LOADING SPEED-UP FOR YUGOSLAV SHIP AT AUCKLAND

Grey River Argus, 20 April 1948, Page 5

LOADING SPEED-UP FOR YUGOSLAV SHIP AT AUCKLAND

Mr Fraser Asks Mr Barnes Why Discriminate I

P.A. WELLINGTON, April 19. “To talk of • a simple statement of fact as ‘a malicious attack’ is simply childish, and worthy only of tolerant and amused contempt”, said the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, to-day, in reply to the latest statement of the president of the Auckland Branch of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union, Mr H. Barnes, on the loading of the Yugoslav ship Radnik. “The figures of the loading of the Radnik that I have given are accurate”, said Mr Fraser. “But Mr Barnes cannot hide the super-interest which he and his colleagues took in the loading of the Radnik under the hides—-there is no hide-out there. The fact admitted by Mr Barnes is that he and his colleagues took a special, keen, active, and beneficial interest in the loading of this Yugoslav ship. When have they done the same for a British ship? If they can establish the fact that it is their custom and practice to do so, and can quote similar cases, I will admit that I have been wrongly informed. If Mr Barnes will produce the required evidence, it will save a lot of unnecessary discussion, and will render avoidable the submission, to the next meeting of the branch, of a resolution condemning myself, which, in the absence of that proof, will mean nothing”.

British Ships Slowed in N.Z.j Says Commander

P.A. WELLINGTON, April 19. “Here in New Zealand, twelve thousand miles from London, Britain’s great export drive is being slowed down”, said the master of the Port Wellington and the Commodore of the Port Line fleet, Commodore W. G. in an interview. “In Britain, to-day, everyone is being urged by economists and statesmen to produce and export more and more or die”, he declared. “We produce more. We load the ships, and send our exports overseas; and, yet at the end of twelve thousand miles, ships are being kept here when they should be turned round and on their way back to Britain for another cargo shipment”.