MR. SEMPLE'S REPLY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 11, 14 January 1944, Page 6

MR. SEMPLE'S REPLY

SUNDAY BUS DRIVERS STABILITY ORDER VIOLATED^ (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. "The Government is not going to be intimidated by threats of this kind, with demands for an increase j in wages in the one hand and a pistol in the other." said the Minister of Railways. Mr. Semple, when i asked this evening if he had any comment to make on the decision j of the Petone drivers not to operate railway buses on Sundays. "There is too much of it," he added. Mr. Semple said that when the bus drivers threatened some weeks ago to stop work unless their demands were met he told them the double time they wanted could not be conceded. The whole w r age sys- 1 tern to-day was governed by the Stabilisation Order. Bus drivers had i to adhere to the terms of that order,! just the same as every other wageearner.

"If a group of individuals is able j to violate the order and obtain con-1 cessions as a result of a threat to strike, then stabilisation will col- j lapse." said the Minister. "That j would be to the disadvantage of j every worker in the country. If we | don't hold wages, we can't hold the : prices of commodities, for the two I go hand in hand. If stabilisation were abandoned and costs and prices allowed to soar, the greatest sufferers i would be the wage-earners them- j selves.

"There is more money in circulation in this country to-day than there are goods for it to buy. An increase in the volume of money with nothing to buy means inflation, the worst form "of reduction in purchasing power."

Mr. Semple said conceding the demands of the bus drivers was out of the question under the present circumstances. "The boys who are fighting in Italy up to their waists in mud are not demanding double pay for Sunday," he said. "Demands of this character from men living in affluence and safety do not appeal to me. If it -is these men's wish to declare industrial war on the fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters of our soldiers overseas and refuse to carry them on the highways of this country, then I propose to allow the crime they wish to commit to fester in their own conscience, if they possess one."