BOLD LEAD WANTED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20296, 4 May 1934, Page 4

BOLD LEAD WANTED.

Legion Will Make Bid for Power. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. (Special to the “ Star.”) WELLINGTON, May 4. “The country is rotten ripe for a group which will lead boldly to political and economic reconstruction with full knowledge of the world trends to which we must conform in these days of rhpid change. New Zealand has to throw off the shibboleths of insularism and progress-killing conservatism as well as the fear of sectional interests which have been the curse of our political life.” These were the words of the president of the New Zealand Legion (Dr Bcgg) when he addressed members of the Hutt division last evening. Dr Begg indicated that the legion intended to make a bid for power at the next general election. He said that there was no intention of opposing certain valued members of the three present parties but others would be nominated in such a way as to secure a majority in the House determined to carry out essential political and administrative reconstruction.

Dr Campbell Begg also referred to -the complete revolution in Great Britain which had replaced the policy of laissez-faire by economic planning. He said that the policy to increase the local production of foodstuffs in Eng land was based on the necessity of national security, and would not be abandoned. No Laissez-faire. New Zealand had now to face the fact that it had no machinery of government capable of carrying out any continuous policy, he added. The Legion's proposals for an economic council built up from the organised economic life of the community itself, and the co-ordination of local body activities by shires, were the only consti active programme that had been brought forward. The details were difficult, but by no means insoluble, and the evils of party government could be controlled in no other way. The urgent need at the present time was a unity government which must include the Labour side of the House, with the clear intention to take a bold line of detion. Dr Begg said that it was apparently the intention of the Labour Party that, if in power, the party should handle such matters as the national control of currency and trade with no other machinery than that of the Government caucus as at present. The present Government and the parties composing it adopted a similar attitude. Participation in Election. The Legion’s duty was clear enough. There were individual men in the Labour Party, as Independents and in the other parties, who were of great value to the country through their presence in the House. It was, however, the plain duty of the Legion to secure a majority in Parliament who would abandon the hopeless attitude of lais-sez-faire to outworn political institutions, and so readjust the machinery as to meet the new and much more exacting demands of government, while preserving intact the substance of democracy. The Legion’s plans not only provided high ideals in national life, but practical proposals for their fulfilment. Organising and educational activities had been its role up till now. In the future it must have action for its watchword. Unity in national spirit and unity in government was the aim, and he believed that the whole country would respond and get behind it in its effort.