SELECTION OP A CANDIDATE

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 40, 15 February 1918, Page 8

SELECTION OP A CANDIDATE

Referring to the letter written by Dr. W. Kington Fyffe, M.D., published in The.Post last>evening, the Prime Minister Ito-day made the following statement :— ■ ■" "The- letter is not quits the epistls one would expect from a man of'hi* standing in the community. I leava that, however, and come to the somowhat unsuccessful:- attempt which h'» makes to cloud the real issue. I tried to show the danger and possible re-iait of vote-splitting. Dr. Fyffe admits i was right, because he says '5500 votes will be split between Messrs. Brandon, and Luke.' Quite so, and what then? There is the rub. Dr. Fyffe and those with him know perfectly well tbat under such circumstances Wellington North niay be represented by an opponent ai. th« win-the-war policy, an opponent of compulsory service, and of every man doing his share to assist in the nioaf. i serious crisis the British Empire has evoiexperienced. I am glad ,to think thai mosb people realisa this and will vote accordingly. "Dr. Fyffa osys I should have accepted Mr. Skerrett as a candidate. \ I have nothing to say against Mr. Sksrrsti; on the contrary, I. have every respect for him,! and if Mr. Skerrett had been on the Reform side of politics I should havo been quite willing to have done so; but if .1 accepted a candidate whose politics are opposed to t.h» polltics of those associated with and who have honoured me with their conHdenca for many years past, I should consider myself disloyal to. my comrades in the House and the country. I have not yet reached that stage and never will, whatever advice may be forthcoming. ': "The miserable and unworthy cry of „ wowner and anti-wowser should never have been raised on an occasion and in a time like this when, as British people, |, ws ars lighting for our national existence, and when the one and only question should havd bsen how 'best to do our duty to the Empire of which New Zealand is a part, but I have every confidence that on polling day the people of Wellington Worth will ignore all side issues, think only of the main question, and. return a Parliamentary representative who wili whole-heartedly' support the policy of the National Government."