MR. SEMPLE AND THE N.Z.W.U.

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 241, 6 July 1920, Page 5

MR. SEMPLE AND THE N.Z.W.U.

Sir,—ln this morning's issue you have a report of a curious incident in connection with the Broken Hill miners' meeting held in the Opera House on Sunday night. As lam the individual who interrupted Mr. Semplc in his remarks regarding the. New Zealand Workers' linion, perhaps my viewpoint may bo made clearer by a few words. Mr. Semple, in criticising the amount of support the cause of the miners had received in New Zealand, used the following words: "I know of one union with more than 5000 members who only subscribed a little over They call themselves the rural workers. All I can say is that I don't think much nf these 5000 rural workers." Now, curiously enough, I had been present at -a meeting Mr. Semple held at Timaru. recently with the same object, and it was known personally to me that many persons connected with tho N.Z.W.IT. (which is, at present, purely a country workers' organisation, and consequently but poorly represented in'the big cities) were present in that audience. My point is that manv members of the N.Z.W.U. have subscribed unofficially to tho relief of the Broken Hill. men. Even when Mr. Semple was vilifying my union, I thought of my comrades in the shearing ilheds, the flax swamps, in the timber mills, and on the public works, and knowing thoir generous enthusiasm for their oppressed brethren on the other side of the grievous, separating Tnsnian Sea, I, one of the least worthy to speak in my fellow-workers' name, gave, in deepest indignation, tho lie direct to Mr. Semple. Perhaps lam not entirely ig-' norant of the meaning of Mr. Semple's utterance; yet I am only concerned here with what he actually said. As one of tho rank and filo I warn Mr. Semplo and his ilk that I, for'one, am entirely "fed up" with his 'egoistical vapourings and his self-advertisements of his socalled services (savo the mark!) to the Labonr cause. I exempt from the application of my remarks our present leaders, who are in quite a different category. I suppose I shall be "crucified on the highest hill, or drowned in the deepest sea," but "them's my sentiments," and perhaps I shall find other's when the nails are being driven in or when I walk the plank !-I am, etc., PHILIP KING.