POLLS EXPECTED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20638, 19 August 1941, Page 6

POLLS EXPECTED

NATIONAL PARTY “HARD FIGHT AHEAD” WARNING BY LEADER (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. A straightforward indication that the National Party is expecting a general election to take place this year, and that it will have a hard fight ahead of it, was given by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. S. G. Holland, speaking at the National Club’s reception to the Rt. Hori. J. G. Coates last night. “This is not the time to talk of an election,” SSid Mr. Holland, “but every good soldier will agree that every good soldier should be well prepared. We have a very difficult set of opponents to face. “Many people say that this is not the time for party bickering and for divisions among the people—it is a time for unity. I agree. No one could have done more than I have done, in my humble way ,to bring about an amalgamation of political forces. We have done our best to bring about unity, and it is no fault of ours that it has not been brought about. “I believe there will be an election. I do not think, that members of the Government are prepared to give up their portfolios. It will be an uneven fight. The Government has taken away the radio from us, it has iinposed censorship on the newspapers, and now it has taken away the petrol from us. The Government’s organising, however, is done by the trades union secretaries, and they continue to have their petrol supplied. It Will be a stiff fight and an unequal one, but I believe we will win through, and we will try and give the country the government it deserves and, I believe, the government it wants.”