THE PRIME MINISTER'S BROADCASTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23985, 7 December 1939, Page 7

THE PRIME MINISTER'S BROADCASTS

TO THE EDITOR

Sir, —Mr Savage, in his first Sunday broadcast, probably made the best speech of his career, but in the second he relapsed into his old style of querulous complaint. He appears to harbour a grievance against the farmers because they will not come to heel at the whistle of the Socialist dictator. In one part of his address he put the cart before the horse in a most glaring manner. This was when he stated that the farmers’ prosperity depended on the prosperity and purchasing power of the rest of the community. If this be so—and no doubt many Labourites will take it for gqspel truth when the Prime Minister said so —how is it that while New Zealand is enjoying a state of seeming prosperity. brought about by lavish Government spending and arbitrary wage increases, farmers for the past year or more have been suffering serious financial difficulties?

No doubt Mr Savage would like to stifle all criticism on the pretext of the war. This attitude is decidedly unfair in view of the fact that the Government has used the war as a screen for advancing its policy of State Socialism. The war makes this much difference: the farmers will not resort to direct action to embarrass the Government while it is in progress, but they reserve the right to press their claims for economic justice in a constitutional manner.—l am, etc.. uLuntryman. Middlemarch, December 4.