NEW ZEALAND FREEDOM LEAGUE.

Evening Star, Issue 23452, 18 December 1939, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND FREEDOM LEAGUE.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —Mr Algie’s address to the Freedom League suggests to my mind that the opponents of Labour should be known as the Political Nudists’ League, for the simple reason-that they are still devoid of a positive political garment to cover their economic nakedness. Their political clothing, which thev call their programme, is merely a necklace of negatives as an alternative to Mr Savage’s positive ideas of freedom, defined as “ For the labourer thou art bread and a comely table spread. Thou are fire and food and clothes,” etc. To secure this Mr Savage put men at work on award wages with all cuts restored and a reduced number of hours of work to absorb the unemployed. The low wages of the Nationalist.days made it impossible to buy British goods. Therefore this starvation policy meant vast accumulations of London funds. To rectify this the Nationalists proposed another • negative policy, resulting in that dangerous precedent, the 20 per cent, restriction of exports. But Labour’s corrective policy meant the buying power of our people became so great-that more goods were imported, as Dr M'Millan’s figures, prove, than during the Nationalist rule, with the result that the importers were again able to buy these London funds with which to buy British' goods in such quantities that, .as the vast London funds became exhausted, imports had Ito be restricted to the extent the Ottawa pact restricted exports. Once again for political reasons in 1928 the Freedom League’s friends decided to sabotage the Government’s policy, with the negative proposal of transferring money from New Zealand to London by the process of buying up London sterling *to prevent that money being used by the importers to positively buy British goods, and to prevent the Government paying its debts, but the licensing of the exchange-to make sure that money received by the sale of farmers’ produce should be used for trade or the payment of public debts brought that sabotage practice to an end. Now, however, Mr H. W. Acland, a lawyer of Christchurch and a member of the Meat Producers’,Board; says “ he thought there would be a big risk of greater production after the war. ... Farmers should not increase their flocks

in the immediate future. . . .” Mr James Begg, another member of the Meat Board, whose financial interests in various undertakings supplement his sheep-raising ' interests, endorses, that negative policy, which discloses their hopeless- outlook instead of more production to win the'war. Being Tories at heart, these friends of Mr Aigie cannot see that after the war there will be a new economic world in which the workers, not only- of Britain, but of all other countries, will possess a greater purchasing power to buv our primary products the people need so much. If it does not come by reciprocal evolutionary means in Europe it will come there; by such revolutionary means as the workers of Russia, who combined with the farmers and the soldiers, ushered in after the last war. In Britain and all her Dominions, because, of their democratic constitution, it will come peacefully by constitutional means, in spite of the Communists’ class conscious belief to the contrary. Mr Aigie proposes another negative policy when he wants what he calls “ the extra vagant policy of expenditure of publig. r ni6ney, to be, reduced'.’’, . In other words," he wants to. create .the starvation policy once again, of the Nationalist days, with its Unemployment, poverty, and misery. ’ Labour spends the public credit and revenue on such asset-creat-ing works as roads, railways, post offices, hydro-electric, schemes, irrigation, etc., which make a contribution towards liquidating the debt we : owe to ourselves. Labour will continue, in

spite of the Freedom League, its positive policy until in time a monetary system will function that will expand both production and distribution. Then expenditure on expansion of industries will only be limited by our capacity to find man power to develop our resources. There is one inan in the Nationalist camp whose opinions I respect even when I do not agree with him; I refer to Mr W. IX Stewart. At the break-up of the King’s High School Mr Stewart explained the benefits of the soldierly qualities, .of . dis'(jip]ine, and urged the boys to discipline both mind and body even in civil life. If Mr Algie is not impervious to reason he may benefit from reading that speech, as during the war —for the sake of production at least—discipline of mind is as necessary to a member of a Meat Board as to a member of the Freedom League.—l am, etc., J. E. MacManus. December 16.