VOTE-SPLITTING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 35, 11 February 1943, Page 4

VOTE-SPLITTING

LABOUR PARTY'S FEAR POSSIBILITY OF DEFEAT Labour supporters are warned in this week's issue of the Labour party's official journal that the Democratic Labour party's activity may result in the defeat of the Government. The warning is given both by the Prime Minister, in a statement commenting on the Christchurch East by-election, and by the journal in an editorial. After declaring that the result of the by-election was "very satisfactory," Mr. Fraser said that "Mr. Lee's mud, jungle and fox-hole fighting methods had made some temporary impression apparently upon some of the electors, but this was a matter that would be dealt with satisfactorily in the future. "The Lee-Barnard-Herring party's efforts," Mr. Fraser said later, "must not be taken too lightly. At a general election it is possible that in some electorates a sufficient number of votes might be split away from Labour to defeat the Labour Government, return the Nationalists, and bring about the collapse of New Zealand's social security structure, as well as cause a serious reduction in wages, labour conditions and the standard of living. "Actually," Mr. Fraser asserted, "this is what Mr. Lee is aiming at deliberately and cold-bloodedly, in the hope that after a term of Nationalist Government he can, in semi-Hitler fashion, achieve office."

The journal editorially describes the by-election result as "a warning to trade unionists," and says the possibility of a Democratic Labour party "peeling off sufficient votes from the Labour totals to unseat the Government cannot be disregarded entirely."