BURNT BALLOT PAPERS

Evening Star, Issue 25114, 2 March 1944, Page 6

BURNT BALLOT PAPERS

THE MIDDLE EAST POLL MR HOLLAND CRITICAL (Special) WELLINGTON, March 2. The destruction of the Middle East ballot papers was referred to in the House of Representatives yesterday by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland, during the debate on the lnvercargill Licensing Committee Bill. After, Mr Holland had declared that the Middle East papers in the Jnvercargill licensing .poll could not be reviewed as these were burnt, the Minister of Supply (Mr Sullivan) interjected that the Leader of the Opposition should have been just and said that the Prime Minister had offered .the House an investigation. Mr Holland, who had also declared that there was overwhelming evidence of grave irregularities in the conduct of the poll, added that such investigation was not going to restore the ballot papers. The Government had the responsibility to see that responsible men were put into positions for the conduct of such an election so that things were not destroyed. It was not a matter of some military officer, it was a matter for the Government accepting responsibility. Following an interjection by Mr Osborne, Mr Holland said that if the National Party had been on the Treasury Benches and. the papers had been destroyed, he knew what the member for Onehunga would have said. Speaking to the Bill, Mr Sullivan repeated that the Prime Minister had offered a committee of investigation to go into every phase of the destruction of the ballot papers. If the Leader of the Opposition thought that the Government had anything to do with the matter—that it was serving some vile purpose in having the papers destroyed—then he should have the courage to say so. On the intervention of the Speaker, the Minister withdrew the reference to courage. Mr Sullivan added that an innuendo •should not have been used, and a wrong impression left in the minds of the House and people. Mr Holland should have said what he wanted to say straightforwardly. ./The Leader of the Opposition had raised the issue in a form that would leave doubt in the minds of the people of the country.

The Minister said that Mr Holland knew that the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, had given an undertaking that the people concerned would have the opportunity of reviewing the ballot papers Mr Holland: What was the good of that when the papers were burntP Mr Sullivan replied that the Leader of the Opposition would know that the Minister of Finance knew nothing of that.