Unfounded Attacks Waste Of Venom In View Of Mr. Fraser

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22915, 6 April 1949, Page 8

Unfounded Attacks Waste Of Venom In View Of Mr. Fraser

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, April 6. “In view of the statements of Mr. Barnes, president, and Mr. T. Hill, secretary of the Waterside Workers' Union, accusing the Minister of Labour, Mr. A. McLagan, of dictatorial action in announcing the attitude and proposed action of the Government in regard to repeated stoppages on the waterfront of the country, it is necessary to make it plain beyond any doubt whatever that Mr McLagan has acted on the unanimous Cabinet decision,” said the Prime Minister, Mr. I J . Fraser, yesterday. "The letter of March 31 sent by Mr. McLagan to Mr. Hill for the consideration of the Waterside Workers’ Union contained the Government’s request for a secret ballot of members of the union to determine their attitude towards the Waterfront Commission and for their honourable adherence to the observance of the written undertaking given in their name and on their behalf to accept all decisions of the Waterfront Industry Authority. The letter was read to the meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Thursday last and was unanimously approved. "Virulent and Unfounded”

"Therefore, the violent, virulent and unfounded attacks upon Mr. McLagan are irrelevant and a waste of even inaccuracy and venom. “It is not Mr. McLagan alone, but the Government and the Parliamentary Labour Party, entrusted by the majority of the people of the country, with the task of administering the affairs ol the country, including the laws governing its industrial activities, which have decided to appeal from the officials who have broken the undertaking given on behalf of the union to the members ol the union. “The Government believes that the great majority of them wish to retain commission control and the many advantages which are associated with it, that they wish their word and their bond to be honourably observed and that they would faithfully carry out their undertaking to accent the Waterfront Authority’s decisions as a condition of acceptance of commission control,” concluded the Prime Minister.