LABOUR PARTY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 94, 19 March 1940, Page 6

LABOUR PARTY

EASTER CONFERENCE. THE CHIEF INTEREST. (By Telegraph.-—Special to Standard.) AVELLINGTON, March 19. The annual couiorence of Labour Party delegates is always of interest because ol its dominating effect on future policy, hilt this year s meeting, opening oil Monday in the pleasant surroundings of the Centennial Exhibition, loses some of its prospective importance by the recent decision ol the national executive of the party and the New Zealand Federation ol Labour, which was so emphatically in favour ol maintaining voluntary enlistment for the Expeditionary i'orcc. This decision has to be submitted to the conference for endorsement, but the preliminary move practically disposes of it, and all parties arc united in trying out the principle with the utmost vigour. The point of most concern to tlio hundreds of Labour delegates is whether they will have the privilege of seeing their leader, tho Prime Alinister, at the conference. ITc has not attended a caucus meeting of the Parliamentary group since early in November, and for the last few months has found it necessary to conserve his energy by remaining in the comfort and comparative seclusion of his homo at Northland, one of the city’s hillside suburbs. AYbethor Air Savage si ill be able to attend is not vet known, and there is reticence in official circles regarding his apparently slow recovery from the operation of August 5 last. CABINET CONSTITUTION. The disciplining of Air J. A- Lee, which has been carried a step further since the 1939 conference by his compulsory resignation from the position of Parliamentary Under-Secretary, is not finally disposed of, but is likely to be revived at the conference, where Air Lee has lull delegate powers. Sympathy for the Prime Minister in his disappointingly slow recovery must have a power nil influence on delegates in considering the measures taken against the member for Grey Lynn, but he may get strong support in ms demand for more democracy within the party in the hope of securing a revision of the Cabinet. ’J he present House contains no fewer than 28 returned soldiers, and the Labour Party has its substantial quota, thougn none are ill the Cabinet. Present conditions give point to the call for reinforcement of Cabinet, and there have been suggestions in the country, quite outside party spheres, that it might be oracticable to lorm a coalition with the National Party. This does not appear to have been seriously considered by the Government, and certainly no stops, even of an indirect or tentative nature, have been taken towards this end. That some assistance to overworked Alinisters was desirable appeared to he recognised by the Prime Alinister several months ago, when in November he submitted to the Parliamentary Caucus a proposal lor the appointment of four Under-Secretaries. The names mentioned were Alessrs J. O’Brien, Chief Government Whip (AA r estland), J. G. Barclay (Marsden), B. Roberts (Wairarana) and J. Thorne (Thames). It is said that ihe proposal was so unfavourably received by the party that it was abandoned, and no alternative such as the appointment of additional Alinisters was brought forward.

Consequently, the position has remained unchanged for five months, and it. remains to be seen whether the Easter conference will have some influence on the constitution of Cabinet in the wav of advice tendered to the Prime Alinister, who stands by his traditional right of being “sole selector” of his Ministerial team.