OPPOSITION ATTACKED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21007, 19 October 1931, Page 7

OPPOSITION ATTACKED.

MINISTERS AND TARIFFS. MR. SNOWDEN'S ALLEGATIONS DENIAL OF STATEMENTS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyrislit.. (Received October 18, 8.45 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 17. A vigorous attack on the Opposition leaders is made by Mr. Snowden in a letter addressed to the National candidates, wishing them success. Mr. Snowden says the issue is whether the country shall have a strong and stable Government in timo. of national peril, or whether its destinies shall be handed over to men whose conduct in a serious national crisis proved their unfitness to bo trusted with responsibility. "The choico which the Labour Government had to make at tho end of August was whether we would put tho welfare of the country beforo other considerations, and tako necessary and unpleasant measures to protect the financial and oconomic stability of the nation, or whether we would shirk our duty and bow to the dictation of the trades unions caucus. "Some of us, all of whom have a lifetime of service in the Labour movement, decided to put the country before party. Wo also knew that unless we faced the crisis all wo had worked for and won in social amelioration would bo lost and further advance rendered impossible. "Tho crisis has not passed, but most of tho danger was averted by the action which tho National Government has taken." Mr. Snowden declares that the Opposition's election manifesto has no relation to the present national emergency, and adds:—"The same men who have issued tho Laboui Party's appeal against tariffs proposed and voted in tho lato Labour Cabinet for the immediate imposition of tariffs." Mr. Snowden calls for full support of the National Government, "to show the world a united determination to see the country through its present difficulties." Mr. Henderson replied to Mr. Snowden's lelter in a speech at Accrington. " Mr. Snowden knows that his statement that the Labour Ministers voted for immediato tariffs travesties tho facts," ho said. " There never was any question of a majority of the members of the Cabinet approving the principlo of tariffs. It was simply a question of the lesser of two evils. " Mr. Snowden evidently wants to commit bis former colleagues to every tentative suggestion made during long nnd complicated conversation. Why does he not apply the samo standards to Mr. Mac Donald ?"

Mr. William Graham, speaking at Edinburgh, stated that all that the majority of tho members of the Cabinet said was that tbey would rather support a small revenue tariff than a cut in tho dole. They also had insisted that such a choice was utterly unnecessary, and later they abandoned the whole idea of a tariff.

Mr. Henderson's attitude on the tariff question was disclosed by him in a speech at the Trades Union Congress in Bristol on September 9. 110 was relating the course of events leading to the resignation of tho Labour Government, and stating the suggestions which he made to the Cabinet. "1 have another little confession to make," ho continued, according to the Times report. "1 went ou to say that if I am faced—and I claim to be as strong a free trader as any who were there—if I am faced with a large cut in the payments given to tho unemployed or a 20 per cent, revenue tariff as an emergency expedient, the revenue accruing therefrom to be assigned to unemployment purposes, I am going to try the value of that experiment, and I am going to see whether tho minds of tho General Council and my own have not been travelling on somewhat similar lines." In a parenthetical note tho Times says: "An official request has been made to us to intimate Mr. Henderson's wish to correct the figure from 20 per cent, to 10 per cent."