BAN ON COMMUNIST SPEAKING IN RAILWAY WORKSHOPS

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 June 1948, Page 3

BAN ON COMMUNIST SPEAKING IN RAILWAY WORKSHOPS

(P.A.) WELLINGTON. June 5. A Government decision prohibiting Mr Claude Jones, the Queensland State president . of the Communist Party, from fulfilling a union invitation to give a speech inside the Hutt railway workshops was given to the Wellington district committee of the Communist Party yesterday afternoon.

An announcement has been made by the party that it is determined, in spite of the ban, to see that Mr Jones describes the recent Queensland railway strike to the Hutt railway workers, and that Mr Jones would address a meeting outside the workshop gates at noon on Tuesday.

Originally the Communist Party wrote to the secretary of the Woburn branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Workers (Mr K. Jonassen) saying that Mr Jones would like an opportunity to address the union. The union telephoned the party and said it had decided to allow Mr Jones to speak at lunch-time on Tuesday and suggested an application to the 'Railways Department. Yesterday the party received a telephone message from the Railways Department saying that Mi - Jones could not speak inside the workshops. In a statement, the Communist Party accused the Government of political bias and being prepared to go to “extreme lengths” to prevent information about the strike and the subsequent wage increases becoming known to New Zealand railwaymen and unionists generally.