OPPOSITION TO CONSCRIPTION

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25607, 23 September 1948, Page 3

OPPOSITION TO CONSCRIPTION

4 ’ MANIFESTO OF 20 TRADE UNION LEADERS

“ALIEN TO BELIEFS OF LABOUR MOVEMENT ” (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 22. Any attempt to introduce military conscription in peace time is denounced in a manifesto signed by 20 prominent officials of the industrial Labour movement.

“We serve notice that should this crime against the people of New Zealand come to pass, we will fight its operation with all the vigour and means at our disposal.” states the manifesto.

Signatures to the manifesto were obtained yesterday afternoon and this morning, and the document was prepared on the eve of the meetings in Wellington of the national executive of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union and the national council of the tyew Zealand Federation of Labour.

Signatories include the * national secretary of the Carpenters’ and Joiners’ Union (Mr R. Stanley), the national president of the Waterside Workers’ Union (Mr H Barnes), the national vice-president of that union and chairman of the national committee of the Communist Party (Mr A. Drennan), officials of waterside workers’ branches in Wellington, Bluff/ Oamaru, Greymouth, and Lyttelton, and officials of the Gisborne, West Coast, and Oamaru Trades Councils.

“As responsible New Zealand citi-, zens, holding responsible positions in the trade union movement,” says the manifesto, “we view with alarm and concern ‘kite-flying’ on the question of the peace-time conscription of our youth. The philosophy now being enunciated in certain quarters is completely alien to all the traditions and beliefs of the New Zealand Labour movement, and we feel the time has arrived for a clear and definite statement in opposition to those who are endeavouring to regiment the young people of our country.”