Labor and Liquor

NZ Truth, 5 October 1918, Page 1

Labor and Liquor

A Lash at the Leaders,

H. J. Sheppard (a hard worker, m the Labor movement 'for ' sixteen years), of-. Mount Eden, Auckland, expresses himself as follows: ■ Dear "Truth,"— At the ; last Labor Congress' held at Wellington, it was resolved that Labor support- a three issue Referendum on the Liqupr Question, viz., Natipnal Continuance, National Prohibition and State Control. This was the opinion of organised Labor throughout the Dominion, as expressed through the delegates who attended , the Congress. But ' notwithstanding the above facts, there Is today m circulation, a petition asking for a Referendum on the Liquor Question, which contains a fourth issue; and is being put forward m the name of Labpr. As far as I can ascertain, Labor organisations, with the exception of the "Labor Representation Committee," have not been consulted m the matter, and it necessarily follows that in-so-far as. the L.R.C. has lent its ■ support to the' petition it is the support, of com-mittee-men only, and does not involve the organisations which they are supposed to represent. In short, these individuals who claim to be Democrats, arrogate to .themselves the^right to repudiate the genuine opinion of Labor as expressed at the Congress, and to. substitute their own. A better illus^ tration of minority rule is inconceivable. It appears to me, that the promoters of this petition are not true ; friends of Labor inasmuch as they are using the party to further their own interests .without any regard to splitting the forces of Labor on a question which should be of subsidary importance to other and more vital issues now affecting the Labor Party.