WHERE WILL IT LEAD?

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 80, 5 April 1932, Page 8

WHERE WILL IT LEAD?

/ A' statement issued by the Press Committee of the Industrial Conference contradicts the disclaimer, made by kMr. Millar, secretary of the public Servicp Association, concerning participation by Public Service organisations. Mr. Millar stated that "the Central Committee of the combined < Public Service organisations, definitely decided not to participate '/in the conference." Two organisations of the nine in the combination" had, ~ howeVer, already agreed to attend as individual bodies, but on ithe definite understanding that the policy1 being adopted by thb combined Public Service organisations v ould bo the sole basis of their participation in tho' .conference. The conference Press Committee admits that some service'organisations were not prepared to join the Industrial Conference, but it states that four, representing the great majority of tho Post and Telegraph and Kailway employees—and oter 40 per cent, of all State servants —have taken a diftoront view, and are actively participating in conferenco«with a full belief that concerted action by all workers is necessaiy to stem the retrograde policy of the Government. Referring to this subject on Saturday, we pointed to the danger of association of Public servants in a conference which may drag their organisations into policies of which they. cann6t approve." This is no mere bogy. This conference, however it may have^been camouflaged, is an,'attempt' to achieve ( what Ijas been tried beforei by^the■'industrial left.wing of the LaHour'movement. The,< leaders of'th^s movement may lisjteh sympathetically^ and-assent, withjtohguia' in cheek, to doctrinaire .expositions, of currency' stabilisation glansj^but th'ey'^do not .seek the cooperation* of Public Service organis-ations-merely to submit such plans by deputation to the Government, > They want support JforV their own and these have been boldly declared quite'recently. Mr._ A. Cook; general secretary of the New Zealand Workers' Union and presi'dent1 of the Alliance of Labour, was chairman of the preliminary meeting of the .conference. A little more than a month ago he declared his attitude on the payment of overseas interest. Referring to a statement by Mr. Forbes that there must; be no hint, of default,' he wrote:— This means the New Zealand workers are going to be starved and their wives and children starved, in order to pay blood money to a bunch of overseas parasites-who made millions during tho war and kindly consented to loan a, portion of same to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Canada to assist" in maintaining their armies. This, of course, was done in order to save their own skins. - Now all danger is past, the last penny of interest is being extracted from a starving people, who aro unfortunately represented by fool politicians, whose parrot-cry is, "Wo must honour our obligations. , .." Tho working class movement'"must sooner •or later take a Very definite stand in this all-important matter, and, sweep from power politicians like Forbes aftd Coates, who are responsible 'for tho country's present state -of 'decay by toadying to the fatted calf. Mr. J. Roberts, secretary, ,of .the Alliance of Labour and secretary of this1 conference, made a milder but still'definite endorsement of Langism at .the Town Hall demonstration on The ir. crease in the unemployment tax and the abolition of the Government subsidy meant, he said, that the workers T7ould be called upon to provide the whole of the unemployment funds,"so that the Consolidated Fund could be used to pay tho money-lenders overseas. The Government was proposing to starvo the people of* Now Zealand in order to satisfy the avarice of ,the'money-lenders. ' L - These statements can bear no other interpretation than that of repudiation of overseas debts—following in the footsteps of Mr. Lang. These are the statements of the conference leaders, and a frank avowal of their policy. Politicians who say "we must honour our obligations" are fool politicians. It is for such policies'that the leaders of the Alliance of Labour hope ultimately to gain the support of Public Service organisations. It is the old story of the "young lady of Niger who smiled as

she. rode on a tiger:" If Public Service organisations can be induced, by professions of concern for the Public Service, to commit their fortunes to a gently-purring Alliance of Labour, the Alliance will not hesitate to brin<* about the combination in a way that will satisfy itself. Then the smile will be "on the face of the tiger."