NO ATTACK MADE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 579, 8 October 1932, Page 9

NO ATTACK MADE.

Labour Leader and the Governor-General. REPLY TO FARMERS. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, October 8. Seen this morning in regard to a resolution carried by the executive of the Southern Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Union as reported yesterday, Mr Holland, Leader of the Opposition, said, that it was clear to him that whoever was responsible for the drafting of the resolution had not read the full text of his recent protest against the GovernorGeneral’s comments on the decisions of the Ottawa Conference. “ I made no attack whatever on his Excellency nor did I discuss cither the merits or demerits of the case stated by him. My protest was based on the sound constitutional principle that the King’s representative is not entitled to figure as a partisan in any political controversy. That is the position as it is understood by all the political leaders in this country, irrespective of party, and it is undoubtedly the viewpoint of the people as a whole. I venture to say that no body of responsible public men in any part of New Zealand would be prepared to demand that the Governor-General should be given the right to figure as an active supporter of any phase of party programmes of either Government or Opposition, and it is significant that no newspaper of any standing—no newspaper at all so far as I am aware—dissented from my protest at the time it was made. "It is extremely unfortunate that in the blundering resolution carried by the Southern Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Union Executive, which I am confident the farmers of New Zealand would not endorse, his Excellency’s name is used for a distinctly party purpose and inferentially he is presented as an opponent of the safeguarded secondary industries of the Dominion.”