SEAMEN’S UNION

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 28 January 1927, Page 7

SEAMEN’S UNION

REGENT EVENTS.

MR YOUNG’S STATEMENT,

HIS ALLEGED DEPOSITION

lily rKLEQKAFH —PRESS ASSOCIATION./ WELLINGTON, Jan. 28.

The secretary of the Seamen’s Union (Mr Young) made a statement to-day which' he said he wished to go lor ward to the workers of the Dominion “The statement regarding my alleged deposition.” he said, “conies from a body that lias existed only since Tuesday evening last, a body ,of which I was not at ; any time a member, let alone an officer, i am the general ot the Federated Seamen’s Union of -New Zealand, a bodv which was established in, 1881 and hist registered under the Trade Union Act in 1885. Our general president is Air Fitte, the treasurer Air Currie; our two vice-presidents are Aleissrs Brown and Payne, and the assistant secretary is Air Frank Hewed. The Federated Seamen’s Union of New Zenand alone possesses the right* to dispose: of its officers through constitutional channels. That fairly well answers the allegations under the head of bogus union. Tint I may mention that our organisation is a national body possessing national rates, and giving to* members national rights, and it invests in the members themselves the absolute right to control the organisation in the place of the members being dictated to by a small coterie, whether the latter be designated the executive council or otherwise. . . “In regard to the funds which it is alleged were illegally transferred, I have to state that the money referred to, also- a little that has been added to it, stands to the credit at the bank of the men who own it. and that is not F. P. Walsh and Co. We are trustees of the money, which is to be honestly u,sect for the purposes of the men who own it.” ? In. regard to what took place at the office, Air Young said,that a number of men, between sixty and seventy, cam;? to the office, headed by Mr Walsli and seven other prominent- men. They read a resolution of an alleged meeting, and demanded that he hand over the keys and the property in the office. Mr Young refused, being the legal custodian of everything in the office. The result was that lie was forcibly ejected by a man who was not a member of the Wellington Union. The general president and Mr Payne were also ejected by force. “‘ln conclusion,” said Air Young, “I wish to say to the working men. and women of the Dominion who know me in political and industrial movements for the past 28 years that nothing of a bogus nature exists, and that the funds are perfectly safe in the hands of the men who are trustees for those owning the.money.”