ALLEGATIONS OF A TRAP

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 12 September 1935, Page 7

ALLEGATIONS OF A TRAP

THE CLERGV AND POLITICS RECENT AUCKLAND MEETING COMMENT IN THE HOUSE (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, To-day. Reference to the meeting in Auckland organised by Anglican and Roman Catholic clergy to protest against present-day social conditions was made by several speakers during the Ad-dress-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives last night. Mr. W. J. J ordan (Lab., Manukau) said the meeting clearly indicated that the Church had no confidence in the Government. It had.been presided over by Archbishop Aver ill and the fact that resolutions had been passed calling attention t 0 the chronic poverty and distress in the Dominion and demanding a. no-confidence rejection of the Government at the general election showed the feeling of a large section of the community.:

An allegation that the clergy had been trapped into attending the meeting by political campaigners was made y the Minister of Employment, Hon. S. G. Smith, who followed Air Jordan. The Minister said only 2000 people in the great city of Au el* an cl were present. Who were they?—Communists and anti-Govermnent supporters and people one would naturally expect to find at. a meeting to pass a resolution condemning the Government. Suppporters of the Labour Party would walk dozens of miles to do that. Those were party tactics. “I would have been very interested to have been present at that meeting last night,” added Air Smith. “J would not be surprised if there was among the audience a number of the anti-God people who are so well kno.vn in Auckland, cheering on the clergy in their indictment of the Government.” “The clergy are not the simpletons the Alinister of Employment nakes out they are, but responsible men,” said Air W. A. Veitch (lnd., Wanganui). Ail honour was due to the clergy in coming out from their pulpits in the interests of humanity, to whom they realised their responsibilities. His own experience of the conditions of the unemployed convinced him of their unsatisfactory lot and confirmed the views expressed by tlie clergymen, despite the rather disrespectful remarks of the Alinister. Air A. J. Stalhvorthy (Inc!., Eden): Hear, hear.