MOVE FOR COMMON POLICY BY LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES

Wanganui Chronicle, 24 February 1947, Page 5

MOVE FOR COMMON POLICY BY LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES

BRITISH MANIFESTO NOT WELL SUPPORTED (Special Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) London, Feb. 22. Unofficial discussions between the members of the Liberal and Conservative Parties, with the object of finding a common policy, have led to the publication of a joint manifesto entitled “Design for Freedom.” issued to-day. The manifesto, which proclaims itself "an attempt to find a workable alternative to socialism," carries 110 signatures, including 25 Conservative members, two Liberal National, and 47 past or prospective Liberal candidates, and some Independents. A number of the signatories withdrew their support when headquarters of both the Conservative and Liberal Parties indicated recently that they disapproved of lhe movement. Chief Conservative support for the manifesto came from the younger Conservatives, headed by Mr. Quinton Hogg, and the generally ’known as ’“Tory Reform" group.

The chief theme of the manifesto is that State control and private enterprise are corollaries of each other, and should be developed side by side. It contends that the present, conditions demand a degree of State control which would have been totally unacceptable to the old Conservative Party, but that wide expansion of Individual initiative and enterprise is also called for, cutting right across the basic principles of Socialism.

The “Manchester Guardian" and the “News Chronicle,” two leading Liberal newspapers, /re both critical of the scheme, and “The Times,” although it praises the authors for their courageous approach “to the circumstances of a perplexing and changeful time,” says its political impact is unlikely to be great, and that there is nothing in its reception by official Liberalism or or official Conservatism to suggest that it succeeds in furnishing any common ground on which the two parties can come together.