PLEBS LEAGUE

Evening Star, Issue 21719, 14 May 1934, Page 2

PLEBS LEAGUE

FASCISM AND THE LEGIOH Under tho allspices of the above league, Mr M. Silverstone spoke oil the ‘ Fascist Policy of the New Zealand Legion.’ In order to understand the reasons for Fascism, he said, we would have to review the present, system. Today there were two parties within present society. The one was represented under the name of. Fascism and the other was represented; under the title of Socialism. Both these parties bad now passed beyond the experimental stage, and assumed an aggressive in place of a passive policy. Socialism had for its objective the complete -reorganisation -of society. Fascism had for its object the co-ordinating of ; all the forces operating in society, without in any way altering the basis of the present system. The present system was showing signs of becoming disintegrated, and the clash of interests was becoming more clearly defined. It was for the purpose of staving off this period that. Fascism had . come to the fore, under the guise of an all-in-all policy, whereby the best elements in all parties were to be welded-together to form a single unity that had for its object the. abolition of. pai’ty. The model for this system was to bo'had from what had been accomplished in Italy .under Mussolini, where Italy’s corporate State was now an accomplished fact. Under, Hitler in Germany the Nazis were attempting to do the same, and in Austria the like had been done, In aIL these three illustrations we found that the Socialists had to be completely suppressed. Even in Austria, where the Socialists of Vienna had achieved power by constitutional means, the forces of Fascism, under Dr Dollfuss and his followers, drove the Socialists brutally from office, and ’many lost their lives and others were imprisoned and tortured. We in New Zealand were faced with the New Zealand Legion, and its policy was based on the same all-in-all policy. In an address at the Hutt Valley, Dr Campbell Begg, dominion president of the legion, laid bare the policy of the legion, it was to enter politics, he said. There was no intention of opposing certain valued members of the three parties. They stood for economic planning and no irritating interference as in the past. All sorts of fine and high sounding phrases were used, which, on being analysed, showed that they meant nothing unless to delude the Workers into perhaps giving trial support to'the legion. It was the fear that the Labour Party might gain the Treasury benches at the next election that confronted the anti-Labour forces in New Zealand. Dr Begg realised that putting candidates in the field at the next General Election might make for confusion; so the alternative was for the legion to strive to be a moral force and go on educating for some little time longer yet, and urge on voters to vote Tor tho best man, irrespective of what party he might belong to. Given the right men, Dr Begg thought the machine would improve its own working. The speaker concluded by warning his audience to beware of the subtle pleas of Dr Begg and his legion. The workers had their own party; let them stick to it until it failed them. It was the only party that in New Zealand had not had a chance, and this should be given it, to say the least.