LEADER TO UNITE ALL

Evening Star, Issue 23620, 5 July 1940, Page 11

LEADER TO UNITE ALL

MR WILKINSON SEES ONE IN BACKGROUND LIVELY GROSS-TALK [Fkom Oub Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, July 4. Political co-operation, which seems to ■ have receded into the background, formed tho subject of lively cross-talk, when Mr, Wilkinson (Egmont) raised the subject during the financial debate. His suggestion that he was quite disinterested, as he was not an official member of any party, was received incredulously by "Labour members. Tho country, said Mr Wilkinson, was much, disturbed at the moment. The confidence which was so requisite was lacking owing to the failure of a leader to unite all parties for war purposes. There was a feeling that the best possible thing was not being done. The j Primo Minister had declared that he,

was an executive head to-day, not a party leader, but Mr Wilkinson’s comment on this was that he believed that the leader was somewhere in the background. Mr Parry: That is clever. Mr Holland: Very true, too. / Mr Schramm: Part of the whispering campaign. ■ Mr Wilkinson: The country is looking for a leader who can unite all parties. Mr Armstrong; What an opportunity was lost when they did not get you. (Laughter.) Mr Wilkinson: Right for once, though you seldom are right. Mr Barclay; You have resigned from every party you have been in. Mr Wilkinson ended the discussion with the reminder that in Britain when a great crisis arrived the party system always broke down.