MR LANG REPLIES TO TALK OF REBELLION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 43, 20 February 1931, Page 1

MR LANG REPLIES TO TALK OF REBELLION.

NATIONALIST THREAT OF CIVIL WAR ANSWERED, SYDNEY, February 19. In the Legislative Assembly to-day a Nationalist member, Major Jarvie, directed the attention of the Premier to an editorial in the “ Sydney Morning Herald ” which stated: “If Mr Lang persists in his .mad course of repudiation secession with the possibility of civil war may result.” Major Jarvie asked whether the Premier would take steps to purge the good name of New South Wales. Mr Kelly, a Labour member, on the same matter, asked whether the Premier would consider the desirability of suppressing newspapers which maligned the Government and members of the House. Replying, Mr Lang said that the leading articles in the journal owned by a millionaire named Fairfax did not disturb him in the slightest. He added: “ This State is in a parlous condition because of Nationalist rule. The railways do not pay, partly because of concessions to newspapers which continue to disparage and defame the Government and the country. We shall in due course take steps to deal with them.” Replying to another question by a Labour member, Mr Stuart Robertson, who said that another part of the “ Herald’s ” editorial referred to a possible financial revolution and to the fact that farmers in the north were organising with a possible call to arms, Mr Lang said: “ Should the 4 Herald ’ or any other newspaper succeed in causing a rebellion, members can accept my assurance that we are in a position to manage and suppress it. Such propaganda is bound to recoil on the heads of its authors.” (Opposition laughter.)