GENERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 35, 4 November 1922, Page 6

GENERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN

4 LABOUR MANIFESTO AND ITS RECEPTION I SOFTPEDAL CAMOUFLAGE NOTES FROM CANDIDATES’ SPEECHES // ■-/< // . The country has not been deceived by the velvet blandishments of the Labour Party as expressed in the leader’s manifesto. There are some things that will never be lived down, and the expressed pro-Bolshevik sentiments of. the present leaders of Official Labour some time ago is one of them. The public memory is notoriously short in many things, but it holds with a fatal tenacity the impression gathered from these sentiments. You have now seen three separate manifestos—. Reform, Lib.-Lab., and Official Labour. You have 1 digested them carefully. , — ' Is there any possible conclusion but that which ypu and every right-thinkingelectorhascometoinre-gard to these manifestos? Massey’s manifesto rings true—the others don’t.

1 Camouflaging th# Red Brand. It is natural (says the Christchurch “Press”) that Mr.' Holland should ■.think it necessary, when it is a question .of appealing to the electors, to do his roaring in the key of thg sucking dove; but it is too late for him to expect the public to regard his party ap a peaceful, scientific, and constitutional organisation. The public’s memory is often found to be defective, but the public would need to bo extraordinarily and unnaturally forgetful and Unobservant to have learned nothing concerning the Labour Party from its performances in recent years. The objective of the party is the extinction of private property,, and its chief weapon is “direct action”—that direct action which in all countries is impossible without civil disorder. The control of the partv is. not in the hands of* the organised -workers themselves, but in the hands of the extremists who have obtained control of the Labour machine. One of these extremists —perhaps the mbst important figure in the Labour movement —is Mr. J. Roberts, of the Alliance of Labour, and it is to Mr. Roberts speaking frankly, and not as a politician anxious to soothe the fears of. moderate peoplp, that we may go for a statement of the. Labour 'Party’s real object. That the alliance, which controls the party, looks to Moscow for its principles, is surely established by Mr. Roberts’s declaration in December last that “the Alliance of Labour as it was desired to ba established was not unlike the Soviet system.” i Straight From the Shoulder I •Referring to the Socialist Party at a campaign speech, Mr. R. Macartnev (Reform candidate for Lyttelton) said that the first object of that party yas destruction. The remark "damn the ratepayers” made by a candidate for Christchurch North was an example of the “claws under the velvet.” and if that party -got into power the claws would be > shown without the velvet which had 'covered them for the last two years. The preachings of the Socialists, of which Mr. Macartney read samples, took us back, he said,, to the conditions which existed during the French Revolution, and which ex’isted in Russia to-day. What, we had to fight against was the Socialism that was being taught all over the world to-day. and we should, endeavour, to have the strongest combination against that sort of thing. In conclusion Mr. Macartney said that, to his mind, the future greatness of this country lay in Patriotism, not Socialism, Individualism, not Communism. If we were British, w® 'should believe 'in Great Britain, if we were New Zealanders we should believe in New Zealand. (Applause.) A Candid Moment! It is . the plain truth that if Liberals , are returned with a majority over the Reformers the latter can only hold office with the assistance of the Labour. Party. Mr. Forbes is charitable enough to say that even the present Parliamentary representatives of Labour are not entirely united in their support of the extreme views voiced J>y Mr. Holland and hjs first lieutenant. Mr. Fraser. That is a point on which we have not had Mr. Forbes’s opportunities of, obtaining first-hand in>ormation, but' we have never been ■terrified by the heroics of Mr. Holland.—“Lyttelton Times.” The Same, but Different. Referring to the manifestos issued by Mr. Massey,and Mr. Wilford, Mr. A. D. McLeod said that a stranger to the country, on reading them, would want to know what two sets of men, with almost the same political principles, were quibbling about. The crit’cal question, however, was that of leadership. Although the members of the Lib.-Lab. Party had denied there was an alliance with extreme Labour it was a significant fact that in no electorate represented by a sitting member of the Labour Party had the Lib.-Labs. nominated a candidate. Some Day? Thus Mr. Forbes, Liberal candidate for Hurunui, as reported by the Christchurch “Press”: Mr. Forbes said that he was standing as a Liberal as he had always stood. Ho had come into politics as a Liberal, and he saw no reason to change Ins faith. Though at the last election the Liberal Party had lost a number of seats through vote-splitting, they hoped that the day would soon come when they would be able to avoid/ vote-splitting by means of the proportional representation system. He advocated the system as the only one for a democratic country. Mr. Ell on HlmaoiL He had been one of the most effective men in Parliament ever returned by the district, and he had never given a written or verbal pledge, either to Sedaon or Ward. (A voice: But you supported them: He had sup- . ported them when he thought fit. (A voice: “Who are you going to support this trip?”). de did not know till M saw now the election resulted. Ho would not support the Conservative Partv; ho would not support Communhm "or a Communistic party. (A Voice: "Nobody asked you to. lhe Labour .Party is not communistic. )

Then some of their speeches belied them. , Replying to questions, Mr. Ell said that if the Liberal Party was progressive/on the lines ho considered progressive he would, support it. Ho believed in prohibition and would vote for it. He would support Civil servants receiving full political rights. It entirely depended on what the Liberal Party’s policy was whether- he' would vote to turn Mr. Massey out; there were some planks ,in the Liberal Party’s policy he did not agree with. A Worthy Object. “Leading members of the Liberal Party in the electorate have offered me their help. I am out to gain the support of the Liberals as well as the Reformers, with the object of ousting Socialism from Lyttelton.” Thus declared Mr. R. Macartney, -Reform candidate for Lyttelton, who opened his campaign at" a meeting in the Sumner Town Hall. There were over 100 persons present.—Christchurch “Sun.” Quite Hopeless. t . . It (the Labour manifesto) is, in the main, a pleasantly-worded pronouncement. but it breathes pure Socialism for all 'that, says the Christchurch “Sun”). The Rods are becoming more tactful. When Sovietism was as yet not the bedraggled and piebald system it has since degenerated into, the Dominion Reds talked big and threateninglv; and the talk was of nothing less -tliiiii Bolshevism. But times.have changed. Sovietism has crashed. The British revolutionaries are an impotent rabble. Communism is ■ irretrievably discredited.; a fallen star.,/ So, the silencer is applied to our incorrigible Reds. A general election looms up in the offing, afid official Labour sees the necessity for using the soft pedal. The - Bolshevik bogy is taken off the street and hidden away among the red flags and other Communistic junk in the' lumber-room. A Poser for a Bachelor. j “Are you in favour of a tax on bachelors?” was a question put to Mr. J. C. Rolleston, Reform candidate for the Waitomo, seat, at the opening speech of hjs campaign at Mangapeehi. “No, certain!” not!” was the quick reply. “I’ve been a bachelor for over forty years myself, and I know what the poor devils have to put up with.” (Laughter.) Communist Camouflage. “We need not concern ourselves with Labour’s manifesto.. Although its authors have exercised much care in camouflaging the revolutionary objective of their party, it is, common knowledge that that objective is at the back of the more or less moderate proposals which constitute the sum total of a programme which obviously is almost wholly impracticable. Labour just now is offering the community its gloved hand, but jn the sleeve above the ill-fitting glove there is concealed the tivo-ed"ed stiletto of confiscation and exploitation, ready to be grasned and plunged into the heart of constitutional government at the first favourable'opportunity.” — Wanganui “Chronicle.” ISSUE OF THE WRITS ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16. The Chief Electoral Officer announced yesterday that the writs for the general Election would be issued on Thursday, November 16. That will be just three weeks before the date fixed for the election. The second supplementary roll will close at 6 p.m. on the day of the issue of the writs Enrolment seems to be proceeding well in all parts of the Dominion now. The publicity given' in Parliament to complaints about the non-appearance of names upon the rolls has had a. stimulating effect, and probably it will be found,. when the second supplementary roll is issued, that the proportion of the electors actually enrolled is at least as large as ever before. MR. MASSEYS 7 CAMPAIGN OPENING SPEECH, ON MONDAY. The Prime Minister will make his first speech in the election campaign at Pukekohe on Monday next. He has arranged tn leave for Auckland this morning. He will reach Auckland tomorrow and will go to Pukekohe on Monday. A POPULAR - MINISTER HON. E. P. LEE OPENS HIS CAMPAIGN. BY TELEGRAPH—-SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. Oamaru, November '3. The Hon. E. P. Lee, Miniate/ of Justice, haa opened his campaign, and is doing a few small centres before he speaks at Oamaru. Mr Loe has represented the Oamaru ’ ctora-te since 1911, and his hold has -'htoned with the passing of the years. His consistently reliable work as Minister is higldy appreciated in his electorate, and as yet no candidate Ims been put forward against the Minister.