THE EMDEN.

Waikato Times, Volume 99, Issue 16654, 20 November 1925, Page 2

THE EMDEN.

MR PRATTEN SMILES. “Mr Charlton’s insistence that his party should receive credit for the destruction oi' the Gorman raider Linden by the Australian cruiser Sydney ten years ago is a little amusing,” said Mr H. E. Pratten (Minister for Trade and Customs), says a Syd ney paper.

“Mr Charlton cannot have it both ways. I agree that the old democratic Labour Party was in favour of a full measure of defence, which included cruisers.

“But the present Labour Party has entirely repudiated the democratic Labour Party which administered Australian affairs on different occasions prior to the break-away in 1910. “The old democratic Labour Party introduced and ardently believed in compulsory military training, and a full measure of defence, hut Mr Charlton wishes to abolish all that. “The old democratic Labour Party stood firmly for a White Australia. But Mr Tom Walsh—the extremist friend whom Mr Charlton and the Labour leaders refuse to repudiate—has declared himself against a While Australia.

“The old democratic Labour Party had no sympathy whatever with the I.W.W. activities which culminated in the incendiarism in 1916. But the present Labour Party, which Mr Charlton leads, has so shifted its ground that it now actually offers as iis No. 2 Senate candidate the Mr Donald Grant who led the I.W.W. in 1916.

“Mr Bruce has given, and is ready lc give, all possible credit to the old democratic Labour Parly. But the party that Mr Charlton leads—honeycombed as it is with Communistic influences —is not in any sense Hie Labour Party which assisted in the bidding of I lie cruiser Sydney.”