LABOUR PROBLEMS.

Evening Star, Issue 23907, 10 June 1941, Page 6

LABOUR PROBLEMS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Mr Frame should know that far from side-stepping tho issues raised by him if he looks over his own letters ho will find I replied to tho Labour principles raised by him as brieily as one could be permitted to do with the war-time space allowed. The point ho now raises, of ;a trading bank, is easily replied to by the fact that tho equipment of soldiers abroad is the most important consideration, and as the existing trading banks have assets abroad on which they can raise sterling funds to help to finance feeding and equipping soldiers it must be obvious that all a New Zealand-owned trading bank could now do would be to deal with problems within New Zealand f.r some time to come. War-time conditions alter problems arranged for peace-time conditions. That is my opinion. If Mr Lee was Minister of Finance he (Mr Frame) would discover that the only sterling he could raise abroad would be by tho sale of what produce wo exported, which is limited by the shipping space that is available, and the Reserve Bank now deals with that. Re the attitude I personally took up at the O.L.R.C. I merely expressed the opinion of the body of which I was a delegate. Mr Frame iwill understand that, if he only asks the secretary_ of the Waterside Union, of which he is a member. What is the difference between expressing one’s views at a union meeting, and if one does not get his way, forming a union in opposition. Just as the collective decisions of a majority of members of a union determine the policy of the union, so also at the annual conference of the Labour Party, the collective decisions of all the delegates must determine all questions if unity is to prevail or majority rule means anything, and ho should know the annual conference expressed confidence in the work of the Labour Party, hampered as it is by war conditions. The reported 100 branches formed by the Lee Party recalls the fact that similar •break-away branches in Australia caused Labour, both in the State and Federal Parliaments, to he in opposition, even though they knew the worst Labour party is better than the best Conservative party. The fact is the Labour guiding principle qf organisation laid down in 1848 at an international working-class conference still holds good—namely, “ the greatest danger the working-class movement has to face is division in their own ranks through different sections of the workers trying to outstrip one another in their desire for advancement,” There are no political shortcuts other than by unity of all who render service to the people.— I am, etc., J. E, MacManus. June 8-