MR SEMPLE AND COMMUNISTS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21954, 1 December 1936, Page 5

MR SEMPLE AND COMMUNISTS

“DECENT WORKMAN HAS NOTHING TO FEAR”

“MISCHIEF MAKERS NOT TOLERATED”

[From Our Own Reporter.!

KAIKOURA, November 30.

“The decent workman has nothing to fear. I will be his friend, but I am the deadly enemy of the impostor, both at the top and the bottom.” said the Minister for Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, in a statement to a representative of “The Press” to-day in which he made references to the activities of communists in New Zealand.

“These men,” he said, “talk about what is happening in Russia, and point to Russia as the ideal state. I appreciate all that the Russian people have done to emancipate themselves from slavery, but let me tell these gentry, the communists of New Zealand, that if they were in Russia and carried on the same obstruction tactics and sabotage of which they have been guilty in the Dominion, they would lose not only their jobs but their lives as well.” Mr Semple said that no doubt workmen on the South Island Main .Trunk knew that he had hau some trouble during the initial stages of his public works programme. He expected this but the disturbance did not come from the majority of the men employed on the public works of the Dominion. It came from the supporters of the communist movement, who had in the first instance done all that was humanly possible to prevent the Labour Government from coming into power, and when defeated in this objective, they turned their attention to endeavours to cause trouble, particularly on public works.

“I had to take a firm stand from the outset.” contnued Mr Semple, “and I had to make it quite definite that I would not tolerate men who came to public works jobs to create mischief, to malinger, and to encourage other men to ' lalinger. I wish to state that employment on public works will be confined to men who are anxious and willing to give their services in return for the decent wage and human conditions for which I have made provision. I am anxious and determined to create an organisation which, together with up-to-date machinery, will establish records in the public works of this Dominion, and I am not going to be blocked, embarrassed, or side-stepped fay the communist element, who have proved themselves to be wreckers and not builders.”

The Minister referred to trouble recently experienced on the works in the Hutt Valley, where a minority of the men, after being lifted from poverty and given an opportunity to earn a decent wage, had refused to contribute to the union with which there was a working agreer t, and refused also to comply with union rules, or any other rules. He had accordingly given instructions to his departmental officers that unless the men had joined the union by this morning they were not to be employed on any Public Works undertaking. He was glad to say that because of the firm stand he had taken New Zealand was now pretty free from these gentry. He had just concluded a tour of the Gisborne line, Rotorua road works, and half the South Island Main Trunk, and he was inspired by the contentment and goodwill existing in the ranks. The progress made on all the jobs was well up to his expectations, and he intended to do better for the men, particularly as work progressed and the equipment reached the standard he was determined it should do.