CONSCRIPTION IN AUSTRALIA

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 269, 30 October 1916, Page 2

CONSCRIPTION IN AUSTRALIA

! NEAV ZEALAND WORKERS I MISREPRESENTED, j A PROTEST. ' The Wellington correspondent to the Auckland “Star” says that the publication of the manilesto of the National Executive of the Labour Party of New Zealand, stating that “the organised workers of New Zealand are opposed to conscription,” and encouraging tne anti-compul-sionists in Australia to persist in their opposition to the Federal Government’s proposals, has occasioned i a good deal of surprise and not a litiie indignation here. Numbers of! unionists, as well as non-unionists,; are protesting that the National! Executive of the Labour Party, as it calls itself, has no right to speak j on behalf of more than a mere frac-j tion of the workers, and no right! to commit even that fraction to an I endorsement of the disloyal atti-i tude of the anti-compulsionists in; the Commonwealth. The serious! part of the business is that the * manilesto is signed by responsible' men like the Hon. 3. T. Paul, Mr.! J. McCombs and Mr. A. Walker whoi by their very position in Parliament will, gain a hearing they never would obtain without that distinction. These legislators have not even suggested any alternative to conscription by which Australia’s contributions to the Imperial ForePS could he mainl/pincd nnd nnnnr.

■ua vuuiu ue maiiiL<uuea 3 ana appar- ( ently rather than accept a disagree- } able measure under the stress of circumstances they would allow Australia and New Zealand to incur the shame of failing in their obligations to the Mother Country. That, at any rate, is the interpretation the sari& workers are putting upon this latest indiscretion of the i politicians who are emulating the | three tailors of Tooley Street by ■ presuming to speak on behalf of i the organised workers of New Zea- | land. What the great majority of j the workers think of their presumption may be judged from some remarks made by an old hand on the waterfront this morning. “Don’t you worry,” was his "comforting counsel, “Paul and McCombs are simply' advertising themselves—badly, of course, but still advertis- ' ing. They think that because the workers don’t like war and high prices and Bill Massey, they’ll do j anything to embarrass this Government or any other Government. But that’s not how the fellow’s here, the great bulk of them, are feeling. They whnt to get the war over as quickly as possible by winning it, and when that’s done they’ll settle their account with the politicians. , If rich and poor are given a square I deal under conscription it is * the best way, and, even if it wasn’t, we | couldn’t ask the Germans to stop shooting till we found another.” That tersely expresses the view’s of ninety per cent of the workers one encounters on the wffiarves and in the streets. They want no domestic broils w’ith a common enemy is at the gate, and so long its thev get that square deal i they ar*e going to do nothing to provoke them.