“FIRST ORDER OF LIARS”

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 44, 16 November 1925, Page 10

“FIRST ORDER OF LIARS”

HAVELOCK WILSON GN THE COMMUNISTS

A SCATHING SPEECH Mr. Havelock Wilson, president of the National Sailors and Firemen’s Union, who has returned to England recentlv from Canada and the United States,' has been impressed by the menace of Communism in those and other countries. “I have met many public men,” Mr. Wilson is reported by the “Morning Post’’ as saying, “including members of Parliament of all parties, who, when the question of the danger of the Communist movement has been mentioned by me, have laughed the idea to scorn, maintaining that they had the utmost confidence in tlie British working man. It is, of course, correct to have confidence in your fellow-countrymen, but when vou have a gang of hooligans telling deliberate falsehoods day by day and every Sunday at the street corners and in the public, parks, large numbers of the people will eventually coiue to the conclusion that there may be something in what the Communists tell them.

"One of their pct schemes has been either to capture or destroy the Seamen’s Union. They have made personal attacks on me because of my patriotism during the war, and for this the ‘Reds’ have never forgiven me. One of their objectives is to destroy British shipping, though they do not say so openly. I “They talk about wages and try to impress our seafaring men that they are the lowest paid of workers. . They entirely overlook the fact that in foreign countries wages are nearly 50 per cent, below ours, and that foreign ships which pay low wages are carrying cargoes from British ports, which, tinder equal conditions, would be carried bv British vessels. With the Communist that is a matter of mere detail. When they point to the .‘millions of pounds' being made by ship-owners, it is necessary only to look at the stock and share lists, and also call attention to the fact that during the last five' years a large number of shipping firms have gone into liquidation. The Communists should receive the First Order of Merit for telling lies by way of propaganda. Their ‘Daily Bulletin,’ issued in New York, tells Seamen of the thousands of ships tied, up all over the world owing to the strike, and gives a list of some 30 vessels held up in New York in consequence oi the crews having quit their ships for an advance of \vages. Many of the ships referred to are thousands of, miles awav. The Leviathan arrived in New York while I was there, and was going into dry dock to be overhauled. In view of this all. surplus stewards and cooks were paid off. The Ccmniunistt- pomptly referred to so many hundred men having left the Leviathan on her arrival in New York, the snggestiot. being that they, had struck. No man has left his ship in any of the American ports in conseuence of a strike.” Mr. Wilson adds: “The amazing thing is that the same kind' of bulletin published in New York appears in Canning Town; it appears daily in Australia and South Africa, in order to mislead men on strike from British ship's, and to convey the idea that the strike is in full swing in Great Britain and the United States. .Yet all the while ships are sailing to time. "Some of our Labour leaders do not seem to realise the insidious manner hi which the ‘Reds’ are endeavouring to kill the trade unions. Communist pickets are placed at union doors to prevent men giving m their contributions. Intimidation is rampant, the pickets apparently being paid for their work. Where does the money come from?”