The Gisborne Times TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1924. LABOR'S “EYE-WASH.”

Gisborne Times, Volume LX, Issue 9797, 6 May 1924, Page 4

The Gisborne Times TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1924. LABOR'S “EYE-WASH.”

An interesting feature of the recent strike of railwaymen was the futilo attempt, on the part of the Laborites, to suggest that Mr Masi sey was anxiously watching for an | opportunity to gain such a strong : party advantage from the upheaval : as to make it well worth his while to force an appeal to the country. It has, however, never appeared, during any portion of the term of the present Parliament, that Mr Massey has really desired that the next General Elections should bo precipitated. In strict fact, whenever the subject of the possible overthrow of the Government has been prominent, he has made it plain that, if a fresh appeal has to be made to’ the electors before the end of next year, the responsibility will not rest either upon himself or upon his party. When these facts are borne in mind, it is not difficult to see why it was that militant Labor, during the recent strike, persisted with its taunts on the matter. On their part, Mr Holland and his colleagues would seem to have reckoned it great fun, for instance, to pretend that Parliament should be called together “to settle the strike difficulty.” The Labor party knows just as well ae the other two parties; that it is extremely doubtful, at any rat-e, if the Government, even if it

should be defeated on a want of confidence resilution, could claim a dissolution. What would unquestionably happen, in the event of the present Government being overthrown, would be that Mr Wili'ord would never suggest the shortening of the period of the present Parliament and that Mr Holland would make it his business to see that the “Lib-Labs” obeyed Labor just as strictly as Mr Asquith requires Mr Ramsay MacDonald to do what suits the Liberal party in the present | awkwardly divided House of ,Oom- | mons. There was, therefore, a lob { cunning in Mr Holland’s sugges- | tiou that Parliament should be called | together “to settle) the railway l strike” ! In this regard, the Labor- | ites no doubt chuckled to tlieni--1 solves that a section of the public ) would be gulled into the belief that i the proposal was sound and timely. Tlie exact position is, of course, | that, even if Parliament had been l nailed together, the railwaynieii | would have had to surrender uncon--1 ditionally Jong before the House 1 would have had a chance of dealing with thei dispute 1 Those who follow the working of the Parliamentary machine will {know that the initial business in : a session is the consideration of the Government’s policy as outlined in the speech which is liamdI ed to the Governor-General to de-

liver. Therefore we may ask: Does any sane person believe that, if Parliament had been summoned, the ,Addrcas-|Ui-lteply would have beta •agreed to without serious debate and left the House free to discuss the railwayman's grievances? Any such contention would be ridiculous. What Mr Holland wanted was merely a chance to drag in the “Lib-Labs” in an attack on the Government over the railwayman's trouble. Mr Wilford had previously committed himself sufficiently on the matter to suit the Laborites. As is well-known, his party liad_ in the House, opposed any “cut’' in the wages of public servants earning ££3l2 per annum or under. And, during the strike, lie had stated that his party favored l the 44-liour week. The proposal to convene Parliament was, however, rightly rejected on the ground that such a decision would not have hastened the end of the strike and, at most, all that could have been done would have beenl to set up a further tribunal, thei personnel of which would require to have been approved by the Government. Nothing would have been gained by re-assembling Parliament in haste over the matter. Of course Mr Holland and his friends may have lad another reason for urging that :

Parliament should be convened prior to the usual date. In this regard, it may be pointed out that it is not improbable, for instance, that the Labor leader may accept an invitation to attend a Labor Congress to be held at Home in August next!