UNITED AND LABOUR

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 85, 7 October 1929, Page 8

UNITED AND LABOUR

RELIEF WORK

REPLY TO LABOUR'S CLAIM

Mr. A. E. Davy, chairman of the United Political Organisation, replies as follows to the statement by the Labour members of Parliament published in Saturday's issue of "The Post":

One cannot help being amused at the uproar which has been created in Labour ranks by my letter on the subject of unemployment. I charged the four Wellington Labour members of Parliament with attempting to make political capital out of the Government's move for relief of unemployment; they now have the extraordinary effrontery to prefer that charge against myself. So let us turn back to tho statement which called forth my mild'rebuke—-a rebuke which seems to have caused a good deal of spleen. ,''''"-''■ ';'.

Ever since thjS commencement of the present session of Parliament, as in previous years (roads the statement), the Labour has constantly and consistently hammered away at the urgent necessity for the Government to grapple effectively with the problem of unemployment. • . . At last, after a long debate, the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, announced in tho House last Saturday morning that the Government would make arrangements to absorb all the unemployed in a period of not more than five weeks. Yesterday afternoon the Prime Minister invited all who aro out of work to register at the Employment Bureaus of the Labour Department.

Confronted with these worSs, can even the disingenuous minds of these leaders of thought construe them into anything but an attempt to represent the Labour Party as responsible for the Government's decision to move for unemployment relief? We know, of course, that to their subtle minds words do not always mean what they mean to more simple souls, but this seems fairly plain. The attempts of members of the Labour Party to reveal themselves as political giants have resulted in some extraordinarily entertaining moments of bombast, as when, speaking of the position of the parties after the election, one member declared: "We are responsible for the present position"; another: "We sowed and they reaped," and Mr. Holland was dubbed a "king-maker," while another Labour poet declared (with somewhat hackneyed imagery), "We hold the key." ..- . ■ UNITED PARTY'S PLEDGE , If the Government was not doing its duty, they should have turned the key before this and then, in their customary manner, concentrated upon the solution of the unemployment problem; they would have met with at least as much success as attended the first Eamsay Mac Donald Ministry and the Union of Soviet Republics. But thoy did not vote out the Government, for the excellent reason that they we];e much too concerned about jobs—their own. I repeat that tho United Party is simply carrying out an election pledge in dealing with unemployment. I did not claim any great crpdit for them, but I decline to allow a number of ten-minute politicians whoso minds are compact of imperfectly-digested revolutionary notions to poso as the men responsible for this move. They had no more to do with it than tho Reform Party. There is not one member of either the Suited Party or tho Reform Party who is not equally concerned at the unemployment in the country (to-day. Sir Joseph Ward has stated publicly, and members of his Cabinet havo stated publicly, that every consideration was being given to a comprehensive scheme to settle the question. Every member of the party and, organisation knew that ever since it came into office the Government was considering ways and moans of grappling with the difficulty and was exploring alternative ways out. I have before me one important link in the proposed scheme. It bears the date 11th July. lam able to say that another large portion of the scheme has boon practically completed since that date. To state that members of the Cabinet expressed their gratification at the result of "Labour's repeated efforts, assisted by insurgent members of the United Party is so contrary to the facts that no one but a Labour member would havo the impertinence to publish it. I should ndvise the Labour members not to speak so loudly of insurgouts; some of their own members might hear. "POLITICAL INNOCENTS." Let us consider what the Labour members havo done to receive the thanks of the Prime Minister and of "one Cabinet Minister holding one of the most important portfolios." They urgod the unemployed to register with tho Labour Department. Extraordinary! It must~have taken fully five minutes. The Prime Minister had already done this; Press Association telegrams report a rush to register in all parts of the country; but our political innocents imagine that men unemployed and desperate will not heed a statement by the head of the Government unless it is reinforced by one made by four members of the extreme Labour Party. Everyone should be grateful that something is being done to help those unfortunates who are workless through no fault of their own, but one must deplore the fact that tho Labour Party could not appreciate the Government's work without employing electioneering tactics and without attempting to assume its customary air of conscious virtue. One cannot holp suspecting that the supporters of this most extraordinary party have begun to discover the futility of their braggings, and that realisation of this fact has prompted this attempt at a political steal.