PARTY BEFORE POLICY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 292, 5 September 1931, Page 4

PARTY BEFORE POLICY

Realities of the Crisis NATION’S IMMEDIATE NEED (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.) In times of national crisis, the people and their leaders have to face the hard realities, there is no time for untried theories to be put into practice. The leaders of political parties find that, temporarily at any rate, they must abandon their party policy, in order to meet an abnormal situation. History has given us repeated instances of this, and today we have a very fine example in the way of Messrs. Ramsay MacDonald, Snowden, and Thomas, who have for the moment jettisoned tlieir pet objectives to combine with other parties. Traditional Policy. i Every political party has its traditional policy by which it honestly believes it can better the welfare of the people. In normal times they fight hard to carry out this policy, but when some abnormal crisis arrives, as now, the big men at once realise that it must be dealt with, not according to their theories, but in accordance with the actual world realities of the moment. They sec that there will be time enough to go back to their party policy for reforming the world when they have satisfactorily solved the present and vital problems. In New Zealand our leaders have apparently come to this conclusion, or at any rate they have gone part of the way by setting up the all-party committee to investigate the situation nnd recommend the best way to meet it. So far so good—but the test will come when some of the members of that committee realise' that to support those proposals will involve a temporary abandonment of their particular party objectives. They will have to decide whether they can put the nation's immediate needs before their party’s general policy. The big men will have no hesitation in subordinating party for the time being: the small men will stick to party objectives in spite of everything. Sinking Class.

This is apparent already in England, as we are informed by cable that Mr. MacDonald’s party will not follow his lead to sink class interests to further the welfare of the whole nation. The action of these men is in great contrast to those who have followed their leader, and the nation nnd Empire owe a great deal to Mr. MacDonald for his courageous action. One has only to read his past writings nnd speeches to realise how completely he has scrapped his pet theories for the purpose of meeting the sudden crisis. The position is very similar in this Dominion, and it is to be hoped that the representatives of all the parties in the House will be courageous enough to follow the lead given in England. There need be no sacrifice of political principle, or objective, nil that is needed is to suspend tljc fight for those objectives until the crisis is past, and they will gain the respect of every right-thinking elector.