ANOTHER ASPECT

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 99, 23 October 1940, Page 10

ANOTHER ASPECT

COURT PROCEEDINGS ADVOCATED

A special meeting of the Wellington Clothing Trades Union, held last night; carried the following resolution: —

"That while agreeing with the necessity for the Public Safety Emergency Regulations, 1940/254, the union considers that no person should be punished without being first convicted by a Magistrate."

Mr. E. B. Newton, secretary of the union, said today that there was no doubt about the loyalty of the clothing trades workers, who ealised that the country was at war, and that people who obstructed the war effort or impeded production in essential industry must be prevented from continuing such activity. This was also his own personal conviction. "During the last war I had three and a half years' service overseas, and I know what would have happened to such people if the soldiers could have laid hands on them," Mr. Newton added. "There are no such people in the clothing trade, and this goes for the employers also. They have answered every call for production and will continue to do so to the best of their ability. The point of the resolution is that members considered that offenders against the regulations should be charged before a Magistrate, and punished according to law. This might result in punishment more severe than loss of employment, but the meeting considered that it was the correct way to deal with the question."