"A BLANK CARTRIDGE"

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 125, 29 May 1928, Page 10

"A BLANK CARTRIDGE"

(By Telegraph .—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, 2Sth May. yir Francis Bell this afternoon attended a meeting of unemployed in the Trades Hal) at the men's request. With Sir Francis Bell wcro Sir Hcatou Rhodes, the Hon. F' J. ..'Kolleston, tho Mayor, and Messrs. Sullivan, Howard, and M' Combs, M.P.'s. Speaking for the unemployed, Mr. S. Fournicr, a \ well-known Communist, said the men had two requests to'make. First, that the Government should institute an unemployment insurance scheme; and, second, that it should provide work for those now unemployed at award rates. Tho men demanded those rates. Sir Francis Bell: '''You demand?" Mr. Fourier: "I used the term." Sir Francis 801 l said the problem of unemployment was not different from the problem as encountered in other cities. Ho would ask the meeting not to use the word "demand" to the Government, for, after all, it was only a blank \cartridge. It would bo just as fair for the Government to demand that the men should work at certain wages under certain, conditions. The needs of the unemployed in Christchurch would be considered by tho Government along with those of tho unemployed in other parts of the country, but no consideration would bo given to any form of demand whilo the present Government was in office. Any consideration given would be from the point of view of what was best for the country.