Apology From Mr Walsh Demanded

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30073, 6 March 1963, Page 15

Apology From Mr Walsh Demanded

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, March 5. The Otago Trades Council passed a special resolution tonight deploring the attack made by the president of the Federation of Labour (Mr F. P. Walsh) on the president of the council, Mr W. B. Richards, and demanded either justification of Mr Walsh’s statements or a retraction and apology. The press committee of the council said after the meeting that another resolution called for an invitation to Mr Walsh and the F.O.L. secretary, Mr K. McL. Baxter, to attend the next monthly meeting "to justify their attitude and actions over the freezing workers’ dispute.” Mr P. M. Bulling, president of the Otago-Southland Freezing Workers’ Union, and Mr B. A. Manson, an executive member, were also invited to attend.

Failing attendance by Messrs Walsh and Baxter, the Trades Council is “to consider going into recess” as a protest.

Authorised by the council to make plain his personal viewpoint on Mr Walsh’s statements, Mr Richards said: “Mr Walsh’s charge that I am using this dispute to obtain presidency of the Freezing Workers’ Union is right in tune with his own statement that he has ‘wiped his hands’ of the southern freezing workers. “Both statements show little understanding zbf the situation that exists and reflect a poor appreciation of the intelligence of 4500 workers.” Mr Richards said the trade union movement should call on Mr Walsh for an account of his own record in the dispute. "He has admitted that he saw Mr Shand after the union's representatives left,

but as yet we have to learn of any disagreement by him or his executive with the threat so confidently laid down by Mr Shand. "Mr Walsh’s concern over my action in attending the Southland Trades Council is* not shared by either that trades council or the Otago Trades Council, and has about as much substance to it as his claim that there is something sinister in a democratic nomination for an office of a union to which I belong,” Mr Richards said.