MR. SAVAGE'S CHOICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 89, 12 October 1938, Page 20

MR. SAVAGE'S CHOICE

LABOUR LEADERSHIP

SELECTION UNOPPOSED

An emphatic denial that Mr. J. A. Lee ran Mr. Savage close for the office of Prime Minister was given by the Minister of Education (the Hon. P. Fraser) at his meeting in the Oddfellows' Hall, Kent Terrace, last evening. He said that there had never been any question of caucus selecting anyone but Mr. Savage for the position.

"In tonight's 'Evening Post* I saw a report of a deputation to his Worship the Mayor in regard to certain statements Mr. Lee is supposed to have made in a book he has published," said Mr. Fraser. "Now, I know nothing about the book or these particular statements in it, but I notice that apparently the early settlers arranged the deputation and I feel there are a great many early settlers who would not want it to be of any particular political colour. Those people were not invited."

A woman's voice: Only a few.

Mr. Fraser said it was quite right for the Mayor to receive a deputation on any matter that the citizens thought worthy to place before him, "but I can't understand how he allowed the deputation today to degenerate into an attack on the Labour Party." NO PART IN PUBLICATION. He noticed with regret that his political opponent in the electorate had made not a protest but an attack on the Labour Party, which had had no part in the particular publication, Mr. Fraser continued. He could not express an opinion about the book because, as he had said, he had not read it, but he had no doubt that Mr. Lee could giv^ a good account ->f it. Voices: He has done, over the wireless. "I am quite prepared to leave that to him," said Mr. Fraser, "but when I read a statement put forward as apparent truth by Mr. Appleton, in Which I and every other member of the Labour Party are involved, then I consider it is my duty to examine its accuracy and truthfulness." Mr. Appleton might not have been correctly reported, and he was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he was at a loss to understand why the statement was made at ..all. Mr. Appleton had said it was well known in New Zealand that Mr.

Lee ran Mr. Savage close for the Prime Ministership. (Laughter.) "I don't know where Mr. Appleton got his information from, but he has been misinformed," said Mr. Fraser. Nobody knew better than he did the workings of the Parliamentary Labour Party, since he had been its secretary since 1919, and had nominated both the late Mr. H. E. Holland and, on his death, Mr. Savage, for the leadership of the party. There was never any mention of anyone but Mr: Savage for the position of Prime Minister and he had been selected unanimously and with great enthusiasm. He carried the complete confidence and faith of every member of the Parliamentary Labour Party and did today. WITHDRAWAL EXPECTED. "I want to inform Mr. Appleton that his statement is entirely inaccurate and that if anybody told him that they told him an untruth," concluded Mr. Fraser. 'T regret that he has been the channel of circulating the untruth and I expect that as an honourable man he will withdraw his statement."