PEOPLE'S RIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 145, 16 December 1939, Page 10

PEOPLE'S RIGHTS

THE LABOUR POLICY

METHODS OF PROTEST

DIRECT ACTION OPPOSED

(Special tft the "Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, Decembei- 15. Stating in his opening remarks that it was a tragedy that politics should have to be discussed at all when the war required everybody's attention and ef.'ort, Mr. R. M. Algie, director of the New Zealand Freedom Association, addressed an audience of about 1500 in the Town Hall last night on various points of political and constitutional moment. Mr. Algie was given enthusiastic attention by the great majority of his audience, and was patient with a section which inter-; jected and opposed him determinedly. "The Government is being forced to rely upon a whole family of 'Radio Uncles' in its determined and continuous efforts to induce the people to believe that things are not as bad as they seem," said Mr. Algie. "Our 'Uncle of the Friendly Road' has now been partnered in a combined double on Sunday evenings by no less a protagonist than the Prime Minister himself: and, almost nightly throughout the week, we flit from 'Uncle' to 'Uncle,' the tune changing according to the voice, but the purpose being always the same—propaganda, and always more propaganda. If the policy of the Government had been as successful as we were told it would be, then surely there would have been no need for all the broadcasts. People who are sure of themselves and who are satisfied that all is well, do not fear criticism; still less do they resent it; and when they get it, they have no need to descend to threats and mere personalities. They respond, naturally to the finer principles of fair play, and they extend to their opponents a right to use the radio equal to that which they demand for themselves. This," said Mr. Algie, "the Labour Government has never done. No one would ever say that the use they have made of the radio could ever be described as fair and impartial." The wrongs of which so many people were complaining, and the difficulties in which the Government now found itself, were not attributable in any real sense to war conditions. They were simply and solely the cumulative result of three years of Government policy, and there was no escape from that. For the successful prosecution of the war there was no need for the permanent socialisation of their economic life: what was needed was co-operation, but the Government seemed to want this without making any concessions on its part. It was perfectly obvious that the ill effects of a long continued policy of extravagant and partly unproductive expenditure of public money, and of restriction, regulation, and muddling interference with private business and industry were becoming increasingly clear to an ever-growing number of people. In the latter part of his address Mr. Algie dealt with the means whereby the Government could be got rid of by constitutional methods. There had been much loose talk, he said, on this subject, but the simple truth was that for all practical purposes supreme power in this country lay in the hands of the Ministry. So long as they could command a Parliamentary majority, they could do very much as they wished. The only effective, control lay in the existence of a well-informed and determined pifblic opinion. The only remedies available must be constitutional ones, and constitutional ones only. That point could not be too strongly- emphasised. "Political power," concluded Mr. Algie, "rests in the end with the people themselves. They get the kind of Government the majority of them want. If their opinions change, they can get rid of it only by the use of the same means by which they got it. If wrongs of a substantial nature exist, it is the duty of the Government to redress them if it can. If the wrongs are really serious, the good sense of the people will ultimately prevail, and the more serious they are the sooner the people will see it. A dictatorial attitude on the part of the Government towards the reasonable and just complaints of the governed will have only one result: it may take time, but in the end a people will show a Government what it thinks of those who turn a deaf and unsympathetic ear to those who have right and justice on their side."