MR R. CHURCHILL AT WELLINGTON

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25307, 6 October 1947, Page 6

MR R. CHURCHILL AT WELLINGTON

ADDRESS TO BIG AUDIENCE

ALMOST UNANIMOUS SUPPORT From Our Own Reporter

x WELLINGTON, October 5. • Raising one hand to still the applause at his meeting in the Wellington Town Hall last night, Mr Randolph Churchill asked his audience one question; “Am I a war-monger?” The answer came back almost, but not quite, unanimously: “No.” In a characteristically provocative Speech, Mr Churchill obviously had the support of by far the greatest section of his audience, which contained a big proportion of women. But there were a number, especially in the cheaper—2s—seats at the rear who

were just as obviously against him. One man, wearing an R,S.A. badge, interrupted the speech when Mr Churchill was replying to a comment made at a meeting of the 2nd N-Z-E-F. Association in Dunedin, and shortly afterwards he and his wife left the meeting. Then three seats further back, a man who made some brief comment almost inaudibly on one section of Mr Churchill’s speech, found that it was not quite inaudible enough for safety. A woman sitting near him slapped his face with a bundle of papers she was carrying. He too left. There was some comment from the back row when the meeting stood up to sing the National Anthem, a#d a young girl pointedly remained seated. Pamphlets Distributed Before the meeting began, pamphlets bearing the imprint, “Issued by the national executive of the Communist Party” were distributed, presumably by members of the party. Invoking a by-law which prohibits the issuing of pamphlets on the streets without permission, the police on duty outside the building commanded them to stop, and then went into the foyer of the Town Hall. The distribution of the pamphlets was stopped there on the grounds that persons receiving the pamphlets and throwing them away would make a mess which the staff wguld have to clean up. But many hundreds of the pamphlets were distributed meanwhile. The pamphlet challenged Mr Churchill to a debate with a Communist Party representative on the truth of his comments on Russia. Mr Churchill’s speech, which was frequently applauded, was on the same lines as his earlier speeches in New Zealand, except that he devoted much time to answering the charges made that he was a war-monger. Taking Jugoslavia as an example, he said that events there typified what went on behind the iron curtain. The free countries, he said, had nothing to fear from Russia, since they were 20 times as strong, but "they did have to fear a recurrence of the same apathy that had enabled Hitler to go on with his world domination plans before 1939, and he appealed to every frete country to take the strongest steps against fifth-columnists. Communism in New Zealand It had been said that Communists, with only 200 Q registered members, were in such a minority in z New Zealand that they did not count, but from what he had seen he did not believe that statement, Mr Churchill said. The clamour they made, and the publicity they received, seemed to indicate that their influence was out of all proportion to their numbers. Answering questions after his address, Mr Churchill told one man who wanted him .to amplify previous statements, on the Nuremburg trials that there was no justification in British law for making a law which declared it illegal to wage war after a war was over, and then making the law retrospective. He was not concerned with the fate of the individual Nazi leaders, he said, but it was absurd that children should be taught, as they were now taught in the United States, that there was a common international law which made it illegal to conspire to wage war. If that assumption was correct, why had not Stalin been charged as a war criminal, he asked. He had eonspired to- attack both Poland and Finland. CHALLENGE OF COMMUNIST PARTY REFUSED

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, October 5. Mr Randolph Churchill has declined a further invitation from the Communist Party of New Zealand tef debate on Soviet Russia. The secretary of the party, Mr A. B. Skilton, sent the following telegram to Mr Churchill: “The Communist Party repeats its challenge to jrpu publicly to debate the-truth of your statements regarding Russia. Even if you do not speak our language, we can assure you New Zealanders do. If you are British you will meet us face to face.” • Mr Churchill replied: “This is Still a free country, and if Vyshinsky can refuse to debate with Mrs Roosevelt, I reckon I can say no to you.”