POLITICAL “RATS”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 42, 20 February 1943, Page 4

POLITICAL “RATS”

MR. BARNARD’S RETORT TO HON. J. G. BARCLAY (P.A.) Napier, Feb. 19. In connection with the statement by the Hon. J. G. Barclay at Hikurangi in which he is reported as having said: “I have no time for ‘rats’ who went outside the party. I do not believe in the old monetary system but rather in the middle course which the Government is now trying to steer in war finance, stabilisation, and social security,” the Hon. W. E. Barnard, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has made the following remarks: “If the Minister feels that his job and seat are in danger he ought not to get excited about it, especially when there is a body of wrathful women awaiting him on his return to Wellington, concerned not over portfolios but the e nrice of food. If Mr. Barclay is worried about political machinery more and more people are troubled over ideals and over policies that are likeIv to give effect to them. Emerson once advised us to hitch our waggon to a star. Mr. Barclay seems rather concerned with keeping his waning star hitched to the political waggon. He admits that the Government is now’ a middle-of-the-road party. I would remind him that it was not this Gospel That put Labour into power in 1935 and 19.38, nor is it the message for which people are linking in these portentous times,” concluded Mr. Barnard.