LABOUR’S POLICY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 October 1924, Page 9

LABOUR’S POLICY

EXTRA EDITION.

CAMPAIGN OPENED. ELECTION SPEECH. I _ EY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. Received Oct. 8, 1.4.0 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 7.. The Labour Party conference opened at the Queens’ Hall, London, and unusual interest was taken in the proceedings in anticipation of a pronouncement by Mr. MacDonald on the Government crisis. The conference was preceded by an official, breakfast, at which, were present members of the Cabinet, the Labour Party executive, and representatives of the Trades Union Congress, at a West End restaurant, but Mr. MacDonald did not attend. He went straight to the conference, appearing a quarter of an hour before the opening. He received an ovation from the crowd- outside. His appearance on the platform was greeted with the singing of “The Red Flag.” Mr. MacDonald, '.recalling Labour’s success at the last election, despite a campaign of loud speakers, lobster tHicans, and other humbug, said there was a fixed limit to-day to the possibilities of trickery inspired by resourceful demagogues. He claimed that no Government had done more than the Labour Government to alleviate the lot of the victims of unemployment or to solve the housing problem. He praised Mr. Snowden’s budget, and declared that the next Labour budget would continue the good work. That, perhaps, was the real explanation of the Government’s present difficulty. The second Labour budget would jeopardise the lives of the other two parties. The work of the Labour delegation at Geneva should give pride to all seeking the security of peace. A trial must be given to the Dawes plan, but the whole trade union -movement in the world was morally, bound to support German trade unions against capitalistic attempts to reduce wages or to lengthen hours on the plea of reparations payments. . He defended the Anglo-Russian treaty, declaring that there were interests in the country prepared in the bitterest way to sacrifice every national concern to themselves. If the treaty came short of - a really satisfactory settlement, that was ' because- the blunders and escapades of predecessors still hung like a poison cloud over all the Labour Government’s endeavours. “The political situation, is now,” continued Mr. MacDonald “giving no little concern; Mr. Asquith?s post-election speech, plainly intimating that the Labour Government must eat out of his hand, finally settled Liberal and Labour relations, and was the beginning of an unworthy policy, the latest phase of which demands a definite stand. A trumped-up ‘‘stunt’ about dropping a-certain prosecution gave the wily, pettifogging lawyer a chance. The country wishes the Government to continue work which cannot be interrupted except at grave national disadvantages.” Only men could carry on whose auth_ ority in the eyes of the foreigner and their own people was respected. The plan was to force a humiliated Government to go to the country in a fortnight’s time. The Conservatives had a straightforward vote of censure, but the Liberal amendment was conceived in a spirit of mediaeval crookedness and torture. The Government by this method would not be censured; it would only be insulted. A “packed” committee would, on the eve of the election, publish a report, which he knew was already drawn up. censuring the Government. By this little manoeuvre they thought Labour-would go down and the fortunes of the Liberal Party be rushed. “They mistake their men,” continued the Premier. “This chicanery will provoke resentment that will make our victories all the more numerous. .Fresh, clean fighting in the constituencies will clear the air and give us. strength in the House' of Commons, making us independent of partisan tactics.” He hoped the conference in its deliberations would remember what was at stake. COMMUNISTS NOT WANTED. Mi*. Cramp, in proposing a resolution, which was carried unanimously, congratulating Mr. MacDonald on the success of the nolitical organisation of the Labour movement, prophesied jbat after the election Labour would Ire the largest party in the House of Commons. Mr. Herbert Smith, president of the Miners’ Federation, seconding, declared that the miners were determined to return a Labour Government, not because they believed in reparations as brought about in the Dawes report, but because Mr. MacDonald and his friends were going in the right direction to bring about the ultimate aim of reparations and to end wars for ever. The conference refused a Communist application for affiliation by 3,185,000 votes to 293,000, and carried the executive’s -further recommendation that no member of tlie Communist Party should be eligible for endorsement as a Labour candidate for Parliament or on a local authority by 2,456,000 votes to 654,000.