POLITICAL SITUATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19498, 5 June 1925, Page 10

POLITICAL SITUATION.

QUESTION OF FUSION. .MR WILFORD’S OVERTURES. ATTITUDE OF THE LIBERALS. £i ATIONAL CO-OPERATION ESSENTIAL. (Pee United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 4. To-day the following letter was sent by Air Wilford (Leader of the Liberal-Labour Party) to the Prime Minister (Mr Coates) : ,j “Wc have apparently reached an impasse in 'our public statement. Ypu have stated as Prime Alinister that you wished to bury the political hatchet and bring about a friendly merger of the two parties, and have asked for proposals from tho Liberal-Labour Party, winch is certainly the junior party in point of numbers. We, in turn, ask you as the senior party in point of numbers and position to submit your proposals. Nothing Has been done, and with_ a view to clarifying the position, and, if possible, bringing matters to a head, I write you this letter. First of all, let mo make clear ■that we believe that party as a party is dust when matters involving the maintenance of the Empire are concerned, and wo believe that the British Empire to-day seriously needs all assistance possible, and I myself feel that, with lessoning production at Home, and competition by co-opera-tion on the Continent, wo should try with all our might and main to make this little dominion pull its full weight in the next few years. I need not stress the position in India, Canada. South Africa, and Australia to-day. It is well knovyn by us. Let me put on one side any vain quarrellings over petty things, for I am firmly of opinion that the pinch of compulsion will Very shortly bring the necessity for cooperation home to every one of us. Nothing but a national effort, with the assistance of the workers of the country, can create national strength, and all must agree that industrial war is worse than defeat for each belligerent. I feel we must all, as New Zealanders, quicken our endeavours, reorganise many of our methods, and make use of every latent resource we possess. Is this possible? “ First of all, let me say that the idea b£ getting together for the solo purpose of fighting labour is simply suicide for both parties, and I cannot believe that such is yoqr idea. It certainly is not mine. The party I lead depends on the workers [Very largely, and they have never failed .vs; and any getting together in my mind must admit the necessity for killing class consciousness, and producing a policy fair to i all —that is, a policy for the whole .people, not for some of the people. Can we do this? Is it a job beyond us? I think not. No party these days can help New Zealand, in my opinion, which cjpes iktt have an up-txxlate and progressive policy. When I say up-to-date I mean up to the requirements of the circumstances of the present day. I have long opposed your party, and no man in Parliament has had a longer continuous service than I have; so perhaps my statement may have some weight when I say that I believe that under the present policy and political position of the parties in Parliament necessary legislation often cannot find its way on to tho Statute Book. This malms football of the, country, and the game is often played off-side, and the goal sometimes forgotten. I cannot, of course, set out in this letter a concrete tally of definite proposals, £pr. that means, amongst other things, drafting a national policy acceptable to both parties; but I can make a suggestion. It has been reported in the press, though at present unconfirmed by you, that your caucus passed a resolution authorising you to appoint a committee to confer with a committee on our side to see if .it is possible to make one party of our two parties;. Let mo say, whether the press report be true or untrue, that we are prepared to sec up a committee of six to meet a committee of the same nun/ber from your party, to see if a practicable modus operand! can be attained. , , , “Let mo say to you and your party and the electors of New Zealand that I neither desire nor would accept office if. a new party eventuated. I hope that this statement will prove to the peolo of New Zealand that I am not blocking the way to a conference. This attitude of mine, though made public for the first time, is kiioiin to my party; and I think, having made the statement, I could bo a useful member of the committee. Aly sole object in writing this letter is to ascertain whether there is any way of arriving at a method by which a combined effort may bo made to meet the many serious problems, economic and social, which will surely rise (if I can read the signs correctly) in a very short time. I am satisfied that we must have recovery for reconstruction. “In conclusion, let me say that it, after B . conference, no policy can be agreed on, and no amalgamation can take place, each party will have the satisfaction of Knowing that in the interests of the dominion an effort has been made.” DISCUSSION AMONG LIBERALS. THE ROSKILL ELECTORATE. NO CONFIDENCE IN LEADER. IPeb United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, June 3. a meeting in the Koslull. electorate, addressed by Mr A. Hall Skelton, who stood as the Liberal-Labour candidate at ihe last election, the lollowing resolution was carried: Whereas Air Wilford, Leader of the Liberal-Labour Federation, has in the ' House voted against the foundation principles of true Liberalism as laid down bv Sir George Grey, Air John Ballance, Air R . J. Seddon, and Sir Joseph Ward, and has failed after six years of leadership to establish an adequate conatitutiou for the government of the party, and has provided no policy along Liberal lines to overcome the difficulties now confronting the dominion, this meeting of electors resolves that Air Wilford has no ’longer ‘ tho confidence of the Liberal electors m Roskill electorate, who pledge themselves to support the progressive Liberal Party now being formed in Auckland city and province, and that our formal resignation jrom the Liberal-Labour Federation be sent to the chief Liberal-Labour organiser, Wellington. “BETRAYAL OF LIBERALISM.’’ ME A. HALL SKELTON’S ATTACK. (Fbom Oc® Own Cohbespondent.) AUCKLAND, Juno 4. Aucklanders laughed this morning, the cause of their merriment being the following report, which appeared in the Herald: — After being, addressed for two hours by Air A. Hall Skelton on “Tho Great Betrayal of Liberalism,” a meeting of Roskill Liberal electors and others last evening passed a vote of no confidence in the iveoder of the Opposition, Mr T. M. Wilford, and pledged itself to support a movement to form a “Progressive Liberal Party” in Auckland. About EC persons were present at the meeting. Mr A. E. Eaglet-on (chairman of the Roskill executive of tho Liberal-Labour Federation) presided. Mr Hall Skelton’s speech was mainly an attack on Air Wilford, who, he alleged, had repeatedly betrayed the Liberal principles in recent years by voting for reactionary class legislation, and had left the Labour Party to uphold those principles. Mr Eagleton, in opening the meeting, said its purpose -was to show the electors what scant courtesy the Roskill Liberals had received from the Liberal-Labour Ffederation in Auckland and also in Wellington. The Auckland Executive had failed to give satisfactory answers to letters, and had promised personal interviews Which never eventuated. At last his executive had become so sick of the way in which things were being mismanaged that it had decided to cut adrift Later a motion would be put to the meeting to tho effect that the Roskill organisation should secede. It was hoped in the course of a week to form a strong Liberal Party in Auckland to take over the Liberal cause. -“The ; so-called Liberal-Labour Party has proved a complete fiasco,” declared MiHall Skelton at the beginning of his speech. “For six years it has been under the leadership of Air Wilford, and it has been grossly neglected by .atm. He has

proved a colossal failure ns leader, and he Ought fn resign. I intend to show that Mr Wilford at every opportunity has voted against the foundation principles laid down by Grey, Ballance, Seddon, and Ward. No one has done more to support the squatter Government than Mr Wilford, and it is time this man was exposed.” After describing the state of the country in very doleful terms, Mr Hall Skelton denounced the Keform Party as a “Squatter Conservative Party,” and accused it of patronage and wholesale statutory frauds by which, he said, its friends had become wealthy. Against this Mr Wilford had made no protest, but had voted for the Government's most auti-Liberal proposals and against good legislation proposed by the Labour Party. He had shown no idea of Liberalism and no capacity for leadership. Speaking of the Liberal organisation, he said that "he and others had tried for six rears to get inside the little executive in Auckland—“Mr Wilford’s mosquito fleet'’ The latest Liberal manifesto showed that Mr Wilford did not, know how to organise a cat fight. The people who posed as Liberal representatives in the Auckland province had not been elected by the party’s supporters, and knew nothing about Liberalism. In the course of a long denunciation or the Keform Party the speaker declared that the dominion was in a bad and that the first remedy was a tax of 3d in the pound on the unimproved value of land. Ho gave a list of measures upon which he claimed that Mr Wilford had voted wrongly. These included laud tax remissions, the alienation of national endowment lands, a reduction of railwaymen's and public servants’ wages, and the compulsory control of dairy produce exxmrts. “The flag of Liberalism is not dead in this country,” he declared. ~ “We shall give out a message from a hundred platforms in the next few months, and this man-will be exposed root and branch.” In reply to a questioner who asked what he had against the Labour Party, Mr Hall Skelton said he had absolutely nothing err cept its treatment of the land laws. There was no difference between Labour's aspirations and those of true Liberals. The motion of secession from the Liberal Party was then carried. MR WILFORD’S EXPLANATION. INCIDENT NOT UNEXPECTED. IP** United Press Association.! WELLINGTON. June 4. The resolution of the Roskill electorate was not unexpected, says Air Wilford. for a, member of our executive was informed that we were to be “dealt with” because our Auckland Provincial Council would not recommend Mr Hail Skelton to us as the Liberal-Labour candidate for Roskill. I have a petition, which 1 have shown to the editor of the Evening Post, dated May 20, 1925, signed by 24 electors of Roskill (including the secretary of the organisation in Rogkiil), asking the executive to confer the official imprimatur of the party on the candidature of Air Alfred Hall Skelton in Roskill electorate. The Auckland Provincial Council under our constitution must recommend the candidates in Auckland province for our approval. They considered the request, and failed to recommend that gentleman to us for that electorate, and now the electors who petitioned us to have Mr Hall Skelton as our candidate —presumably because they had confidence in our party—pass a furious resolution damning the very organisation they wanted to serve under less than three weeks ago. SHOCK TO THE DIEHARDS. THE LIBERAL BREAKAWAY. (Fbosi Odob Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Juno 4. Matters concerning the Government of the country are going on very much as they were before Mr Massey’s death, and generally the political situation has quietened and is not eo much talked about. The Liberal breakaway at Roskill (Auckland) came as a shock to such Liberal diehards as remain- in Wellington. Shrewd students of New Zealand politics regard the breakaway as o,u indication of the end of the Liberal Party as the official Opposition in Parliament, and go so fax as to say that after the next general election. Air Coates may be in such a strong position that fusion with the Liberals may not be necessary. In this connection, however, Mr Wilford s most recent statement on the fusion question is interesting,, especially that part of it which states that he himself does no. desire office, nor would accept it if the new party eventuated. It is suggested that possibly Air Wilford would be content with the Speakership or an official position in England or America. Anyhow, his decision may mako a solution on tho problem easier than was generally anticipated.