WILL STEP ASIDE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 71, 25 March 1931, Page 8

WILL STEP ASIDE

IF HOUSE DISSATISFIED

MR. FORBES'S ATTITUDE

WAGE CUT PROPOSALS

A definite declaration that if Parliament is not satisfied with the measures he proposes for the rehabilitation of the country's finances he is prepared to stand aside and let someone else tackle the job was made in the House of Representatives last night by the Prime. Minister (the Right Hon. G.W.Forbes). Declaring that it was imperative to make the wage reductions contained in his proposals, the Prime Minister added that there was no other course open to him as Minister of Finance if disaster to the Dominion's finances was to be avoided. "And I don't want to be in a position of being responsible for a condition of affairs like that," he said. "Now that the protests have been made against the proposals, let us do some business and get to a vote, and if the decision of the House is such that some other method would be preferable I will be only too willing to step on one side and let someone else cany on and apply milder methods than those which 1 feel are absolutely necessary. Unless we tackle the question, and unless we cut deep in regard to expenditure, we are going to make it far harder and far more difficult for the people. I can adopt no other course from what I have adopted, knowing the financial position at the present time.

"Now let us take a vote," he said, "and see what the opinion of the House is. Whatever the consequences, I am prepared to put up with them. I am not going to let the people of this country down in meeting what is a very difficult position."

The "stonewall" continued,