PARTY SUPPORT FOR HOME SECRETARY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 281, 26 November 1943, Page 4

PARTY SUPPORT FOR HOME SECRETARY

ATTITUDE TO MOSLEY British Workers Still Urge Reinternment N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 25. The Parliamentary Labour party, at a crowded private meeting in the House of Commons to-day, discussed the release from prison of the former British Fascist leader, Sir Oswald Mosley, and defeated a resolution deprecating his release, by a majority of ten votes. This Is somewhat of a triumph for Mr. Morrison, says the Press Association political correspondent. The party, after a lively discussion, passed the following resolution: "The party appreciates the widespread concern created by the release of Sir Oswald Mosley, a concern which can only be allayed by a full debate in Parliament, "but considers that the administration of Regulation 18b, -which must necessarily be of a judicial character, should be kept free from party and political controversy." Individual Freedom in Debate The meeting made it clear that the motion in no way limited the right of members to express their individual A r iews during the forthcoming debate. The Daily Express reports that ten Conservative members have tabled a motion demanding the reconstruction of Regulation 18b and calling for those at present detained under the regulation to be brought to trial. ■ The executive of the Mine Workers' Federation, at a meeting in London, unanimously passed a resolution protesting against the release of Mosley and requesting that he be reinterned. The Belfast branch of the National Union of railwaymen passed a resolution asking its executive committee to make immediate representations to the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union and other unions concerned in transport with a view to calling a general strike of all transport workers until Mosley is imprisoned again. "Hubbub is a Healthy Sign" It is a strange wartime sight to see long caterpillars of demonstraors marching London pavements chanting "Put Mosley back," and also to see the mounted police trying to keep the crowd in order outside the Houses of Parliament, cables the New Zealand Press Association special correspondent from London. The general opinion seems to be that the explanation of the Home Secretary, Mr. Herbert Morrison, is satisfactory, although some think that a debate will be held in the House of Commons.

The Manchester Guardian puts its finger on the spot when it says that the hubbub is a healthy sign. It has shown that the ordinary people have extremely strong feelings about anything that remotely savours of Fascism," the paper states. "The mood of 1940 remains and any form of appeasement, either domestic or foreign, will rouse the country. Nobody, of course, thought the Government was actually weakening in its hostility to Fascism. What the people were afraid of was that the Government was doing something that might lead others, who do not understand the British temper, • to think that it might be. "It will always be remembered that memories of our 'appeasement' days are still strong and that the legend of the attachment of our titled and moneyed classes to European reaction is slow to die. No harm will be done to our national credit by these public demonstrations and the resolutions of censure, like that of the National Council of Labour. They are evidence of a keen fighting spirit, intolerant perhaps, but desperately earnest."

DOMINION PROTESTS [LABOURERS* FEDERATION VIEW (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. The New Zealand Labourers' Federation conference in Christchurch passed a resolution allying themselves "with the British trade unions in opposition to the release of the Fascist, Sir Oswald Mosley." ROTORUA RESOLUTION (0.C.) ;. ROTORUA, this day. At a largely-attended meeting in Rotorua last evening of the South Auckland branch of the Timber Workers' Union a motion was adopted supporting the action of the British Council of Labour in its protest against the release of Sir Oswald Mosley and Lady Mosley. Mr. C. Lindsay, vice-president of the South Auckland branch, stated after the meeting that workers in all Allied countries were being urged to do their utmost to assist in the defeat of Fascism, and surely no greater brake could be put on their efforts than the release ordered by the Labour representative in the British Cabinet of the most noted Fascist in the British Empire. A copy of the motion was being sent to the New Zealand Union for appropriate action, he added.