RIFT IN LABOUR PARTY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18497, 19 February 1930, Page 9

RIFT IN LABOUR PARTY.

Mr Macdonald’s Firm Stand LEAVES INDEPENDENT LABOUR GROUP. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 17. Mr Macdonald had discontinued his membership of the Independent Labour Party. The newspapers ascribe his action to the attacks made on the Government by the Left wing of the Labour Party, led by prominent members of the Independent Labour Party. Mr Macdonald says the Independent Labour Party has lost both its grip of Socialism and the sense of comradeship. It was impossible for him to keep up the Association.

TROUBLE IN AUSTRALIA. FEDERAL TREASURER DENOUNCED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) SYDNEY, February 18. A movement is reported to have begun in the Labour Party to secure the expulsion of Mr E. G. Theodore. A special meeting of its executive will consider the Treasurer’s statement about refusing to accept dictation from outside bodies. (Mr E. G. Theodore (Federal Treasurer), in reply on behalf of the Federal Government to the Labour Conference criticism and direction, said the Government will submit to no outside dictation, but will act upon its own judgment and responsibility. “The Government,” he says, “has no power arbitrally to take over the mines, nor have we any warrant for sending Commonwealth troops to the coalfields. We have already done everything which our extremely limited powers will permit us, to bring about a settlement in the coal dispute. We are.still in close contact with the unions concerned, in hope of finding a solution.)