BREAKDOWN OF FUSION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16786, 20 July 1925, Page 12

BREAKDOWN OF FUSION.

WELLINGTON PRESS OPINION. Commenting on the breakdown of tho fusion negotiations the New Zealand Times criticises Mr Wilford for demanding Cabinet reconstruction. It says : “There could be but one motive behind this insistence on a reconstructed or ’new’ Government and it requires to be put in plain terms. The Liberals were willing to amalgamate with the Reformers at a price ; that price was representation in the Cabinet. If that rs so, what becomes of Mr Wllford’s appeal to cease ‘vain quarrelling over petty things’ in the interests of the Empire? Mr Wilford' was either sincere or insincere in his original pronouncement. If sincere one course and .only only remained to liim—to throw his and his party’s weight behind the Prime Miuistei;. Instead, liis first line careless patriotic rapture passed, he descended to demanding a price for his assistance to save New Zealand from tho Socialists. It was had. tactics on lii.s part. Mr Coates has not ‘banged, bolted, and locked the door’ on the creation of a national party. It remains open (as lie says) to those Liberals who can take the broad community view. We wonder how many of them will rise to that standard.

The Evening Post blames the Reform Party, for keeping a mental reservation. It says: “Tho negotiations have failed because though the Reformers entered upon them with the apparent purpose of immediate business their intentions were subject to tho mental reservation that fusion could- not possibly operate until after the general election, or at any rale, until after the end of the session. It was surely a most unbusiness like and most unfortunate proceeding that apparently unrestricted negotiations should have been opened with an undisclosed and unsuspected' condition in the mind of one party which was bound to be regarded as fatal as soon as the other party knew about it. The quite unnecessary misunderstanding, the baffled hopes and the wasted efforts, are likely to make the posit ion Worse than if nothing at all had been attempted. Tho advocates of fusion on either side will have a much stronger opposition to encounter when they next try to bring the parties together.”'