A CHALLENGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 67, 16 September 1943, Page 4

A CHALLENGE

PARTY POLITICS

REPLY BY MR. DAVY

In a statement today Mr. A, E. Davy said:—"Mr. Gordon has dragged my name into this fight. He's asking for trouble and he can have it. I have advised and helped the Independent Group because I have seen so much of party politics that I consider it the duty of every citizen to put an end to the system which is ruining this country. But I am quite an independent agent in this. No organisation dictates to me, nor do I dictate to any organisation, and that is more than Mr. Gordon or the members of the National Party can say. "As we are not candidates the personal status of either Mr. Gordon or myself does not matter much. But the ideas that we may represent do. I I know what I am talking about when it comes to party politics, and I should welcome the opportunity to meet Mr. [Gordon on a public platform during the next week to debate our knowledge and views of party politics. I should dearly love the chance to make the National Party do some of its personal attacking in the open for a change. But that's not their way. Nevertheless, I issue the challenge to Mr. Gordon. We shall see now what I the National Party is made of. "I want to refer to the specific denials made by Mr. Gordon. I repeat what Mr. Drummond said in his broad, cast —the National candidates are bound by a written pledge to obey the dictates of the organisation, and the interests outside of Parliament have power, under the constitution of the National Party, to say what the memIbers of the Parliamentary party shall do. The Independent Group has a copy of that pledge. I insist that it is not an out of date thing. I say emphatically that it is the pledge used in this election. This fact was confirmed to the hilt by the Nationalist candidate for Pahiatua in his address only last night. Mr. Holyoake actually read the pledge aloud. Thousands heard him. In attempting to justify the National Party this Nationalist confirmed beyond all doubt that Nationalist candidates are tied by secret pledges to an organisation outside of Parliament. This cannot be denied. SPECIFIC CHARGE' "The Independent Group has made a specific charge, but Mr. Gordon deliberately ignored it. He knows that the Nationalist candidates are tied. The Independent Group has produced indisputable proof. Mr. Gordon has complained about the attack on the National Party, but this attack is due, not only to the evils of the party machine, but also to the fact that the party pretends that the party machine does not exist, and that the members of the National Party are really Independents. Anybody who believes this deserves, to get a National Government.

"With regard to Mr. Gordon's other statements. Mr. Drummond spoke from a studio for the very good reasons that he gave in his broadcast. He was quite plain about it—evidently much too outspoken for Mr. Gordon. And it's sheer nonsense to say that these meetings are not packed and prearranged. This cheering and singing (sometimes w|th musical accompaniment) is not spontaneous. Surely Mr. Gordon should realise that I know this technique backwards, and I have no difficulty in recognising it. It was all right once, when politics meant just the difference between the 'ins' and the 'outs,' but today the world needs a new order, and the old order of politics must go. I could have packed a meeting for Mr. Drummond comparable to anything that the National Party has had, but I agree that the right thing was done by broadcasting without any false atmosphere from a broadcasting studio.

"I was vastly amused at Mr. Gordon's indiscreet reference to the £70,000,000 loan. Has he forgotten that that was the policy of many members of the now-named National Party who got in on the £70,000,000? Who is Mr. Gordon attacking, the Independent Group or j^hose Nationalists who supported the £70,000,000 loan? This loan has clearly a much closer association with the National Party than it could possibly have with the Independent Group, which has proclaimed its intention of opposing a borrow and tax polity.

"The fact is that people are openly revolting against party dictatorship, and Mr. Gordon is squealing because his party has been hit. He can be cheered by the thought that New Zealand is only at the beginning of this revolution towards a new political order."