A THOUGHT FOR THE FATE OF THE LIBERALS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19435, 22 October 1925, Page 11

A THOUGHT FOR THE FATE OF THE LIBERALS

(To the Editor). Sir, —As one who has tried earnestly to follow the policies of the different parties with a view to casting my vote ! intelligently, not for a personal friend I (that aspect should not come into elections at all), but in the best interests I of my city, my country and my dear old Homeland, I would like to ask the local diehards of the late Liberal Party, through you, where Wanganui is going to be, supposing, for argument’s sake, that very improbable happening of Mr Veitch having a majority should come to pass, and that their old friend and leader Sir Joseph Ward should also I get in? Mr Veitch was returned to Parliament “to put Sir Joseph Ward out.” Nothing that that staunch Liberal (who refuses even now to change his name to Nationalist) and able Minister of Finance could do was right in Mr Veitch’s eyes, just as in the following years everything that that true patriot, the late Mr Massey, did met with his opprobruim. If Sir Joseph Ward is returned, he will find no difficulty, as one can sec from reading his Invercargill speech, in strengthening Reform, and there is no question to which of the two sides he would gravitate, as also several of the best of the other Liberals will. But, what of Mr Veitch? He cannot stultify his conscience by gravitating 1o the same side, so in that very improbable event of his being returned, he must either form a party by himself, and sit alone on his rail, and be useless to Wanganui as a member, or go over to his first love, Labour, and, I think, one can take it for granted, that Wanganui has too many sane people to want to be a party to the Labour policy and its platform of “To hell with agreements” and all that sort of tommyrot, which no true Britisher would stand for. Will my late colleagues and diehards, then, come to the same conclusion as I have, and sec there is only one thing for them to do and that is to vote Coates and Coull? —I am, etc., CORNWALL.