"AN ANTI-SOCIALIST"

Evening Post, Issue 66, 15 September 1936, Page 7

"AN ANTI-SOCIALIST"

MR. DOIDGE'S POLITICS

ATTACK ON LABOUR "SOVIET"

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, September 14. Portion* of tonight's campaign address by Mr. F. W. Doidge, the National candidate for Ma'nukau, was devoted to a reply to recent Ministerial criticism of his platform., He referred i& ihe Labour Representation Committee as a soviet: possessing unlimited power,. dictating toe policy ;of the party and the Government. It was the tail that wagged the dog, he= said. In their attacks on him on successive Saturday nights at Ellerslie, the Minister of Education (the Hon. P. Fraser) and the Minister of: Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) sought to convey the impression that he had fought Rotorua as a Democrat and that he had since changed his political beliefs and was prepared to follow Messrs. Coates and Forbes as leaders. Neither statement •was true, said Mr. Doidge. He fought Rotorua as an Independent against the Democrat, Professor Corbin. He stood as an Independent because he could not and iWould not follow the leadership of Messrs. Coates and Forbes. Personally, he said, he had nothing against either man.. Mr. Forbes probably had more friends outside politics than any other,man in the country, but inside politics his friends were few. He was an honest man in politics, but something more than a reputation for honesty was needed in a leader. Mr. Coates \vas in the speaker's opinion the ablest man in Parliament today, but he had lost touch with the • people. He made a god of efficiency, and dujring the depression he succeeded in Tceeping the country solvent. He had become hard, aloof, and intolerant, but a year or two in the political wilderness would have a softening and humanising effect. That he would in the course of time establish a come-back as a political leader ■was a definite possibility. PURPOSE OF NEW PARTY. "I am an anti-Socialist," said Mr. l)oidge. "We have, a Socialist Government in power, elected on a minority vote of the people. To approach the next .General- Election with a division of ■ forces will be to make a present j of the Treasury benches to the Socialist Party for another three years. A consolidation of the anti-Socialist forces will turn the Socialists out of j office. To achieve this purpose a new National Party has been established. It is a new organisation with new ideals and a new leader who will be neither Mr. Forbes nor Mr. Coates. •.

"There is nothing inconsistent in my association with the new party," Mr. Doidge continued. "I have worked hard to bring it into being, so that I occupy'a different position from that of my opponent, Mr. Osborne. He is only a pawn in the game; he dare not give a promise to the electors outside, the set policy of the soviet, that body altogether outside Parliament, the La bour Representation Committee, ftf :fear of being pulverised and steaprolled out of existence. It is the soy*-£ I attack, not the puppet of the sovj4-"' Mi\ Doidge referred to Parlianspt as a glorified parish pump. Its Mnis- ; lers had become swollen-headed with power, and he warned the el«:tors against sinking; in the quicksafis of further industrial legislation, j A vote of confidence in tlie Weaker and the new party was carriec'by acclamation without a dissentif't.