SUPPORT GIVEN GOVERNMENT

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25445, 17 March 1948, Page 4

SUPPORT GIVEN GOVERNMENT

ACTION IN RECENT DISPUTE

MINISTERS ADDRESS L.R.C. MEETING

Votes of confidence in the Prime Minister (Mr P. Fraser), the Minister of Labour (Mr A. McLagan), and the Labour Government as a whole were carried last evening at a special meeting of the North Canterbury Labour Representation Committee. The meeting was convened to give Mr Fraser ana Mr McLagan an opportunity to discuss events in the recent carpenters’ dispute, and immense interest in it was taken in political and industrial Labour circles. The attendance of about 200 was described as the biggest ever known at a meeting of the committee, and it included many present as observers from other labour representation committees in the province. The resolutions passed are regarded as an important success for the Government. Many references were made in the speeches to Communism, and Mr McLagan described the carpenters’ dispute as the “first political strike.” The meeting lasted for two and a quarter hours, and both Ministers were applauded. Mr Fraser was greeted with cheers. The press was not admitted to the meeting, but afterwards a report was supplad by a reliable source. Mr F. L. Langjgy, secretary of the Canterbury Carpenters’ Union, in a 20 minutes’ review condemned the Minister of Labour for refusing to set up a tribunal. Mr McLagan reminded him that the carpenters’ union had already refused to abide by the decision of a tribunal —the Arbitration Court. From publications issued by the carpenters’ union, Mr McLagan added, it was obvious that the dispute had been more political than industrial, and that this was, in fact, the first political strike. Two further points made by Mr McLagan were that the carpenters had not approached him at any stage, until the dispute had come forward from the Federation of Labour, and that the question of relativity between carpenters and plumbers in fibrous plaster work had not ever been mentioned when the carpenters went for their award in April, 1947, but that subsequently the carpenters had relied on it

Mr Fraser warned the workers to exercise care in their choice of industrial leaders. Unless trade unions insisted that no Communists be allowed to hold office nothing but disaster would follow, since the Communists owed allegiance not to New Zealapd and the interests of the unions but to international Communism. He said that the resolution would be construed as a vote in support of the Government and in support of its policy of taking action against lawbreakers, whether industrial unionists or otherwise. .

Referring to the carpenters’ dispute, the Prime Minister spoke of the Communist tactics of taking any matter in dispute and magnifying it out of all proportion, regardless of the injury it might cause to the real interests involved, with the deliberate purpose of trying to split the Labour movement. Mr Fraser quoted from Communist publications in which the Communists had said that if they were in power they would suppress the Labour Party in New Zealand. Referring to Mr McLagan ’s. efforts on behalf of the workers, Mr Fraser made special reference to the general improvements made for working people under the Labour Government—in improved wages, conditions of work, social services, and general economic security. The following resolution was carried:

That this meeting of the Labour Representation Committee expresses thanks to Mr Fraser and Mr McLagan for accepting the invitation to attend this meeting, and after having heard them, expresses complete confidence in the Prime Minister, the Minister of Labour, and the Labour Government, and calls upon all working-class organisations and people to remain loyal to our Lab*

There were three dissentient voices' wfien the resolution was put, and a few abstained from voting.