POLITICAL POSITION

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 120, 25 May 1925, Page 6

POLITICAL POSITION

WEDNESDAY'S CAUCUS

LEADERSHIP AND FUSION

REASSURING MESSAGE FROM MR, W. DOWNIE STEWART.

The stage is now set {or the caucus of the.Reform Party on Wednesday afternoon, at which the new leader of the party will be chosen. Some of the Reform members from the more distant parts of the Dominion are now .preparing to move off in the advance on Wellington for the meeting, which will prove to be one of the most important in the history of the party. While there is a feeling in some Reform quarters that the caucus should do nothing more than choose the new party leader, it is now quite clear that some members are going to the meeting with the fixed determination to raise llio issue of making overtures to the Liberal-Labour Party on the question of amalgamation.

Some Reformers, among them leading members of the party, hold that it is too early just yet to talk of linking up the Reform and Liberal.Parties, but that it would be better to wait to see how the General Election turns out before taking any definite steps in the direction of bringing about the establishment of a National Party. In the event of the election resulting in the return of the. Reform Party with a working majority, the new Prime Minister, whoever he is, may. prefer to go ahead and work on the lines of party policy already laid down.

On the other hand, there is a' feeling amongst other Reformers that the time lias arrived when a return shonld be made to the two-party system in Dominion politics, on the ground that there is little prospect of the three-party system ever being satisfactory, and that a progressive, democratic policy of development is more calculated to appeal to the sentiment of the majority of the cle'ctors as against the planks which the Labour Party has to offer from its platform. For this reason the fusion idea will receive some support at the caucus. However, while the possibilities of the creation of a new united party-are in the air, the Reformers will still be able to consider the pros and cons of the leadership issue and the respective claims of Messrs. Coates and Stewart, for a reassuring cablegram was received by the Prime Minister (the Hon. Sir Francis .Bell) from New York to-day. It was as follows:—

My doctor is now prepared to let me leave and continue treatment in New. Zealand. I am confident disease has been effectively checked, but beneficial results will only beiome obvious by slow degrees. Possibly some months must elapso before ! abandon crutches.

Following the caucus on Wednesday a conference of delegates of all branches of the Reform Party throughout the Dominion will be held in Wellington on Thursday. As' the various Eeform candidates will be present, the conference will be of considerable importance, especially in view of all the talk of fusion there is in the air. If amalgamation is to become a really live issue, the question of meeting the wishes of aspirants for seats in the Reform interest will be ono that will have to bo negotiated. Somo amusement is being caused in Wellington Reform circles at the disappointment which befell a number of Reformers who attended a meeting of the Wellington executive on Friday. It was stated beforehand that the Hon. A. D. M'Leod, chairman of the party's organising executive, was to make an important announcement, but to the astonishment of those who attended the Minister did not directly refer to the possibilities of the present political situa,tion, with the result, it is stated, that some who were present were, from their point of view, "sent empty away."