ON THE HUSTINGS

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1919, Page 11

ON THE HUSTINGS

WELLINGTON SOUTH

COLONEL MITCHELL'S BACKERS

MR. SEMPLE'S ALLEGATIONS.

"I want to refer to one or two statements made by my opponent and to the people who are behind him," said Mr. R. Semple, M.P., candidate for Wellington South,, in addiressing an open air meeting in Howard-street last evening. He said he knew nothing about Colonel Mitchell himself. Colonel Mitchell had no political past. He was just a political tyro. He proved that by the statementhe made on political economy, when he said, in dealing with the political problems of tho day, and, more especially in connection with the cost of living that the way to effect a remedy was by more production and less consumption. That was surely the dizzy limit! Again, when he was asked to describe proportional representation, he said he would have to look it up. Also, when he was asked the previous night- to debate tho Labour Party's platform on the same platform with the speaker, he replied that he would not stand cm the same platform with Mr. Semple. Mr. Semple said he had stood on the same platform, with better men than Colonel Mitchell.

People, said Mr. Semple, were being called upon to vote for Colonel Mitchell simply because he was a soldier. Now they had three returned soldiers standing as pledged Labour candidates, and! these men, of course, were all referred to by the press as Extremists and Bolshevists. The fact was that if a soldier lost both hia legs and his eyes he would be called a Bolshevist by the press, merely because he stood for Labour, But that was always the way the press dealt with Labour. "Now," ho proceeded, "I just want to point out to you the forces that are behind Colonel Mitchell, and I will then leave it to you to say whether ho stands for the men, women, and children of New Zealand." He said one of Colonel Mitchell's chief supporters was "Sell the Earth Thomson," a man who was Mr. F. M. B. Fisher's chief lieutenant in all his political difficulties in this country. He asked them what Mr. Fisher stood for ? He stood for the parasitical lumber and food monopolists of this country, and the same applied to Mr. Thomson, who was his secretary. Mr. O. M. Luke who took the chair at Colonel Mitchell's meeting the previous night, was never a Labour man; he was a brother of Mi. J. P Luke, the Mayor, and belonged to the same political school of thought. They had the right to their political opinions; he was not disputing that; they knew what they stood for, but what he did object to was a camouflaged candidate of the Reform Party. Some months ago Mr. Bruce announced himself as the Reform Party's candidate for Wellington South, but he was compelled to withdraw from the contest. Who compelled him? A Voice : "Massey." Mr. Semple: "Of course he did. Massey sent for him, and told him to get out, and so give Colonel Mitchell a better chance." Mr. Massey knew that no man who stood as a Reform candidate could win the seat, so he put up a man under the guise of an Independent, who was the at the same time a Reform supporter.

Mr. Semple then proceeded to make allegations' regarding Colonel Mitchell and the Protestant Political Association. He asked them if the electors were going to allow, their politics to be mixed up in some religious squabble?

A voice : "Bill Massey is at the bottom of it all."

Mr. Semple: "Of course he is at the bottom of it." The Labour Party,' he added, was perfectly open and honest, it respected every man's religion, it was out for principles, and wanted every one to understand its platform, which was for the uplifting of the masses of this country.