"SCANDAL OF WAR PROFITS"

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 109, 5 November 1917, Page 2

"SCANDAL OF WAR PROFITS"

"The Scandal of War Profits" was the subject of an addTess delivered at the King-'s Theatre last night by Mr. H. E. Holland. Mr. Holland referred to the Teccnt deputation to the Prime Minister (Mr. Massey) and the latter's challenge to instance a single case of profiteering in which he might prosecute. It was not the business of citizens, said Mr. Holland, to tell Mr. Massey whom to prosecute. The Arbitration Act and the War Regulations Act had been so administered that it was impossible for the workers to lift their wages more than 10 per cent, without coming into conflict with the law. The Government could have dealt as drastically ■with profiteers, but instead it employed its political power to conserve the interests of the exploiters. Mr. Holland asserted that the grand total of war profits in New Zealand reached the figure of £45,476,187, without taking into account the profite on flour, groceries, clothing, boots, and a multitude o£ other items which would pro-, baby yield another 10 ot 15 millions ster-' ling. He urged the workers to organise industrially and politically, so that there could be' written into the Statute Book every law that made for justice, freedom of expression, fredom of conscience, freedom o£ the press, and freedom of assemblage.