LOST HIS JOB.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 91, 17 April 1940, Page 17

LOST HIS JOB.

CHAMPION OF STALIN.

"BETTER MAN THAN YOU."

MR. SEMPLE ANGRY. . (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUXEDIN, Tuesday. A workman who defended Russia's action in Finland and told the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Sempie, that he was not as good a man as Stalin lost his job on the Haast. Pass Road suddenly this afternoon. These remarks were made while Mr. Semole was addressing the men working on the road.

Mr. Semple, who was accompanied l>y the Minister of Mines, the Hon. P. C. Webb, was pointing out that without t lie help of Great Britain New Zealand could easily share the fate of small nations that had been invaded in the past year or two. "The Russian invasion of Finland," he said, "was one of the greatest examples of international cowardice the world has ever seen." "It was not cowardice," shouted a man at the back of the hall. "That is my opinion, anyway." Mr. Semple: Well, you are a traitor and a coward. "I am not a political twister, anyway," the man replied heatedly. Desperate Struggle Ahead. Continuing his speech. Mr. Semple said the British people had a desperate struggle ahead of them to-day to defend their liberty. Some people seeined to think there was liberty in Russia, but he personally could draw no distinction between Russia and Germany. Stalin was just as big a murderer as Hitler.

The Interjector: He is a better man than vou.

Mr. Semple (angrily): He is wljat ? The Man (slightly subdued) : He is as good a man as you."

"You dirty , cur," the Minister said. "I never murdered a man in my life." The Man: Neither did Stalin. Mr. Semple: He has murdered hundreds of his fellow countrymen, i "I want to know whether there are any sympathisers with this man in camp," Mr. Semple said later. "If there are they can go out as well, because he is going now. Types like him are going to he cleaned right out of the public works of New Zealand."

When the meeting was over the man was dismissed by the engineer in charge of the work and quietly left the hall. °