DISINTEGRATING FORCES AT WORK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 149, 24 May 1928, Page 6

DISINTEGRATING FORCES AT WORK.

We do not hold nor agree with all that the Government nas done; there are some things that were better undone, but it musL Readmitted that they have maintained the public credit and pulled the country through some grievous difficulties, arising- out of the slump and the con sequent sion for which they deserve every credit. No Government could have done better in these respects, although their critics seem to think that very little credit is due to them in either direction. But if, as is sometimes said, politicians are ungrateful, it is to be feared that a large number of tbe electors are even more so, and it is not reassuring- to find that there is on foot at the present time a movement to contest every seat in tlie iHouse, irrespective of the qualifications and standing- of their present occupants, fostered by the so-called “United Party. Some Ministers, and some members, surely have the right to look for immunity from tlie opposition that is being offered to them, not by men whose ideas and political principles are fundamentally opposed to .theirs, as are those oi the Labour Socialists, but by others who, holding much the same views and poll-1 tical opiuions, are trying to make a clear sweep of tne existing members of tlie Reform Party which has, with all its failings and shortcomings, served tne country so well during the last lb years. Even should tliev succeed m their amiable intention of making that “clean sweep” —a very improbable and we might add an almost impossible tiling —it is more than doubtful if they could improve on the personnel of the present House. They are more likely to place the Labour Socialists in the saddle, for people are beginning to realise—all the developments pointing- in that direetion —that the “United Party” has merely succeeded (if it has even accomplished that) in bringing together the scattered elements of the old Liberal Party Liberal-Labour, Nationalists, New Liberals, and the few malcontents who may have seceded from Mi" Coates s following". Mi J). G. Sullivan, M.P., one of the best informed and possibly* also the shrewdest and most reasonably minded member of the Labour Socialist Party, writing m the Lyttelton'Times, suggests as the probable outcome of the present situation that Labour ' may expect to double its representation in Parliament at the comingelections, and that it may conceivably prove to be the strongest of the three parties. In that event, he points out that it is quite possible that Labour would succeed iu carrying a no-con-fidence motion against the Coates Government, as a result of which the Governor-General would send for the leader of the Labour Party and commission him. to formal new Administration. The “Uniteds” pooh pooh the possibility .of such a happening, declaring- m effect that they are strong enough—leaderless and •without a policy as they are, for tlieir leader lias still to be chosen and their policy has to be framed at. a future conference —• to sweep tlie polls at the elections. But we incline to the opinion that Mr Sullivan is wiser and more* far-seeing than they, and the Labour vote has steadily advanced at the last three elections, while the Liberal or Nationalist vote lias just as steadily declined. The “Uniteds” may improve the ‘ latter, but they have very little prospect of reducing the Labour vote, as tliev have practically rejected tlie olive branch held out by Mr Jordan, M.P., who suggested a possible coalition with Labour, by selecting a candidate for Manukau against him.