A United Party Bribe.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19467, 14 November 1928, Page 8

A United Party Bribe.

It looked until a few hours ago as if the campaign might end without anything worse in the way of scandals than we referred to yesterday.morning. A few disgraceful rumours had been put in circulation, all by the United Party, but they had been overtaken and refuted before very many people but those responsible for them had suffered much harm. Yesterday, however, a United Party advertisement ap-

peared in several newspapers which set an entirely new standard in political shamelessness. It began with a misstatement which, although these are hardly a novelty in the history of political opportunism, was more than usually brazen and impudent. A vote for either Reform or Labour, it said, is a wasted vote, because "Socialist ("Labour cannot win" and "a vote for " Reform means continued chaos." Reformers can afford to ignore such impudence, W " chaos " is a peculiarly rich word from a Party whose headquarters say that it is throwing votes away to vote for Labour while its Leader has just declared that he will assist the Labour Party, if an opportunity comes, to put the Government out of office. It is true that " Labour " cannot win," and that any non-Labour elector will lose his vote if he tries to unseat the Reform Party by voting for its strongest opponent; but if Sir Joseph Ward had announced three or four weeks ago that a no-confidence motion would send him with his followers into Labour's lobby the United Party would already have fallen to pieces. He did not say it then for fear of shattering the faith of those simple souls who were prepared to believe that his Party was a real one and had genuine principles, and now on the very eve of the poll, when it is too late for a contradiction to reach most of them, he shouts out to all the " farmers and workers " who are short of money that if they put the United Party in—the Party that is already pledged to Labour^—they will have no farther waiting for loans, but will a get them at once." Sir Joseph knows —every business man and accountant in the Dominion knows—but thousands of poor farmers and workers may not know—that if they do get their loans at 4i per cent, the State will lose hundreds of thousands of pounds over the transaction. The position is in-

deed worse than that. Sir Joseph Ward knows that the average struggling man does not care who loses so long as he gets his money, so that an offer of money on those terms, without any waiting, is as shameless a bid for political support as the usages of the day will permit. If it had been made in time for the indignation of the other sections of the community to express itself United Party candidates would hardly have dared to appear on any platform, for of course it is the other sections whose pockets Sir Joseph has pledged.