INTERRUPTIONS AT POLITICAL MEETINGS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22340, 2 March 1938, Page 8

INTERRUPTIONS AT POLITICAL MEETINGS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —In reply to my letter on the above topic, “Elector,” of Ashburton, in to-day’s issue says: "I regard this letter as eyewash.” If this is his seasoned opinion, he is at liberty to express it, but he cannot conscript me to respect his intelligence. I am aware that “Elector,” like many other disheartened anti-Labour electors, would like to have the public believe that the official Labour Party is solely responsible for the heckling of National Party candidates. When it is pointed out, in all sincerity and reliability, that such is not the case, then it is called by “Elector” and others “eyewash,” ami the person sincerely pointing it out is rudely accused of insincerity. The words of Hie Ashburton correspondent, viz., “the conclusion to be drawn is obvious,” eminently support this contention, So far as attending meetings are \

concerned, I have been present in Canterbury and elsewhere at political meetings of all parties since 1901, and can remind “Elector” of the time when a band of organised hecklers, in different parts of New Zealand, specially attended meetings addressed by Sed-donian-Liberal candidates for the sole purposes of obstruction, and it was openly suggested at the time that these hecklers, in many cases, were paid agents of anti-Liberal forces. I shall again reiterate that the official Labour Party is in no way responsible for the heckling of National Party candidates, and should “Elector” still declare it to be “eyewash”, I will be pleased if he will advance reasons for deeming it such. It has long been an accepted fact that “truth always hurts,” and many people have tried to cover up the wounds by defaming truth under such headings as “eyewash”, “humbug”, “hypocrisy”, “Bolshevism”, “extremism”, etc.—Yours, etc., J. HILL. Claverley, March 1, 1933. [Subject to the right of reply of “Liberty,” this correspondence is now closed. —Ed., “The Press.”]