MR. SEMPLE AND STALIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 April 1940, Page 7

MR. SEMPLE AND STALIN

INTERJECTION RESENTED

P.W. EMPLOYEE DISMISSED

; [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] j”*’' . ". DUNEDIN, April 16. A workman . who defended Russia’s action in Finland, and told the Minister for Public Works .(Mr/ Semple) that he was not as good a man as Stalin,.. lost his job on the Haast Pass road suddenly this afternoon. These remarks were made while Mr. Semple was addressing men working on the road, and the atmosphere in the hall where the incident took place was tense while the Minister told the man what he thought of him, gave instructions for him to be dismissed immediately, and stated in vigorous Ihnguage that if he had any sympathisers in the camp they could go, too. The attitude of a great majority of the men in the hall indicated plainly that they approved of the Minister’s action. Mr. Semple, who was accompanied by the Ministei’ fox* Mines (Mr. Webb), was addressing the men on the subject of the war effort and was pointing out .that without the help of Great Britain New Zealand could easily share the fate of the small nations that had been invaded in the last year or two.

“Look what happened to Finland,” he said. “If the British Commonwealth went, if the British Navy 'went, that might quite likely happen to us. The Russian invasion of Finland was one of the greatest examples of international cowardice the world has ever seen.”

“It was not cowardice,” shouted a man at the back of the hall. “What —it was not cowardice?” Mr. Semple asked, incredulously!’ “No. It was not,” the man repeated. “That is my opinion, anyway.” Mr. Semple:- Well, you are a traitor and a coward.

“I am not a political twister, anyway,” the man replied, heatedly. “I knew there were one or two of them here,” the Minister said; “but they won’t be here long, and if that is the sort of opinion you hold, you won’t be here long either.” ‘“That won’t worry me,” was the reply. Continuing his speech, Mr. Semple said the British people had a desperate struggle ahead of them to-day to defend their liberty, and anyone who would not fight such a challenge had not the “guts of a whitebait.” Some people seemed to think there was liberty in Russia;, but he personally could draw no distinction between Russia and Germany. Stalin was just as big a murderer as Hitler.

The .same interjector: He is a better man than you. Mr. Semple (angrily): He is what? The man (slightly subdued): He is as good a man as you. “You dirty, cur,” 1 the Minister said, “I have never murdered a man in my life.”’

The man: Neither did Stalin. Mr. Semple: He has murdered hundreds.of .his fellow countrymen. Mr. Seinple sat down shortly afterwards amid loud applause. Later, when the men had been addressed by Mr. Webb and by Mr. W. A. Bodkin, member for Central Otago, Mr. Semple rose to his feet again. “I want to know whether there are any sympathisers with this man in the camp,” he said. “If there are, they can go out as well, because he is going now.

“You are a’n unmitigated cur,” Mr. Semple said, addressing the man directly. “You are an enemy of the British Empire, and a plague spot among men. Types like you are going to be cleaned right out of the public works of New Zealand.”

When the meeting was over, the man was dismissed by the engineer in charge of the work, and quietly left the hall.