Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1925. A DEAD ISSUE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 192, 18 July 1925, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1925. A DEAD ISSUE.

Whatever may be decided after the elections, the suggested fusion of the Liberal and Reform Parties may now be regarded as a dead issue. The somewhat long drawn-out negotiations between tlie representatives of the two parties wound up last week with a conference between the party leaders, the result of which was disclosed in the correspondence which the Prime Minister read in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. So'far as that correspondence goes, it appears to be against the contention made by the Opposition Leader, Mr T. M. Wilford, that Mr Coates had “banged, bolted and barred the door against the creation of that national party,” which the Liberals profess to “believe the country requires.” It does not appear that the difficulties of the position have been sufficiently recognised by the Opposition Leader and his followers. When Mr Coates succeeded to the Prime Ministership lie conceived it to be his duty (and very properly so) to accept as a sacred legacy the policy bequeathed to him by his predecessor and in support of which the members of the Reform Party had been elected. He said as much at the time'. But he also said that it had been urged “that as there are, in fact, no important matters of policy at issue between the members of the Government Party and those who sit on the Opposition benches, the political hatchet should be buried, and thus make the path clear for a friendly merger.” In responding to that hint, Mr Wilford practically gave the case away for the Oppositioif by his appeal “to cease vain quarrelling over petty things” in the interests of the country and the Empire. As the “Standard” has more than once pointed out, it is not the fault of the Reform Party that the parties have held aloof. The collapse of the National Government was due to the withdrawal of the Liberals from the Cabinet, at a time when they could have rendered the country even greater service than they did during the war. In appealing to the electors in 1919, after their secession from the National Cabinet, Mr Massey made it clear that it was not his. fault, nor that of his Reform colleagues, that the Coalition had failed to bring about a permanent alliance between the two parties, to assist

in maintaining the government of the country on a sound basis, against the aggressions of the Labour Socialists. In his initial manifesto, as also in liis final message to the people on the eve of the general election, he expressed the hope that united counsels and action might yet prevail between the two'parties, and when, following the 1922 elections and (as Mr Wilford has since put it) the “vain quarrelling over petty things,” the Reformers met in caucus early in 1923 and held out the olive branch to the other side with a view to the fusion of interests, the only response was a suggestion that, before any steps could be taken in that direction, Mr Massey must resign the leadership of his party. The “quarrelling over petty things” continued during the sessions of 1923 and 1924. Early this year Mr Wilford and his lieutenants were continuing the campaign against the Reform Government which they began in 1924 and nominating candidates to bear the Liberal banner in Reform constituencies. Then, with Mr Massey’s serious illness and subsequent death, came the cry for fusion, and Mr Coates was approached by a member of Mr Wilford’s party in that behalf. Mr Wilford speaks of that intermediary as “a friend of his and the Prime Minister’s,” whom he would call “Mr X,” the identity of that gentleman being thud shrouded in obscurity.