MR FRASER GETS GOOD HEARING AT CHRISTCHURCH

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 August 1949, Page 6

MR FRASER GETS GOOD HEARING AT CHRISTCHURCH

CHRISTCHURCH, August 1 (P.A.) The Prime Minister, Mr P. Fraser, spoke for 75 minutes on the referendum issue in the Civic Theatre this evening. There were about 1100 present. The meeting was lively. One persistent interjector was arrested, and he will be charged in the Magistrate’s Court tomorrow with disorderly behaviour. Although there were plenty of interjections, Mr Fraser had a better hearing than had some of the earlier speakers. Before a motion in favour of compulsory military training was put to the meeting, after Mr Fraser had finished speaking, a number of persons left the hall. The meeting carried the motion by a very large majority. Before beginning his speech, Mr Fraser asked all those who were in favour of free speech to raise their

hands. Then he asked those who were against free speech to raise their hands. There was no response, and later Mr Fraser drew laughter when he referred to the interjectors as “this miserable minority.” There had been a continual'stream of New Zealand Communists to Marx House in Sydney, Mr Fraser said; but if they thought that they were going to get their dupes and fellow travellers and to cause the strife they had caused in Australia, they were making the mistake of their lives. He stated that the opponents of the training proposal had said that they were not opposed to conscription in time of war. The question then was whether they were to be trained nr not. Military leaders had said that, if men were trained, the number of casualties was decreased. After dealing at great length with the expansion and the ambitions of Russia in Europe, Mr Fraser said that the people of New Zealand were alive to this danger, and they were determined that, in the future, as in the past, their country would be free. Other speakers were the Minister of Defence, Mr F. Jones; the Maori member of the Executive Council, Mr E. T. Tirikatene; Mr J. T. Watts (Nationalist M.P. for St Albans), and Mr D. W. Russell, representing the R.S.A. The Mayor, Mr E. H. Andrews presided. The meeting concluded- with cheers for Mr Fraser.