APATHY AND FEAR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22588, 17 March 1948, Page 6

APATHY AND FEAR

DANGER COMMUNISM’S GROWTH UNIONS INFILTRATED “Recent trends in Europe, in the Empire, and even in our own country provide irrefutable evidence of the insidious spread of atheistic communism.” said Mr. C. G. E. Barker, M.P. for Hawke’s Bay, in an address to members of the National Party in the National Club on Monday night. It was a matter of comment, he said, that in England no Communist could get into the Labour Party, whereas in New Zealand the Communists openly advocated and advertised support for the Labour Party. Moreover, there was a real difference between the policy of British Labour and communism, but In New Zealand there was no essential difference in the objectives of the two parties: the difference lay primarily in the methods employed in reaching the common objective —ultimate socialism. Since speaking in Gisborne 12 months aao. they had seen the dark clouds gathering over Europe. They had seen and realised the grave implication of it—the steady extension of the area falling behind the iron curtain. In New Zealand, during the same period, communism had advanced a. an alarming rate It should not nave required the seizure of Czechoslovakia by the ‘‘stooges of the Kremlin" io cause real concern as to what was happening in the world: the menace should have been realised long before, as nil the danger signals were there. Hold on Executive Positions

The explanation of the growth of communism, said .Air. Barker, was apathy and fear. There was not a trade union in New Zealand which had anything like a majority of Communists among itx members: he uuubtcd whether there were 19 per cent. Yet there were too many unions—probably all the larger ones —in which the executive positions were held by a majority of Communists or nearCommunists. This position resulted from the apathy of the decent men who comprised an overwhelming majority of unionists, and because of the Communist. psychology of inspiring fear in the minds of those whom they desired to intimidate.

“If the free institutions of this country are to survive," said Mr. Harker, “it is important that we should realise just how great is the danger confronting us. People must know that the danger is not fanciful, but very real. Either the forces of good must be rallied to conquer or else they will be submerged by the forces of evil.”