"UNEMPLOYED SOLD BY GOVERNMENT"

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22103, 27 May 1937, Page 12

"UNEMPLOYED SOLD BY GOVERNMENT"

STATEMENT ATTRIBUTED TO DR. MCMILLAN EMPHATIC DENIAL GIVEN (PiIBSS ASSOCIATION TBLBOBAM.> DUNEDIN, May 26. A statement that the unemployed, as well as others in the community, had been "sold" by the Labour Government, attributed to Dr. D. G. McMillan, M.P., by Mr F. McComish, was denied by Dr. McMillan. Mr McComish, a representative of the Dunedin branch of the Unemployed Workers' Movement, made the allegation at a public meeting in the South Dunedin Town Hall last evening, Mr McComish was detailing to the audience what had happened at a meeting .at which members of the Unemployed Workers' Movement had met three local members of Parliament. One of the members said: "Fellow-workers, you and I have been sold by a Labour Government. When I was asked to stand for Parliament, I was led to believe that Parliament would be controlled by the rank and file- of the party. Instead of that, we have it controlled by 11 men who are incapable of doing it. "That statement," Mr McComish said, "was made by one of the best Labour members in New Zealand." A voice: Dr. McMillan? Mr McComish: I won't deny it. Absolute Denial "The whole thing is a tissue of inaccuracies," Dr. McMillan said, when the statements made by Mr McComish were referred to him by telephone at Invercargill last night. "Those statements were not made, and I not only dissociate myself from them, but flatly deny that I said anything of the kind. "We have not met the unemployed for months —not since January, 1 think," he added, "and no statements even remotely resembling those alleged were ever made." To-day Mr McComish denied Dr. McMillan's statement that the remarks attributed to him had never been made. "The words I used at the meeting in the South Dunedin Town Hall last night were practically identical with those spoken by Dr. McMillan at a general meeting of the Dunedin branch of the Unemployed Workers' Movement," Mr McComish said. "The president of the Dunedin West branch of the Labour Party was also present. Dr. McMillan asked me first of all whether there were any press representatives present, and on receiving a negative reply he later made the statement which I quoted last night. It is useless for Dr. McMillan to repudiate that statement," Mr McComish added, "because there were about 80 persons present, and every one of them will remember what he said." When Dr. McMillan was asked tonight if he had any comment to make on Mr McComish's further statement, he repeated his denial that he had made the remarks attributed to him.