REPLY TO MR HOLLAND

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23554, 4 February 1942, Page 4

REPLY TO MR HOLLAND

♦ “ SHADOW SPARRING EXHIBITION ” MR FRASER’S COMMENT ON SPEECHES (P.A.I WELLINGTON, Feb. 3. “The Leader of the Opposition (Mr S. G. Holland) is obvious y having a very good time, thorough!;, enjoying himself, in fighting by-e.ec-tions where there are no Governmen. candidates or advocates to combat nis statements. He apparently believes m trying to hit hard when there is no one to hit back,” said the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) to-night. "After his shadow-sparring exhibition in the Temuka electorate the only suitable description of his performance at Hauraki is ‘further foolishness,' which will be remembered as the title of one of Stephen Leacock s entertaining books, describing some such episodes as Mr Holland is nguiing in at present to his own grea. satisfaction and enjoyment. “The claim that anything that can possibly happen at Temuka or Hauraki can be construed as either condemnation nr support of the Government is ridiculous: but what is to be said of a Leader of the Opposition who, after loud professions of his anxiety to avoid party conflict at this critical time, goes into electorates which the Government has decided it will not contest because of a genuine desire to avoid electoral contests and consequent strife and at a time when men and women ot all parlies are joined in one common bond of suffering, bereavement, and danger, and his opponents being well out of the field, and proceeds to indulge in political party tactics of a particularly petty nature? “Surely Out of Place” “Mr Holland’s squaring up to nonexistent Government opponents .n political rings at Temuka and Hauraki. and’his preparing to, claim a knock-out decision on election night, when the Government which is not fighting the election and which has no candidate's name on the ballot paper will not receive a single vote because no elector can vote for the Government in the circumstances, would be amusing, even funny, in peace time, but in the face of the present Serious situation such buffoonery is surely out of place. “Mr Holland says my silence after the Bay of Plenty election was eloquent. So it was. It was eloquent of the contempt I felt for political partisans who were prepared to snatch a political victory, which could decide nothing, as the result of the death of a man who gave his life for his country, and for those who forced an election fight in the midst of casualty lists and against the spirit of the undertaking which resulted in the postponement of the General Election. “There is something at the present, time vastly more important than parties or governments or oppositions, whether they get votes or do not get votes, and that is the security of the Dominion and the safety of its people. In the face of the present danger Mr Holland's complaints, which he endeavours so strenuously and with such futility to magnify into mountains of importance, become microscopic.- ’