AN ELECTION THIS YEAR

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23412, 20 August 1941, Page 8

AN ELECTION THIS YEAR

♦- —- MR HOLLAND’S BELIEF

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 19. A straightforward indication that the National Party is expecting a General Election to take place this year and that it will have a hard fight ahead of it was given by its leader (Mr S. G. Holland), speaking at the National Club’s reception to the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates last night. “This is not the time to talk of an election,” said Mr Hohand,'"but every good soldier will agree that every good soldier should be well prepared. We have a very difficult set of opponents to fscc* "Many people say that this is not the time for party bickering, or for divisions among the people. It is a time for unity. I agree. No one could have done more than I have done in my humble way .to bring about an amalgamation of political forces. We have done our best to bring about amty, and it is no fault of ours that it has pot been brought about. "I believe there will be an election. I do not think that the members of the Government are prepared to give up their portfolios. “It will be an uneven fight. The Government has taken away the radio from us; It has imposed a censorship on the newspapers, and now it has taken away the petrol from us. The Government’s organising, however, is done by trades union secretaries, and they continue to have their petrol supplied. “It will be a stiff fight and an unequal one, but I believe we will win through, and we will try to give this country the Government it deserves, and, I believe, the Government it wants.”