IN DEFENCE OF ALLIANCE OF LABOUR.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17429, 13 April 1922, Page 7

IN DEFENCE OF ALLIANCE OF LABOUR.

MB COOMBS'S ADDBESS. I (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, April 12. In the course of his address at the annual meeting of the Wellington branch of the Post and Telegraph Officers' Association to-night, Mr Coombs, general secretary of the Association, said so far as the Association was concerned, they were moving in very anxious times. It behoved the Association to put on its considering cap. The ballot on the question of afii' ia : tion with the Alliance of Labour had given a- substantial majority in favour. .So doubt most of those who had voted were feeling very sore at the Salaries Reduction Bill. The ballot had not been taken when members were at their sorest, but they had waited ten weeks. The proposal was explained to members as clearly as possible. They all knew what they were voting for. He claimed that the ballot was taken in cold blood, as it were—not in the heat of the moment—therefore they should examine most carefully the arguments being put forward by those who said that another ballot should be taken. The Association was up against the forces that were up against the Alliance of Labour. The Association had the right to decide a matter of importance to itself, so long as it broke no law, therefore the question was: Could the ballot be overthrown by those possessed of a little brief authority for no other reason than that they were not pleased with the result of the voting? He contended that it could not. An attempt was being made to stampede the public into believing that the Association liad done a wrong thing —had virtually handed over the service to a band of anarchists. A great deal was being made of the oath of secrecy. They had all taken it. He did not believe that there was one official in the service who did not hold liia oath of secrecy as sacred. Members realised that if that was not maintained, the efficiency of the service would be undermined. The suggestions that were being made were insults. It was said that they were disloyal. Disloyal to what? Unless the Alliance of Labour was illegal, there could be nothing in this contention. Mr Ooombs spoke of the war service of members of the Post and Telegraph Officers' Association. As to the plank of the Alliance providing for control of industry by the workers employed therein, what was wrong with that? In any case, if there was something actually wrong with it, did anyone think that their objective was a possibility of the near Tutufe? That objective could not be gained until public opinion had been educated to the point that it wanted their objective. The Alliance of Labour was not the whole of public opinion, neither was the Post and Telegraph Service. There wore more people outside the Alliance of Labour than were included in its ranks. The time might come when a majority of the whole working people might be linked up with the. Alliance of Labour, and the time might come when the majority would think that the time had .arrived for the co-operation of each industry in the management of its own particular industry. Mr Coombs spoke at length on the general conditions and administration of the service.

A.S.R.S. RESOLUTION. (PKESS ASSOCIATION TELEGBAM.) WANGANUI, April 12. A meeting of tho brancli of the A.S.R 8. held at Eastowu to-night, passed the following resolution: "We congratulate the Post and Telegraph Officers' Association on resolving to affiliate with tho Alliance of Labour, and urge them to remain firm in the stand they have takon, namely, the expression of free men in a presumably free country. They may rest assured that whatever repressive measures the Government may lie influenced by panic-stricken Chamber* of Commerce, etc., to introduce, will ultimately rebound to tho discomfiture of tho political party which I lends itself to such a pitiful example of class legislation."