ELECTION OPPOSED

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 141, 11 March 1943, Page 2

ELECTION OPPOSED

People’s Movement Gives

Its Reasons

Strong opposition to the decision to hold a general election this year was expressed by Mr. J. Crisp, president of the People’s Movement, in a statement yesterday. Mr. Crisp declared that the People’s Movement intended to take decisive steps this yeap to upset the party system as at present practised unless the Labour and National Parties dropped their domestic differences and concentrated on the war. , , „ By deciding to hold a general election this year, said Mr. Crisp, the parties had admitted that it was more important to them to cling to their domestic differences than to shelve them for the time being and combine for an all-out war effort The People's Movement believed that the military forces of both sides were massing for a decisive struggle, and it challenged either Mr. Fraser or Mr. Holland to deny that this year might prove to be the most fateful in history. “It is unthinkable that with this stern task before ns we should propose to divide the country on rival domestic policies, and waste money and effort in electioneering,” said Mr. Crisp. “Do Mr. Fraser and Mr. Holland think that our fighting men care two straws whether their comrades are Labour or Nationalist? All they want to do is win the war and come home. When that time comes thev can themselves be free to take a real part in governing the country. It 5s utterly repugnant to the Peoples Movement to consider for one moment that our fighting men should be showered with political propaganda from home and that they should be asked to take up party issues in the midst of war. “The People’s Movement makes an earnest plea to the Labour, and Nationalist Parties to spare the country and our fighting men overseas this unnecessary and unwarranted trial, this threat to unity, and this raising of party strife above the war effort.

“I am hound to warn both parties that the people are clearly united on a number of all-important questions, nnd if the present parties persist in ignoring their wishes, the People’s Movement will take political action to give expression to the ideals of the people.”