Labour Had a Plan.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20862, 23 May 1933, Page 8

Labour Had a Plan.

Mr J. A. Lee, in an address at Sydenham Park reported in "The "Press" yesterday, assured his audience that, had the Labour party's economic policy been adopted " such " a stimulus would have been given "to internal industry that every " man in the Dominion would have "been left in employment, and it "jnight even have been possible to "have left open the door to immi"gration." The assertion that New Zealand, alone among the countries of the world, could have escaped the depression need not be answered. If Mr Lee chooses to repeat it up and down New Zealand his political opponents will not be alarmed, and he will perhaps learn that it is a mistake to underestimate the intelligence of electors. What is annoying, however, is the assumption that the Labour party has now, or has had at any time in the last two years, a coherent economic programme. In the election of 1931 Labour speakers skilfully side-stepped every important issue, confining themselves mainly to denunciations of a Government policy which had not been announced. In the subsequent sessions of Parliament the Labour party has been equally successful in avoiding policy decisions which might have influenced the course of events. Its attitude over the exchange controversy was a fair sample of its political strategy. As long as the scales were evenly balanced and a Labour pronouncement might have tipped them either way, it preserved' a discreet silence. After the Government had taken its decision the Labour party, relieved of all responsibility, discovered that exchange inflation was economically | unsound and an injustice to the working classes. A close reading of " Hansard " would probably reveal that most Labour members have advocated, (1) the restoration of the purchasing power of the workers, (2) the socialisation of credit, (3) national development works "for the relief of unemployment, (4) higher protective duties, and (5) the fixing of prices. This is not a policy but a collection of phrases. The first states a desirable objective. The second means anything from Douglas credit to a central reserve bank. The third raises the question of what is to be developed and where the money is to come from. The fourth, it seems, has not been very carefully considered. Mr H. E. Hoi- , land advocates a complete embargo on all imported goods which are being o$ «ould be awanufactwred in

New Zealand. Other members of the party prefer to keep clear of the subject. The fifth phrase—" the fix"ing of prices'"—has been given many meanings. According to Mr Lee it "simply means the fixing of " the value of the pound, just as the "foot or the acre or the pound " weight are fixed by law." There is "no question of inflation." Either Mr Lee is a simpleton or he thought he was talking to simpletons. If the members of the Parliamentary Labour party had a policy which they were prepared to stand by they would set it out in print so that it could be understood and criticised.