Socred upset by Rightwing publication

Press, 23 November 1981, Page 2

Socred upset by Rightwing publication

PA Auckland Parliamentary candidates of the Social Credit Political League have: reacted angrily to revelations that replies which they have sent to a Tauranga group in response to a questionnaire, have been published by the League of Rights.

The leader of the Social Credit League,. (Mr Beetham) accused the League of Rights of using the Tauranga group, which is called the Voters’ Association, as a “front” to embarrass Social Credit.

The Labour Party’s member of Parliament for Auckland Central, Mr R. W. Prebble, joined in the criticism after discovering that the same League of Rights publication accused him of heading an organisation which.aimed to destroy New Zealand sovereignty.

Several times in recent years Social Credit has been forced to deny any link between it and the League of Rights, a Right-wing organisation • which assert that it follows the teachings of Major C. H. Douglas, who founded the Social Credit movement in the 19305.

The League of Rights is distributing nationally an eight-page tabloid publication which is called “New Zealand First,” four pages of which list General Election candidates’ answers to a questionnaire from the Voters’ Association. Special attention is paid in the publication to replies. from 31 Social Credit candidates, including the Social . Credit member of Parliament for East Coast Bays, Mr G. T. Knapp. . Mr Prebble is attacked in the publication in a frontpage. report for allegedly ' belonging to a group called Parliamentarians for World Order. When the Voters’ Association was founded several months ago it was reported that it had links with the League of Rights and that the league was telling its supporters to back the association.

According to “New Zealand First,” the association asked the League of Rights

to give maximum publicity to candidates’ replies to the questionnaire, which dealt with subjects such as taxation, international agreements, and loyalty to electors and New Zealand.

The publication says that it received replies from three National Party candidates eight Labour Party candidates and 31 Social Credit candidates.

Mr Beetham was angry when he was told of the publication. He said: “I have just had it with this outfit. They are out to embarrass us in any way they can ... and as I have said many times before, Social Credit will have nothing to do with them.”

Mr Beetham said that the League of Rights had. deceptively used the Voters’ Association as a “front" group to get replies to the questionnaire.

The national director of the League of Rights, Mr D. Thompson, denied that the publication was aimed at embarrassing Social Credit or that the Voters’ Association was a “front” group. He agreed, however, that one of the four founder members of the association belonged to the League of Rights.

When he was told that some Social Credit candidates were upset by the publication, he said, “That is rather interesting. I would have thought that, looking at it from the point of view of an interested elector, comparing the replies Social Credit came out by far the better of the three.” Mr Prebble said that he was a member of the Parliamentarians for World Order group along with 20 other New Zealand members of Parliament from National and Labour. The organisation was anti-Communist and was chaired by a Canadian Conservative member of Parliament. Its aim was to solve international problems through co-operation. It was interested in matters such as polution.