THE RECESSION OF LABOUR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23517, 4 June 1938, Page 27

THE RECESSION OF LABOUR

* TO THE EDITOR

Sir, —It is common knowledge that all members of so-called primitive races have to a marked extent the ability to assess the quality and social standing of individuals of other races with whom they come into contact. All British representatives in the Indian civil service and merchant houses are carefully chosen. The necessary qualifications an appointee must possess are those that will appeal to and impress the natives. Due to the high standard of representation, England has been able to maintain for several centuries her control and hold the loyalty of the heterogeneous races composing the Indian Empire. This reference to the British representation in India may appear somewhat irrelevant in considering a matter affecting New Zealand domestic affairs. The inference that is suggested, however, is that the catholicity displayed in the choice of the representatives whose administration we now enjoy would have been more acceptable had we adopted the native discrimination and demands in respect to the personnel of the Government.

It would not be correct to represent the majority of Labour supporters as bereft of the faculty of discrimination in respect to the attributes of their leaders, and possibly 75 per cent, would prefer representation on a higher plane than the present. The question, however, of class distinction enters largely and narrows the field of choice, and therefore they must make the best of what offers from the locale from which they are constrained to draw. The heads of business houses, leaders of expeditions, army officers and so on are always in close personal contact with their staffs and subordinates, and their qualifications are quickly assessed. The aspirant for political honours is more fortunate. His constituents can only judge him in a remote or abstract sense. This presents to party politicians a welcome opportunity to create an ideology concerning themselves and objectives, and in so doing endow themselves with a certain amount of mysticism and power which serves to carry them along as individuals on a higher mental plane than their audiences.

Labour organisations have made a comprehensive study of this phase of psychology and have not been slow to utilise it. Practically all Labour members Invoke the use of “ sob stuff” as a prelude to focus the attention of their audiences. Having got them well in tune, they switch on a _ damaging record concerning the Iniquitous Opposition. As the dope begins to work, round the head of the speaker appears a halo, and the illusion is complete. M Sob stuff ” has been somewhat overdone during the last two years and a-half, and Labour supporters are now regarding this mise en scene with critical and somewhat hostile attitude. The bluff has been called, and the mountebanks must find some fresh pabulum to put across, or else retire. The public is beginning to find that its gods have but feet of clay. Once this notion gathers impetus, it will be difficult for the party to stage a “ come back.” The personnel of the Labour administrators is now being shown in its true perspective. Some of these administrators, by their bullying and bellicose attitude in the face of adverse criticism, have already betrayed their quality. The effect anticipated from, their vituperative outbursts will undoubtedly be in the reverse direction from that which is desired. These efforts do not appeal to the general run of the public. As a matter of fact, they are nauseating, and such members of the Government as are prone to this form of selfadvertisement would be well advised to seek the counsel of their supporters before so doing. In any case they have done more damage to themselves and their party than any denunciation by the Opposition could cause. In effect, they stand self-condemned, and the Labour Party should blush for them. Communities, whether savage or otherwise, dislike inferior idols.—l am, etc., G. T. C*