Open Opposition On Conscription Issue

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 October 1948, Page 2

Open Opposition On Conscription Issue

[SPECIAL TO STAR] WELLINGTON, This Day. Organised; and declared opposition within the trade union movement to peace-time conscription is mounting. The campaign was initiated by the national officers of the Waterside Workers’ Union through allied unions and trades councils, and it is proposed to have a special conference of the Federation of Labour called immediately rather than accept the request of the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, that, a policy decision be deferred until his return from the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ conference. • The Waterside Union has refused to accept the Prime Minister’s proposition, and has determined to ignore the censures of the National Executive of the Federation of Labour directed at the union. The latest development this week was a visit of a waterside delegation headed by Mr H. Barnes, national president of the union, to the conference of the National Council of the New Zealand Freezing Workers’ Association. Subsequently, the president Mr S. Giles, and the secretary, Mr H. Kirkpatrick, of the Freezing Workers’ Association, announced that their organfeation had carried the following resolution:—“That we implement our previous resolutions by publicly stating our opposition to conscription and that we instruct all our delegates to district trades councils to press for the immediate calling of a special conference of the Federation.of Labour to discuss the question of conscription.” The association also endorsed the statement recently published by the Waterside Union demanding an immediate special conference. The council considered that a circular issued by the executive of the Federation of Labour censuring the watersiders and declared that the

federation executive’s action in the matter had no basis of support in the constitution of the federation. It is reported that the national executive of the Labour Party has issued a circular calling upon branches to defer declaration of policy pending the return of the Prime Minister. Even so, branches are adopting resolutions declaring themselves flatly opposed to conscription in peace-time. The feeling among militant unions is not only that conscription is contrary to the principles of the trade union movement, but that conscripts might be used to break strikes.