MR SEMPLE ON COMMUNISM

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25550, 19 July 1948, Page 8

MR SEMPLE ON COMMUNISM

REFERENCE TO SITUATION IN BERLIN (P.A.) AUCKLAND, July 18. An attack on Communism, and on those who advocated it for New Zealand and other democratic countries, was made by the Minister of Works (Mr R. Semple) in an address in the Civic Theatre to-night. The theatre was almost full. Mr Semple quoted freely from Communistic literature, and denounced the doctrines presented in it. He drew a picture of the situation in Berlin, where, he said, Russians were deliberately starving millions of people to gain their own ends. They wished to cause as much trouble there as they could, so they could capture Germany. The turmoil that was going on in New Zealand at present was inspired by foreign dictators, Mr Semple said. A scattering of persons, who were obviously members of the Communist • Party, kept up a spasmodic fire of interjections. At the close of the address, a resolution recording appreciation of Mr i Semple’s exposure of Communism, and t pledging support to the Government in I any steps it deemed necessary “to en- . sure that this national and international danger is kept in check,” was carried.

“DRUNK WITH LUST FOR POWER” STATEMENT BY MR SEMPLE (P.A.) AUCKLAND. July 17. “They have no mercy and no pity. They are drunk with the lust for power.” The Minister of Works (Mr R. Semple) used these words in an interview to-day. He said that in his talk on Communism at the Civic Theatre at Auckland to-morrow evening he would try to prove that the British Commonwealth of Nations was at the cross roads. “There is no such thing as isolation these days, and New Zealand is an integral part of the British Commonwealth whose people are privileged to t be free on earth,” said Mr Semple. •‘Freedom has been inherited from the pioneers of democracy. To-day it is being challenged by the spread of a dictatorship which represents the worst form of slavery the world has ever known.” The iron curtain, Mr Semple said, was closing round most countries of Europe and Asia. The British people must never succumb to the tyranny of Communism. “We have only to look at the Russians in Berlin—part of their world pattern of conquest. They have violated every principle of the war which was fought, for they plan to dominate Germany by starvation and then dominate the world. “We want the people of the British Commonwealth always to be the masters of their own fate. My small effort is to bring home to our people the need for preserving the precious thing we call freedom,” said Mr Semple.