MR. DAVID JONES AND THE 1928 COMMITTEE

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 263, 2 August 1929, Page 18

MR. DAVID JONES AND THE 1928 COMMITTEE

Sir, —In March of this year, Mr. David Jones, M.P., went out of his way, in an article contributed to a Christchurch paper, to attack the Nineteen TwentyEight Committee. The committee replied promptly to that attack, convicting Mr. Jones of either (1) Misrepresentation, or (2) Gross ignorance. Mr. Jones had the temerity to return to the attack upon the Nineteen TwentyEight Committee on the floor of the House during the course of the debate on the Address-in-Reply last week, and is reported in the Press as having stated (1) That the committee is behind the movement for the reduction of duties on imported wheat and flour; (2) That one of the members of the committee is a member of Cabinet; (3) That the committee has supporters in the Cabinet. . The first of these statements is plain fiction. The Nineteen Twenty-Eight Committee is in no way concerned and in no way interested in the question of wheat and flour duties. Any such question is entirely outside its province. The second statement also is false. No member of the present Cabinet or any other Cabinet has at any time been a member of the Central Committee, or, so far as the executive knows, of any branch of the Nineteen Twenty-Eight Committee. r Mr. Jones’s third statement, .that the "Nineteen Twenty-Eight Committee has supporters in the present Cabinet, is,L trust, correct, but it is correct only in the same sense as it is correct that the committee had supporters in the last Cabinet, and is bound to have supporters among any body of intelligent and responsible public men. . It is beyond my comprehension why, when the leaders of the political party which Mr. Jones represents have approved and endorsed the policy, aims and objects of the Nineteen Twenty-Eight Committee, he should go out of his way for the second time to attack and grossly misrepresent the organisation.—l am, CHAIRMAN NINETEEN TWENTYEIGHT COMMITTEE. Wellington, August 1.