Rowdy Political Meetings

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22358, 23 March 1938, Page 10

Rowdy Political Meetings

The Prime Minister spoke truly when he said that “ people who interrupt at public meetings “ are not helping us ” —that is, the Labour Party. It does not, and will not, help the Labour Party in the electorate if some of its supporters shout down. Nationalist Party speakers. The electors who want to hear them and are denied the right will scarcely be moved to cast their votes on the side of intolerance. But if by any chance Mr Savage meant to say that the uproar against which Nationalist speakers have too often had to contend has not been created by Labour supporters, or even that the Labour Party can admit no sort of responsibility if it was, then he meant something unworthy of a fairminded man and a leader of a party and a people. There is no question at all that the persistent interrupters -persistent beyond any limit to which interjection may be carried without becoming mei6 noise and nuisance—have been supporters of the Labour Party. There is no question at all, further, that their activity can be and should be discouraged by the party. If Mr Savage, as the party leader, will say firmly that he disapproves such political methods and call on the party organisation to check and suppress them, he will do nothing but his duty. He seems disinclined to acknowledge it and do it. Taipe deprecation like “ these people “ are not helping us ” is not enough. But Mr Savage is Prime Minister, as well as party leader; and as Prime Minister he has an even clearer obligation to stand out plainly for free speech and a fair hearing all round. That he himself has “ never had, to appeal yet to Min- “ isters of the Crown for protection against the “people of this country” is a fact which testifies to the sufficient tolerance of his opponents; it is no reply to Nationalist protests against the intolerant political conduct of some of his supporters. Nobody is trying to “ discredit the “ Gdvernment ” in this matter, though the rowdies are beginning to do it and the Prime Minister must be careful if he is not to do it; but a great many electors have begun to wonder when the Labour Party will see, as a party or as the Government, that it must vindicate its own credit. After. the Prime Minister’s statement and his affectation of “ surprise, on hearing Mr Holland’s complaint, their wonder will be graver.