LABOUR AND ROYALTY.

Grey River Argus, 26 July 1922, Page 6

LABOUR AND ROYALTY.

A STATEMENT IN THE HOUSE. •Speaking on the Address-in-Reply in the House of Representatives. Mr }(. J- Holland said:—“l have listened to a number of the speakers who have addressed the House, and I have been st luck with the desperate plight of the two older parties, especially as evidenced in their attitude toward the Labour Party in this House. I know that most of the speeches have been electioneering speeches. The Labour Party’s policy cannot be attacked successfully by either the Government or the Liberals, and so they resort to may be fairly termed the calling of names. One always feels amused to hear the iteration and reiteration of “Extreme Labour Party,” and 1. felt more than amus-ed last night to hear the Prime Minister describe us as the “Communist Labour Party.” I knew ho was looking for a new term. In days gone by it used to be “Socialist,” “Red Fed,” “1.W.W.,” 'SyndbalLL ” 1 * Sinn Fein.” From day to J;i\ the name changes as the needs of our opponents change. .Still it seems to be a pity that an effort should be made to CLOUD THE h’LAL ISSFES by mud-throwing. I was sorry to note the lowering of the tone of the debate by some speakers who made attacks on the Labour Party, notably tl.e hmourablo member for Awzirua. the honourable member for Wairarapu. Um honourable member for Dunedin Central and the honourable member fur Christchurch North in a portion of his speech. Seme one, has said: “When the tongue of slander stings thee, let this be thy comfort: they arc not the worst fruits on which the wasps alight;” and I think that meets the situation fairly well. There has been a. good deal of shrieking with respect 1o the alleged disloyalty of the Labour Party. Loyalty, I have said before, is a term that requires delining. Some people’s conception of loyaidP arc most extraordinary. Mr Winston Churchill who. by the way, requested our Prime Minister to “call me Winston ’ ’ u 5 Air .Massey: He did nothing of the sort. Mr Holland: “All right; I will accept the Prime Minister’s denial. Mr Winston Churchill could meet the re- I presentatives of one of the worst mili-J tary brigands the world has ever known, and could -enter into an undertaking 'with him to dishonour the Red Cross. But immediately Labour protested, Labour was declared disloyal. A MILITARY CRIMINAL could turn the guns on a peaceful meeting of two thousand men, women, and children, and keep the soldiers shooting until four hundred of them lay weltering in their blood—unarmed men, women, and children who were meeting for prayer and ordinary peaceful purposes. Labour protested against the crime, and Labour was declared disloyal. Sir Ernest Cassell and a gang of international financiers, pro Citing by a fraudulent statement sent < i’> could depreciate British stock in America and clear eighteen millions on the deal. Labour protested, and Labour was declared disloyal. Labour protested against the profiteering during the war and Air Lloyd George exposed the profiteering in connection with the armament contracts; but Labour was declared disloyal when Labour protested. Air Horatio Bottomley was sent throughout the length x and breadth of England, screaming de-

nunciation of the Labour movement. The British Government was prepared to hold Air Bottomley up as one of the Empire’s loyal citizens, was prepared to utilize his services in the Woolwich bye-election, was prepared to put him forward as one of the patriots ■who were to expose the disloyalty of Labour; and all the time AIR BOTTOAILEY WAS ROBBING not only the general public, but the very soldiers who did the fighting. 1 have never yet looked into the personal doings of the man of any standing who gets up in this House and levels his charges of disloyalty against the Labour movement •without being able to find that he is one of those w?to profiteered at the expense of the people during the war; who, while he was waving the ilag with one hand, metaphorically speaking had the other hand in the pockets of the soldiers and their dependents, as well as in the pockets of the people generally. I have said before that judged by the true standards of loyalty .the Labour Party Ts the most loyal in this country. The Labour Party’s loyalty is based on that “humanistic love of country which is born of a legitimate pride in one’s country’s historical and cultural contributions to the universe.” That is the loyalty which is intensely concerned about the preservation of every great tradition of human liberty, and consequently it differs wholly from that false conception of patriotism which “under-values all things foreign” and reduces loyalty to the lowest terms of national insularity, commercial supremacy, and military predominance. C*l this latter patriotism it has been well w’ritteu “It makes us look more like Prussia and less like England’s better self.” *