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Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 271, 1 November 1916, Page 3

Tn a letter published in the Dunedin “Star” Mr. IT. Breen, secretary of Otago Trades and Labour Council, takes strong exception to a manifest!© published in Australia by New Zealand Labour Party. He says that, were it not for the fact that this document- has gone forth to the workers of Australia signed by two of Dunedin’s most prominent and highly-respected Labour representatives, the Hon. J. T. Paul and Mr. A. Walker, M.P., the manifesto could have been treated as a joke; hut, as one on whose behalf it claims to speak, Mr. Breen says he has no hesitation in stignatising the manifesto as the grossest misrepresentation of the facts. He says, in conclusion: “If the unions are opposed to conscription, then they should all join the New Zealand Labour party and wipe it off our Statute Book; but will they do so ? 1 know something of the minds of the workers of Dunedin, and I venture to say that thev will not.”

During the course of a speech at a valedictory concert tendered at Waiuku on Friday night a Motorboat Patrolman S. B. Mason and Trooper Cecil McFadyen by the Waiuku Patriotic trustees, Sergeant Major Fletcher, returned soldier, gave some timely advice to both civilians and soldiers. The speaker said that he, was of the opinion that all able- bodied men would be needed before the war was over, and the Rumanian reverse strengthened this impression. He would therefore advise civilians to prepare, by resuscitating their National Reserve and their rifle clube. Men needed training, training, and yet more training. 'When men had to go through such an ordeal as crossing the famous “Daisy Patch” they needed ail the training they could get. Out of 56 men who had led across, only three got back. His men used to chafe about his demand for training before they got into any action, but they did not do so afterwards. SergeantMajor added point to his remarks by relating a humorous story of a Scotsman who had been told to “keep fit,” because he would be wanted. By and bye, sure enough he was called up, and soon saw his first fight. : When he came out of that hell of high explosives and machine gun i fire he said to a comrade: “Mon, I but I am glad I kept fit. They told '■ me I was going to fight for my King ! and country, but when I got over, there I found that I had to fight for my damn life!”