LIVELY MEETING

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22922, 19 January 1940, Page 10

LIVELY MEETING

ANTI-CONSCRIPTION CAMPAIGN NEARLY 800 ATTEND Nearly 800 persons attended a lively meeting held at the Latimer Hall last evening by the Anti-Conscription Campaign Committee of Canterbury. The four speakers were well received by most of the audience. Many of their statements drew prolonged applause and cheering, though they had vociferous opponents in some quarters. Organised opposition had been expected, but the chairman only once asked the police to remove a member of the audience—a young man in milltary uniform who persistently interjected. The chairman was Mr H. G. Kilpatrick. The speakers were Mr A. H. Scotney, of Wellington, the Rev. W. E. Alldn Carr. , of New Brighton, and Messrs G. W. Samms and A. B. Grant. Purpose Stated Mr Kilpatrick was greeted with cheering, mingled with booing, when he rose to open the meeting. He said he wanted to state clearly the intentions of the Anti-Conscription Campaign Committee which had organised it. The purpose was to place before the public of the views of those associated with the committee on the subject of conscription. “I can assure you I feel very proud 1 6 be on this platform to-night,’ said Mr Samms. “I know there is an organised effort to prevent speakers saying what they think, but I’m going to say exactly what I think. I am anticonscription and also anti-war. In 1914 New Zealand entered the war and then the war slogans began. The’ first one was that the war was one to make the world safe for democracy, but what a lie that was. Cries: Be British! . Mr Samms; And they were going to hang the Kaiser. „ , ~ _ At this point Dr. C. Coleridge Farr, who was near the front of the hall, rose and said, ‘T think this gentlemans disloyal. I’m going out.” He left thehall amidst booing and laughter. Mr Samms said that -the people of New Zealand had been deceived by propaganda. A German Jew, Sir Otto Niemeyer, a director of half a dozen banks, among other 'companies, came to New Zealand in 1929 and told the Government then to do certain things which plunged the country into five and a half years of hell. That was an invasion of vested interests. As for concentration camps, did we not have them here? (Cries of “No and “Yes,” and cheering and stamping.) “Confusion Among Workers” Mr Grant was the next speaker. He said that the Labour movement in 1940 as in 1914 was split from top to bottom. There was in the working class and that confusion was engendered and engineered in order that capitalism might survive. The people’s attitude towards war and conscription was not only a social problem but one for each individual. He was opposed to conscription in a capitalist society, but not necessarily in a working-class state. Mr Grant quoted from the “Maonland Worker” of November 11, 1915, a statement attributed to Robert Semple, now the Hon. R. Semple, Minister for Public Works. This statement read: “Conscription is the negation of human liberty. It means the destruction of every principle that is held sacred to the working class. It means the destruction of the democracy of the home. It is the blackest industrial hell.” . J . The cheering, stamping, and general applause were deafening when these words were read. . ... Mr Grant said he took his stand with Mr Semple in opposing conscription. He declared that in Britain the working class was not only fighting the war but paying for it, and gave taxation figures in support of his contention. There was, in fact, conscription of labour. _ , , It was the same in New Zealand, where extraordinary powers which could be used against the people had been assumed.

Pacifist View Mr Carr was then introduced as a speaker from the pacifist point of view. He said he wanted to make u clear that he spoke as an individual, as a Christian, and as a pacifist. He was not speaking under the support of any party qj: as a representative of the Church to which he belonged, taut from a personal point of view. He opposed conscription because it attacked things vital and fundamental to a Christian. He believed that there was a supreme loyalty to God, which came before loyalty to the State, and it was this loyalty that prompted pacifists. , There were several loud and persistent interjectors during Mr Scotney s address. One, a young man in uniform, aroused the anger of persons about him and there were cries of “Put him out.” The chairman asked a police officer to take him out, and the man left in the officer’s company. He appeared again and was this time ejected by a constable and a man in army uniform. , , At question time a man asked questions about Communism, but the chair-’ man told him emphatically that this was not a meeting of the Communist Party, Another man accused Mr Scotney of being pro-German and proStalin, and said he ought to be locked up. This remark was received with loud hooting. Mr Scotney was asked whether he would fight, for the freedom of Finland and whether the war against Finland was a just one. He said he was not yet convinced what was the freedom of Finland and that as a New Zealander he would not fight for Finland. In his opinion the war against Finland was justified, although he would require 10 minutes to give his reasons. . A man in military uniform tried to address the meeting but could not make himself heard. He was booed and cried down. Mr Kilpatrick then thanked the audience and closed the meeting.