NATIONAL LEADER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23859, 13 July 1939, Page 12

NATIONAL LEADER

CONFIDENCE OF PARTY CORDIAL TRIBUTES PAID REPLY TO LABOUR ATTACKS (Per United Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 12. Unstinting tributes to Mr Adam Hamilton as leader of the National Party were paid during the annual conference of the party which opened in Wellington to-day. Representative speakers from the parliamentary section and speakers representing the various divisions m the party organisation pai’ticipated. A motion confirming loyalty to Mr Hamilton and confidence in him as leader was carried unanimously.

The president of the party (Mr C. H. Weston), in an address remarked on the concentration of the Labour Party’s attack on Mr Hamilton as a personality. Not only had a form of whispering propaganda been started against him, but by every form of underground method as well as by direct attack led by responsible Ministers of the Crown an effort was being made to suggest that Mr Hamilton was an unsuitable leader. “A Real Leader” “We stand under Mr Hamilton,” Mr Weston said, “ and we are satisfied with him. He has the greatest attributes of a real leader, and the time has come when a general realisation of this will cause the mass of the public to turn to him to lead us to recovery.” Returning thanks for the reception, Mr Hamilton said that he considered that the party had every reason to be proud of its efforts. Its parliamentary reinforcements were already acquitting themselves magnificently. “ Before long the Labour Party will know what a really strong Opposition they have struck,” he said. “My men will put up a great fight for the 400,000 people by whom they are supported. I thank my colleagues and the delegates for the very fine expression of loyalty to me. I never doubted it. These are ■critical days. The Government is in extreme difficulties, internally and externally, and its ranks are badly shattered. It is a party that has succeeded by fostering trouble and capitalising grievances. By setting the employee against the employer and the poor against the rich, and so on, the internal machine had been set in motion, and it cannot now stop. And all this is not taking into account the material embarrassments to the country at home and abroad. Seriousness of Task “ It is a sad but, perhaps, a snarp lesson that the National Party,” Mr Hamilton added, “ has to maintain its four-square attitude and advocacy for the restoration of sound government for all sections. You are a force in the political world in this time of trouble greater than any other political agency for good. Politics have to be taken seriously to-day and it is a deadly serious game we are playing. I am proud to be your leader ahd I will not be buffeted about in pursuing the case on your behalf for the fundamental democratic ideals upon which our whole policy is based.”