MEMBER'S GRIEVANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 150, 26 June 1943, Page 5

MEMBER'S GRIEVANCE

WASHINGTON POSITION Complaint about the way he alleged he had been treated by the Prime Minister over the question of the appointment of a wew Zealand Manister to Washington was again made in the House of Representatives yeste.rd.ay afternoon by Mr. F. Langstone (Government, Waimarino), who was formerly High Commissioner for New Zealand in Ottawa. "If the Prime Minister wanted to pass a vote of no-confidence in me it would have been decent of him'to do so in front of my face instead of getting me ten thousand miles away and putting the skids under me then, because that is exactly what happened," said Mr. Langstone. Mr. Langstone said that he had been a member of the Cabinet and was a representative of the people, but he was treated shabbily, like a schoolboy, while he was ten thousand miles away. Mr. J. Thorn (Government, Thames): We have all heard that before. Mr. Langstone: "Well, you can go outside. Mr. Langstone continued that he was going to talk on this question over and over again, because inside any organisation there had to be straightforwardness and straight dealing. The Government had said that the worsening of the position in the Pacific was the reason why they had sent the Minister of Finance and not himself j to Washington, but that was only an excuse. "PEARL HARBOUR" ATTACK. Mr. Langstone said he was not complaining about Ottawa. He had resigned from that position, he said, because he had told the Prime Minister certain things. The question of the appointment to Washington had" nothing to do with Ottawa. Mr. Langstone said that he had been doublecrossed and the victim of a "Pearl Harbour" attack. At the Speaker's direction Mr. Langstone withdrew the term "doublecrossed." Mr. Langstone said that he would never forget and never forgive after what had happened to him. "If the Prime Minister thinks he can play me ! for a 'sucker*, he is making the greatest mistake he has made in his life, because he simply can't get away with that sort of thing," said Mr. Langstone. He did not mind what action the Prime Minister took towards him as long as what'was done was done with his full, knowledge. "When the' Minister of Finance came to Washington I was left like Mahomet's coffin between heaven and earth . .«" Said Mr. Langstone, who at this stage was interrupted by Mr. Speaker, as. his time 1 was exhausted-.