THE "ANTIS."

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15776, 18 December 1916, Page 11

THE "ANTIS."

YESTERDAY'S MEETINGS

A crowd" of about three to four hundred persons assembled in Victoria square yesterday afternoon, to listen to Mr James Thorn deliver a speech on "New Zealand and the Wax." under tho auspices of the Conscription Repeal League. The speech was of the now familiar kind. Mr Thorn complained that the wideness of the new war regulations made it extremely likely that any honest man who had the temerity to express his honest beliefs and opinions in public, would make the acquaintance of the inside of one of his Majesty's gaols. Such had been the fate of their old friend and comrade Robert Semple. as honest and decent a. working man as there was in New Zealand. Semple had been thrown into gaol for the crime of telling the people what he believed to be the truth, and he (the speaker) had no hesitation in saying that the people who had persecuted Semple and the people who had allowed him to be hauled to gaol without a protest must be rotten to the core. Mr Thorn then produced • a Bible, and made lengthy quotations from it, with many strange comments, such as that Moses was a labour agitator who engineered tho first strike. He concluded with a lengthy tirade against "exploiters." At the conclusion of the address Mr Tliorn quoted from a letter received from J. Arbuckle, who wrote: —"Things anti-conscription are whizzing on the" West Coast." Messrs P. C. Webb, M.P.. and E. J. Howard were addressing meetings on the Coast on the question of the repeal of the Military Service Act. The speaker than called for a vote of those wno were for calling Parliament together to repeal the Military Service Act and conscription, and practically all hands went up. five voting against the proposition. A vote of protest against Semple's imprisonment was also carried, one person voting against the motion, and after some questions had been answered the meeting, which had Been quite orderly, closed. In the evening Mr Thorn addressed two meetings, one in the Socialists" Hall and one on the vacant plo£ of ground opposite to it. The main points in the speeches have been reiterated time and time again by the opponents of tho Military Service Act recently, and he added little that was new. The police were present at all three gatherings, and it is understood that a full note of tho proceedings was taken.