The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1919. THE LIBERALS AND THE REDS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXIV, Issue 17734, 6 December 1919, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1919. THE LIBERALS AND THE REDS.

Sir Joseph Ward and his supporters are busying themselves explaining that the Liberals do not intend —-if the opportunity arises—to carry on with the support of the Red Fed group. The local champion of Wardism is particularly anxious that the electors of Wanganui should not realise the menace of such an alliance; but against the recorded facts which we have presented in proof of the danger, it has offered nothing but a bai-e and angry denial. But an unsubstantial denial, however emphatic, does not serve to weaken the nation-wide recognition of the facts and their significance. The warning is articulate from the farthest north to the farthest south. Here, for example, is a southern view, accepting it as quite certain

that the Liberals' assertions will Convince nobody:—-They must feel themselves how extremely weak , and pointless are their attempts to hide the facts of the case. Sir Joseph himself, in his speech on Monday night, could offer no better guarantee of his independence, present or future, of the Labour group, than the following statment: "As a matter of fact, I have been responsible for a Liberal being put up against Mr. Holland and Mr. Fraser. They are against me, and I am against them." Sir Joseph naturally desires to win as many seats as he can, just as the Red Feds do, but this does not affect the question of their ultimate cooperation in the very least. It did not do so after the elections of 1911 and 1914, or the by-election for Grey, when, after seeing its own man defeated in the first ballot, the Liberal Party embraced Mr. P. C. Webb and celebrated his triumph. Its 'moi-ning contemporary is hardly happier than "New Zealand's foremost statesman." "The Leader of the Liberal Party will have nothing to do with them," it says, referring to the Labour members. "The proof is-, clear enough in the fact that Sir Joseph Ward is putting up Liberal candidates against these dangerous' agitators." But as we have said, Sir Joseph Ward has put up candidates ' against the Labour nominees before, and has nevertheless worked in conjunction with Labour representatives. The facts of the connection between the two parties are perfectly well known, but we may recall the position in 1914. . Mr. Massey, Sir Joseph Ward, and two representatives of the Labour Party were entrusted with the task of alloting to individual candidates the votes given for their respective parties by members of the Expeditionary Force. The Labour trustees gave their endorsement to the Liberal candidatein each of 66 constituencies; Sir Joseph Ward gave his endorsement, in seven districts in which he had not a candidate of his own, to the nominees of the Red Fed organisation, selected from the list of approved candidates printed by the Reds' organ the "Worker."