LABOUR AT LOGGERHEADS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18967, 19 March 1924, Page 4

LABOUR AT LOGGERHEADS

There is evidently considerable domestic trouble in the Labour camp in. New South Wales. Indeed papers just to hand describe that particular camp as having been for so long the scene of internecine strife that the industrial movement is in danger of dissolving into a mere conglomeration of wrangling factions, of which the politicals, under Mr. Long, the moderates, led by Mr. Willis, and the Communists, who bow to Mr. Garden, will be the most important and aggressive. Already each of these groups professes to be the sole champion of “the workers,” and each has wasted much time and energy in condemning the others in most opprobrious terms. Scandal after scandal, expulsion after expulsion, and general disruption have combined to lose the movement in New South Wales its hard-won prestige, to discredit it in the eyes of a big section of the public. Well might Mr. Garden, whois admittedly extremist, and, consequently, a man with a strictly limited following, tell Mr. Lang.that “unity is what the workers want, and will have,” but his critics are warning him that so long as he continues to fight the political and moderate factions, Labour will never be able to close its ranks and retrieve its lost standards. With the prospect of a general election in a year, and an "improved understanding between the Nationalist and Country Parties, the forthcoming Australian Labour conference will probably cry, “A plague on both your houses,” and demand a number of the illustrious heads which are now so busily planning the execution of others. Meanwhile, the anti-Socialist political forces are said ito be viewing the future with growing confidence, and to be in the happy position of being able to leave all criticism of Labour to Labour’s friends and supporters. The leaders of the party in New Zealand have quite a lot -to say about the “triumph” (on a minority vote) of the British Labour Party; but they are discreetly silent anent these sorry dissensions nearer home.