"PURELY SOCIALISM"

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 25, 30 January 1924, Page 7

"PURELY SOCIALISM"

OBJECTIVE OF LABOUR PARTY

REMARKS OF PRESIDENT OF

FARMERS' UNION.

At a meeting of the executive of the New Zealand Farmers' Union to-day the president (Mr. W. J. Poison) moved:— "Th^t this executive welcpnks the return of the-^dme Minister: to New Zealand, ajid expresses its appreciation of his vau*able seryices iv the cause of the Empire, realising his sincerity ahd patriotic desire-to draw closer the bonds,, of Empire," The Prime Minister, he said, no doubt felt a certain amount of disappointment at the resujt of the British elections, and the return to power of . party which had not shown itself as st sill inclined to the establishment pf preferential treatment between the Dominions and outposts of the Empire and the Mother Country. As a matter pf fact, continued Mr. Pplson, the Labour Party both here and at Home was apparently going to lull us into a certain amount of a sense of security. Their object appeared to be at present to put their foot on the soft pedal, so that the public might say: "We think we may safely trust them," and then return them to power, or allow them tp cpme into ppwer, Mr. Poison said he thought the whole objebt of the Labour Party here and at Home wag simply to obtain a certain amount of support from othei- sections' pf the community with the intention he had indicated: "But you have got to realise," continued the speaker, "that Socialv-m, and nothing but Socialism, is the bedrock objective of the Labour Party, "as disclosed not only by their platform at Home, but also irj-New Zealand." He said that, because there had been an attempt on the part of the Labour Party to capture the small farmers; and the small farmers did not -realise that the object,of the Labour Party was nothing but Socialism. If in the near future tfiey could succeed in their present object of "lulling us to rest," then it would be a case of "look out!" He was satisfied that that was the position. .In'spite of the work of stalwarts like Mr. Massey and Mr. Bruce (Prime Minister of Australia), and others, a majority of the people of Britain recently declared themselves in favour of a continuance of a free trade policy. Thus, our hopes in regard to the adoption of preference had been somewhat dashed. Great Britain had. practically said to" us that we should do as we liked in this matter'; subject tp the Empire's interests net being sacrificed, that we were free tp make such commercial arrangements as we ' thought wpuld bentrrt oureelves, and assist in developing the outposts ''of the Empire. He thought that aspect of the matter was worthy of very much further inquiry than we had given to it. We had here pinned our flag to preference, but there was another _spect of the question which should be further investigated He knew that our statesmen probably would 'not agree with that view,but there was something tp be said for it in a free-trade prganisation pf this kind. Mr. G. Anderspn (Pelprus), in seconding the motion, said that the mere preference we gave tp Britain, the greater weuld be her prosperity, and consequently the bigger would be her purchasing power for our primary products. It was, he thought, in the interests of New Zealand to do all the business it could with the Mother' Ccuntry, The motion was carried unanimously.