THE PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25213, 30 April 1943, Page 2

THE PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT

STANDING CHALLENGED MR HOLLAND’S CRITICISM ( p a ) TIMARU, Apl. 29. •• The People’s Movement, which is again having much to say in condemnation of the holding of a general election this year, claims that it speaks for every electorate, yet it would be interesting if its spokesman would give the names of, say half a dozen well-known citizens in any six adjoining electorates who are supporters of the movement, said the Leader of the National Party, Mr S. G. Holland, in a statement to-day. Mr Holland said that the publicity given to the demands of the so-called Peoples Movement required a reply. In ordinary circumstances one should probably not pay much attention to this organisation, which consisted of one or two persons who, so far, had been unable to name even six prominent persons associated with it. "Less than a year ago Parliament decided to extend its life, and immediately there were protests from all over New Zealand; protests that no self-respecting persons could possibly ignore,” said Mr Holland. “It was the sheer weight of public opinion that brought about a general election this year, and the decision to hold an election has been received by the people generally as inevitable. There are still some people who adhere to the view that an election should not be held in war-time. The public should be reminded that during the time the selfstyled People’s Movement has been declaiming against the holding of an election its organiser has been busy touring New Zealand on a fruitless search for candidates. Now that he cannot produce candidates, the movement urges that a general election should be deferred until it i& better prepared and better received by the public.” When one remembered the sad experience in 1935 of the Democratic Party, which the present organiser for the People’s Movement was responsible for organising, and several other mushroom parties, the absence of any leader or any defined policy in the movement was not to be wondered at, Mr Holland said. Who constituted the People’s Movement? Who was its organiser? was its travelling agent? The organisation was shrouded in mystery, and it sniped at all and sundry from behind cover. Hut when the shrould fell the people would find that some old political characters who had been forming political parties in the Dominion for the last 20 years had turned up again with a new name only.