WHAT THE LEFT WING IS DOING

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 69, 23 March 1931, Page 8

WHAT THE LEFT WING IS DOING

With much indignation, Mr. Semple defied Mr. Poison in the Finance Bill debate to produce one sentence that had been uttered by any member of the Labour Party, in the House or out of it, advocating repudiation. How does Mr. Semple view the following extract from the official report of the Alliance of Labour Conference? ■ Many of the. workers throughout the Dominion have some equity in buildings owned by tho State, by the municipalities, and in many instances money has been advanced by private concerns. As it appears that these people have no intention whatever of reducing the rate of interest, tbe Labour movement considers that it is necessary to impose this reduction by the same method art that proposed by tho Prime Minister. The workers are asked, therefore, to impose a -compulsory reduction on all mortgages whether paid by way of rent or for any other purpose by 15 per cent. ' The report it may be noted, seeks to give an illegal course the appearance of legality by stating that it is "the same method as that proposed by the Prime Minister." Mr. Forbes has not proposed repudiation. The workers occupying houses erected or bought with loans from the State, or municipal bodies are asked to repudiate 15- per cent, of the debt. This may be the work of the industrialists, the Left Wing of the Labour Party, but the Right Wing should at least know what the Left Wing is doing. , Will Mr. Semplc'accept the responsibility for the repudiation and seek, as an Alliance official has done, tq justify it by casuistry, or will he repudiate the repudiationists?