order them to go there? Mr. Coates suggested that Labour members were speaking with two voices, and he proceeded to quote a resolution whi-h, he said, had been passed at the Labour party's annual conference last month, to the effect that steps be taken to organise, tlie unemployed, the industrial Civil Servants and public opinion generally, by way of demonstrations, to compel the Government cither to alter its present policy in reducing living standards or to resign. (Labour hear, hears.) Mr. Coaies said there had been a lot of talk about demonstration, and now Opposition members were not prepared to take the responsibility for the result of the demonstration in Auckland. The reap nsibility for the initiation of such trouble must always rest with those who organised the demonstrations. Mr. W. E. Barnard (Labour, Napier): Who were the organisers? "This Government has been returned/' continued Mr. Coates, "with a free hand to carry out what it deems essential in the interests of the country." If Labour had been returned, before many weeks New Zealand would have been in the same position as New South Wales was in to-day. He pointed to what had happened in other parts of the Empire, where Labour Governments were endeavouring to satisfy, not only the unemployed, but also their own ardent supporters, and, he added, that they had miserably failed. The very people who had been loudest in their praises of Labour were the first to turn round a id oust a Labour Government from office. "If by chance the New Zealand Labour party occupied the Treasury benches under the circumstances in which this Government is occupying them to-day." said Mr. Coates, "they would be in precisely the same position, and the vcy people who put them there would be the people who would rend them asunder." Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition: Is that what is happening in your case now ?

Mr. Coates said the organisation of the unemployed originated witli the Labr.tir party, and that organisation had worked incessantly. He warned it to proceed with the greatest care. The Minister said it was the duty of every member of Parliament to point out to the country and to those who were in an unsettled state that nothing could be gained by direct action, that it was in their own interests that law and order should be preserved. The Labour party had carried out a definite policy of delaying the business of the House, and the country was entitled to know exactly where the Labour party stood in the present situation. He suggested that some of the speeches made in the debate were inflammatory, but he withdrew the remark at the instance of the Speaker, and substituted the expression, "not helpful at the present time."