COMMAND THE SITUATION

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 80, 16 November 1928, Page 5

COMMAND THE SITUATION

LABOUR PARTY CLAIM. STATEMENT BY LEADER. WESTPORT, November 15. Mr H. E, Holland, Leader of the Labour Phirty made the following statement available to the press: "Never in the history of Australasia has there been so crushing a defeat of a Government' as that experienced by the Coates Administration yesterday. I n 192o 3 advertised and extolled in almost every newspaper, Mr Coates went up like a rocket and yesterday he came down like a stone, and even in his own constituency his majority ilia® been 'considerably re* duced. While I aim extremely satisfied at the substantial increase in the Labour representation in the House and by the feet that my own constituency has given m e , the largest straight-out majority in the Dominion T regret very much the de» feat of Messrs Lee and. Bartram, for Au.'-ia'.di Eas + and Grey Lynn respeetivelv. They were valued member's and I have no doiibt whatever, that in *jood fane both, seats will he recovered. • In a number of cases where we failed te win our own organisation iv-d." i"ukiug. We left the selection of some of our .candidates all too late, aii'i. unlike our opponents of both othr>r parties, we wore benvilv bn.nd.ica.)red b<- lack of fniidq. Indeed there n'pie not a few eonstit- ' nencies which we were compelled to leave uncontested bemuse we were unable to nnnrtr» candidatures. Not-* wWistejnd : J''E j+hofcw milst'okes iand difficulties, which K hope will bo avoided and overcome in future contests, we have made a, most si<minpitit, rnrwoji'd m n vo, and 'i"w And our-

rplvas in si nosvM<"i' wliavp wis are ny>,sWß **f tbe icitn'fi+.'ion far flip ti'iM beino-. fo- 1 tbfi mstilt of ye-st«r*lay's •noil Ifinvea matter's where neither of tli-. other two tin.rbVs ran rnrrv **n without -inr consent. t+, goes without Ravinjr that wa will not under anv circumstances vote to bold the present Government in power and in anv ea.se I do not anticipate that Mr Coates fflinrl his MiinSsters wil'/ seek to continue in office after the debacle yesterday. The country is entitled to expect that the Prime Minister will meet Parliament immediately,, or, alternatively that he will Jose no time in tendering the resignation of the Cabinet. it lias been suggested that prior to going out of ouioc tho Government will make a certain number oi appointments to tne Legislative council, it- is hardly necessary to say that in the lace of the. people's verdict such a move would amount to an abuse of] powers held! by the defeated Government and would moreover constitute, a grave political scandal.

Sir Joseph Ward could only hold office at the will of the Labour Party, and since a majority of his followers have made public statements repudiating the idea that they would vote with Labour it does not appear to b 0 likely that they would agree to a Ward Governmient thafc would be! | largely subject to tho Relation of j tho Labour Party. This being so, j laud since, under the circumstances n Labour Government is not a possibility it follows that, failing fusion of tho two janti-Labour parties, there) must bo another appeal !o the electors very shortly. In my opinion there is no material line of demarcation between the policies of the Reform and United Parties, and an auialgjMiiatic.il of those parties is both logical and lfceljy, and more GfiJ>eeially mm\,\ during quite a number of years, they have voted together in the House hi opposition to the Labour Parly. At the same time I would warn Labour organisations thht if fusion of our opponents is not consummated we ; must ho prepared to face another 1 general election at short notice.