LABOUR PARTY DIFFERENCES

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23002, 23 April 1940, Page 10

LABOUR PARTY DIFFERENCES

SPECULATIONS ON POLITICS MR DOIDGE’S VIEWS ON POSSIBILITIES “In New Zealand the political position has not, in many years, been so full of complexities. It presents a happy hunting ground for political speculations,” said Mr F. W. Doidge. M.P., in a political address to members of the National Party in Christchurch last night. “Mr Fraser, as Prime Minister, is firmly in the saddle, and it is fair to say that he has taken office with the initial goodwill of the people as a whole,” said Mr Doidge. “But a degree of political piquency has been created by the split within the Labour Party itself. Mr Lee, long known as the leader of the Left Wing, now leads an open revolt. Mr Lee is a natural rebel. He asserts that Mr Fraser is the Ramsay Mac Donald of New Zealand politics. Mr Lee is certainly the Stafford Cripps of the New Zealand Labour Party. In Britain, we have seen Oswald Mosley, James Maxton, and Stafford Cripps all break with the Labour Party and strive to establish followings of their own. Can Mr Lee, in New Zealand, succeed where Mosley, Maxton, and Cripps have failed in Britain? Two Courses “They knew that Mr Lee would have the support of the militants and the discontents. Two courses were open to him: he might try to capture the party machine from within, or to capture the country through the ballot box. He had a glorious opportunity for a dramatic coup in the Auckland West byelection. It would be a gambler’s throw —a political blitzkrieg—but, if it came off, it would represent a moral and strategic victory with far-reaching consequences. “Alternatively,” said Mr Doidge, “Mr Fraser might boldly take a course which would, if successful, crush the rebellion at its very inception. In Britain it is not unusual for a new Prime Minister to go to the country at the first favourable opportunity and ask for a mandate from the people. A success at the polls would establish the position of Mr Fraser’s Government for a full term of years. And in this case, if such a course were successfully pursued, it would mean the instant annihilation of the rebels. There would be nothing unusual or unconstitutional in Mr Fraser pursuing such a course.”, ITeanwhile, political students watched a further development with interest. Attempts were being made to revive the Liberal Party. It was conceivable that a section of the electors who. in recent years, felt that they had lost their political bearings, might be attracted by the claims of this party. And it was reasonable to assume that any strength such a party developed would, in the main, be attracted from the majority which supported the Government at the last election. National Intentions “It will be interesting to students of politics to watch the progress of events.” said Mr Doidge. “No one can gauge the extent of Mr Lee’s corrosive : influence within the Labour Party; no one. at the moment, can foretell the prospects of the New Liberal Party. We of the National Party believe that domestic politics should be subjugated to the greater issues of a united national war effort. But we have no intention of allowing our party . organisation to deteriorate. We know that in the end our ideals will prevail. We fight for a just cause overseas: we fight for a just cause in our own land. New Zealanders can never be permanently moulded into a state of mass servility—whether it be under a dictatorship or under Socialism. We of the National Party hold to the faith in things that are lasting, in the hatred of tyranny, in respect for religion; and. in the desire that we should be permitted to live our own lives unshackled by the doctrines of either Fascism or Socialism, both of which we detest and abhor.”