Greymouth Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1949. Mr Kent's “Fools And Knaves"

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 November 1949, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1949. Mr Kent's “Fools And Knaves "

JUDGED by his.address at Cobden on Monday night, the Labour-Socialist candidate for Westland, Air Kent, is apparently not prepared to contribute anything towards maintaining 5 , let alone raising, the tone and standard of public debate. In a speech that was an unattractive blend of bile and brickbats, he described his political opponents as “knaves”' ■who “tampered with the truth.” They were, he said, “either fools or knaves, and I can,assure yon that, as far as I know’, they are no fools.” He was at the time quoting a report of a speech by his principal opponent, Mr O’Regan, so that the implications of his utterance are clear. He has made a serious charge. By standard dictionary definition a “knave” is “a false, deceitful fellow,” and “knavery” is “dishonesty, deception, trick, petty villainy, fraud.” It would be easy, of course, to bandy such words with Mr Kent. But such activity is profitless; it contributes nothing to .the public good. It is the easy refuge of men who lack both political argument and knowledge. It is the weapon of men of political rancour, who, when faced with incontrovertible facts, lash out willynilly in a desperate effort to destroy that which they cannot refute. Mr Kent has chosen of his own free will to enter this particular field, to which his peculiar political talents seem to have fitted him. lie may be safely left in undisputed possession of it. It only remains to be said that, so far as his principal opponent, Mr O’Regan, is concerned, Mr Kent’s attack on “my opposition” was entirely unnecessary ; it was most certainly not invited. The election campaign has already progressed far enough for the contrast between the principal candidates to become sufficiently clear —and striking. The matter may be wisely left in. the hands of the people, whom Air Kent may perhaps find it possible to forgive if they seriously doubt his claims to the repository of all truth and knowledge, .and, politically speaking, the embodiment of all that is good and virtuous.in the public life of New Zealand.