LABOUR DISHARMONY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 92, 19 April 1930, Page 7

LABOUR DISHARMONY

REFORM PARTY CLAIM MR. COATES'S MANA The suggestion that there are possibilities, of rupture- in the Labour Party is made in an official statement issued by Reform Party headquarters, which claims that Labour is by no means a happy family. ■ The,statement declares that this is reacting in favour of Reform, and that the Reform leader's mana is recovering. '' At one period it seemed likely that the- next election would reveal a big swing to Socialist-Labour^" says the circular. "But our information from all quarters is now reassuring. The failures of the Labour Governments in Britain and Australia are reacting seriously on Mr. Holland's party here. Moreover, large numbers of former keen Labourites are- exhibiting disgust at the way tho Labour Party, during the last session, sacrificed all its.principles for the v sake of petty party tactics. The- Labour Party to-day is by no means a 'happy family.' Indeed, a definite rupture seems possible, for there are known to be many of the keenest supporters of the Labour Party who resent the surrender of that party's, principles in order to give some of its Parliamentarians a ehancfe of Ministerial office. The Socialist Labour Party has betrayed its own fundamental principles, and has adopted a policy of pure 'electioneering expediency.' OLD SLANDERS BEING DROPPED. "One specially gratifying feature of the present situation is tho undoubted recovery of Mr. Coates's personal Diana. There is daily evidence of this in the reports that are coming in to Dominion headquarters from all parts of New Zealand and from all sections of the community. Tho old slanders which played' so large a part in the 1928 campaign are now being dropped. The spell of adversity has been an excellent thing for the whole party. Reform had been in office for a very Jong- and a very difficult and stormy time; and some people believe that it had to some extent lost its bearings. 2f that was so, there has now been at opportunity while the party has been out of office to take fresh bearings and reset the course."