VOTE SPLITTING

Grey River Argus, 23 September 1943, Page 3

VOTE SPLITTING

(To the Editor). Sir, —We have no Democratic '-Soldier Labour candidates in Westland or Buller, but the enclosed extract, taken from an article in the “Union Record’’ (official organ of many Auckland Unions), should be of profound interest to all workers. ENCLOSURE. “There can be no denying that as far as the war is concerned, this Government has done a great job. Some people even make the charge that its zeal has outrun discretion — but after all, that is a commendable fault under the circumstances. . It is a Government which is hellbent on the defeat of Fascism — which is more than can be said of the Nationalists and their friends, if their past record means anything. The workers have not yet forgotten Von Luckner. An openly anti-worker government would have sabotaged the war effort right from the jump by condoning Fifth Columnists, and pinpricking the workers. And that is why the Labour Government must be retained, from the long-range view of bringing the war to a speedy and victorious conclusion. Because, An actual fact, it has kept down to a minimum the unrest which is wholly inevitable in a war period.

Irritation .at the failures of the present. Government must not be allowed to blind any of us to the realities of the situation. Some workers feel like “paying them back,’’ but that is only another way of biting off your nose to spite your face. This issue must be looked at, not from the personal, but the political point of view. It may be in your I mind to refrain from voting as 3 ; protest again.it some ’ particular ‘ thing or many things the Govern;ment has failed to do. But consider I the consequences to the workers if this shortsighted policy is carried out. No wage-earner possessed of reason is going to vote Nationalist, ! of course—the representatives of Big Business, the creators of low wages, slums and starvation. But a vote not ; cast for Labour is a vote for the Nationalist Party just the same.

That is why the “Union Record’’ has recently suffered the mud slung by Lee’s “Weekly”: because the trade unions have vision enough to see that Lee is to-day the most

(dangerous man in New Zealand to 'the Labour movement.- We might agree with some of Lee’s criticisms; but Lee is a dangerous man.

And here is why. No one but the most fanatical of his followers be 1 lieves that Lee has a ghost of a chance of getting Democratic Labour candidates into Parliament; he will probably lose his own seat. Lee’s candidates will do only one thing; they will reduce the Labourvote, because the less wideawake workers will express their irritation by voting that way. By reducing the Labour vote, they will tend to let the Tories in. Not strong enough to carry the polls, they may yet be strong enough, unless the workers are on their guard, to wreck the Labour Government.- Lee couldn't do a better job for the Tories if they were paying him to do it: it is not suggested that they have been, they are getting the job done for nothing.

A vote for Lee is in effect a vote for Holland.

A vote withheld is a vote for reaction.

There is only one thing to do: that is to vote, and to vote for the Labour candidate.

I know the side my bread’s buttered. Labour has failed to provide jam, as they promised, but the butter we’ve got is preferable to the airy-fairy meringues of J. A. Lee and the dry crust of the Nationalists.’’ I am etc., UNITY WINS.