N.Z. LABOUR PARTY

Grey River Argus, 31 March 1943, Page 2

N.Z. LABOUR PARTY

OTAGO L.R.C. DUNEDIN, March 29. At the annual meeting of the Otago Labour Representation Committee 'the following officers elected: President, Mr W. B. Richards (re-elected); vice-president, Mr W Ruttledge; secretary-treasurer, Mr F. Percy (unopposed); assistantsecretary, Mrs E. Mains (unopposed), trustees, Messrs W- 81.B 1 . Richards ana M. Silverstone; auditors, Messrs E. Clayton and E. Sincock; committee, Mrs Bullen, Messrs W. A. Hudson, D. Cadigan, T. Campbell and Mr Silverstone. The annual report stated: — We first of all wish to convey our tribute to our esteemed comrades who have passed on during these 12 months, and to their relatives and dependents, we extend this O.L.R.C. deepest sympathy. To all our soldier comrades of tne Labour Movement and delegates who are serving with our armed forces in each and all theatres of war, we extend our best wishes and sincerely trust that in the near future we may have them back home with, us, once again safe and well, and with this greatest calamity of all time, fought to a victorious conclusion and an international understanding, that it has been, a war fought and won for the purpose of ending all possibilities of future wars. ■ Your executive would point out that we in New Zealand are at present passing through the greatest crisis in our Dominion’s history. Already we have seen vast changes taking place in the Pacific with our Japanese aggressor passing from one victory to another. We have seen him devestate peaceful, loving peoples in turn and to-day we find him' actually at our back door, in that he has transgressed the shore of our isister Dominion-un-arms, Australia. His progress has until now, been rapid and. treacherous, due mostly to our own lack of equipment and inefficient preparation; but to-day we can now at least feel a good deal more secrue, due to that wonderful combination of American, Australian and New Zealand personnel, who are striving valiantly on land, sea and in the air, to hurl back for all time our treacherous aggressors. These preparations for our complete destruction have been collosal, but fortunately a much better dawning is now awakening and will enable us to win through. We are grateful indeed for the fact that both here and in Australia we have a Labour Government in power to conserve thte interests of the masses of people, otherwise our struggle may have been very much more difficult. Like our great Ally the Soviet Union, we are with them, looking to the future with renewed confidence. Ibecauste they ' demonstrated to the world at large what can be. accomplished by complete confidence and co-operation. Who

would ever have visualised our great Russian peoples standing f up to the terrific onslaught of such a fighting machine prepared solely by the enemy for his complete annihilation, Divine Providence ruled otherwise, however, and we now see the Russian nation as a whole, hitting back With such violence that the enemy is now doomed and may it well spell his total destruction for all time. We are further hopeful of the day when we can win back for China all the vast territories she has been deprived of. and to see her allowed to enjoy once agam, the privileges of the western world. It behoves our Labour forces to stand united; for it is easy for us to visualise strong opposition to the everlasting peace which we, as workers, so desire; the powers that be will fight us all the way and without, we are determined to keen a Government of ourselves in power, then we venture to say a lot of our efforts will be of no avail. Let us remind you then if such be necessary that the price of victory is terrific. See to it then that we protect our offspring who are fighting for us by standing behind their only safeguard —a Labour Government. It’s our duty. We owe it to them. You’ll agree! It will be and is admitted by your executive, that our social activities have been limited for the period under review; due to war conditions our Cabinet Minister and Government members have not been able to give us the time we all so desire; furthermore with the many calls made upon bur manpower and both industrially and for the military forces we have had many difficulties. Despite this drawback we have_been honoured by visits and addresses from the following gentlemen: Hon, F.'Jones, Hon. D. G. Sullivan. Hon. P. C. Webb, Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer, Hon. J. G. Barclay, Hon. D. Wilson, and the National Secretary, Mr Moohan, all of whom were very cordially received. In passing, your committee wish to express the sincerest appreciation of the great work being done by the party branches in their efforts to solidify the movement; the effort of the South Dunedin Branch in the interests of our soldier personnel is worthy of our highest commendation while the effort of the Caversham branch in clearing their hall of any debt is also a wonderful achievement. Th’e enthusiasm of Caversham, Green Island and Dunedin South branches could well be followed by other branches and if such were done, the future of our movement would remain assured for all time. _ Now we come to possibly our greatest activity for the period under review, namely our great Queen Carnival campaign. This great effort resulted in the magnificent sum of £18,642 8s 6d being raised and passed over to the Patriotic Fund, and placed our organisation on quite a unique pedestal, principally because of the fact that our Tory, opponents did not believe such was

possible. As a result of this effort we were able to . achieve much greater representation on the Local Patriotic Council and while we are not in actual sympathy with the methods used for collecting funds, we have nullified any possibility of criticism that the Labour Movement isn’t pulling its weight, a weapon which we feel sure, the Opposition would have used to the full, had they been afforded such an opportunity. Too much praise could not be given to our organising secretary, Mr Herbert, who did a really marvellous job. , . Due to war conditions, organising activities have been very limited within the movement; depleted membership has caused much concern to affiliations and branches alike financially many organisations have had a very trying time; stilb it behoves supporters to note that with an election now pending it is our bounden duty to co-operate and organise as never before. Delegates, our future is in the balance; it’s more so now than at any time previous in our history. Why? Because if Tories replace* us at this stage post-war rehabilitation to the workers will mean nothing. Well then, it’s up to us and we can’t start too soon. Your executive feel that the Labour Movement in Otago will have a stupendous undertaking to find the necessary finance to conduct a successful election campaign. Much propaganda will be necessary to fight our esteemed friends, the Tory press. Your executive appeal to you then, to get busy as early as possible and campaign and organise. In conclusion your executive meetings have been held: ‘monthly and have on all occasions been very well attended by members.