Coquetting With Communists is No Road to Cabinet

NZ Truth, Issue 1031, 29 August 1925, Page 7

Coquetting With Communists is No Road to Cabinet

Official Labor's prospect of reaching 1 the Treasury Benches (writes "Politicuss") has always been discounted by pandering 1 to the evil genius of Communism, and a further set-back is found m such blundering a.s Fraser's "Undesirable Immigrants Exclusion Bill" and Holland's bad break m debatingit.

How can they claim fitness to rul«i while they openly display such a sneaking sympathy with the international gang of 2.W.W. wreckers? In New South Wales Labor Premier Lang has deliberately .dubbed the i.W.W. "a 99 per cent, crimi- j nal organisation." And it is a fact that members- of that organisation, who were formerly prominent members of the extreme Labor movement m Auckland, are still , doing time m Sydney for sabotage, incendiarism, and successfully assisting their ideas of a State note issue by circulating several thousand pounds' worth of forged ones m N.S.W. and N.Z. Yet (adds "Politicuss") Peter Fra.hci\ M.P., wants to throw our doors open wide to all but Germans, Austrians, and Other known criminals, leaving the responsibility on the police of watching the activity of any shining cuckoo who craves to crow j here. And Harry Holland. says, "Hear, hear!" when a lot of shoddy bullswool is ' unrolled, instead of offering us- the all-wool, stuff the people are asking for. H.E.H. and the Fleet. Harry Holland, M.1?., has travelled far since he deserted the red jersey and spiritual gospel of blood and fire for the red flag and the political doctrine of real blood and' fire, a,nd lately he has shown a public dislike for the crimson standard or the bloorl-and-thunder stuff of a red revolution. He attends a. civic reception to the

visiting men-of-warsmen m spite of numerous verbose resolutions from many powerful organisations attached tb his Party calling' on .Labor to refuse to rejoice over or welcome an nrmod armada. At the last Easter Conference he parleyed and argued with the Communist delegates not to

A DIFFERENCE "WHAT is your occupation?" asked the .deposition clerk. "Invalid," was the reply. "That is not an occupation ; that is a misfortune, ' ' observed the S.M.

desert his Party, and assured them there was room for all and any other firebrands with voices — and votes. By continually breathing hot and cold m this queer quandary, Holland is blindly firing away all hope of obtaining- the confidence of the populace, who will never trust a political leader who is- neither fish, flesh, nor rank Red herring. When Sir Christo Parr went fishing-, and asked the Labor Leader would he exclude the Grand Duck Trotsky from New Zealand, Holland had a glorious opening for expounding his professed faith m a ■ constitutional democracy,

! and denouncing the play-boy of the I Russian world and Red Army leader as a, menace to any peaceful and selfgoverning community. Instead of that, Holland stupidly proclaimed that he would allow this Soviet carrion crow to trot right inski and accept a civic reception with a royal salute of nineteen gins. The Labor leader showed an unusual j ignorance of history m telling the Minister for Education that- Trotsky | "was recently expelled from Russia i for expressing himself too freely," 1 when the Army leader had returned to Moscow months .ago after "recuper- i ating," appropriately enough, m the Crimea. Trotsky Still King-Pin.. ■ It may be news to Mr. Holland to learn that Leo Trotsky is still the big noise m the Big Four at the Kremlin, and. m a far more dang-crous job ;is the Communist Commissar for Industries and' Commerce (vide official "Commercial Year-Book of the Soviet Union, 1925," Segal and Santalov). ' What the Labor Party should realise is that there is an election due some time this year, and the people will want to know where they stand. If they are solid . against Communism and a work- j ing class dictatorship, and the "99 per cent, criminal" crowd who advocate it, let them prove their sincerity by a straight-out declaration with no beating about the bush. Flogging a moribund moke like Isitt or braying a lot of bunk about Magna Charta will get them nowhere. But with Liberalism washed out, and Reform almost as rotten as the AuditorGeneral reports it to be, Labor stands; I m sight of the road to victory- — provided that Labor will take the right track and stick to it.