PARTY ALLEGIANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 August 1930, Page 8

PARTY ALLEGIANCE.

Whether due to the pressure of economic conditions or to the three-party state of affairs in Parliament, there arc indications that the one-time blind adherence to party views and policy is becoming weakened. The Reform candidate for the Invercargill seat has stated as prominent factors in the programme lie is prepared to follow two items at least which are exceedingly difficult to reconcile with the views of the leader of the Reform Party. Possibly a little latitude may be conceded during an election contest, but what will be said to Mr. W. L. Martin, the Labour member for Raglan, by the pundits of the Socialist movement remains to be seen. Mr. Martin had the temerity to suggest that with circumstances as they are to-day in New Zealand it was time the three political parties got together and chose a co-operative Ministry, which would include the best executive ability in each party. This is a direct challenge t< the position adopted by the Labour Parliamentary parties in Great Britain, Australia and this country. Though, as with tiie Forbes Ministry, Labour •may support the party it considers the least objectionable, anything like an alliance with other political parties has always been held to’ be contrary to Labour’s political principles. This assertion of independence has been a source of strength as well as a handicap to the Labour movement, but the fact that it has been persisted in for a quarter of a century would seem to indicate that on the whole the advantages outweigh the disabilities. It will be interesting therefore to see whether there is any outcome of Mr. Martin’s suggestion other than a reprimand- from the party to one of its members who has dared to think for himself and to give plain utterance to the conclusions he has arrived, at. There is little likelihood of anything else, judging from the history of the Labour political movement. When Australia was fighting with

the rest of the Empire ’for very existence the appeal to the Laboux’ Party to think nationally was made in vain, and its rupture and fall from power for many years is now a part of Commonwealth history. The country will agree with Mr. Martin that it is a time when party advantages must be lost sight of in an endeavour to get New Zealand back to comfort, if not to prosperity. That, however, will matter little to the “High Command” of the Labour political movement, and the odds are that its . unruly members will find this out with remarkable promptitude.