“Submit or Starve”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 97, 7 April 1934, Page 8

“Submit or Starve”

(To the Editor). iSir, —The time is opportune to bring before the public the victimisation and the rotten conditions to which the unemployed are being reduced. hour weeks ago there was one glaring case of victimisation; now there are. five in Hastings and one other in Napier. Of the Hastings cases, the first was on account of the militancy and past activities of the man in question although the “.excuse’’ given was that he would not work. One man was i struck off the register because he used an impolite expression to an understrapper in the certifying office. The others were refused further relief work because they would not accept the rotten conditions obtaining on the Rivers Board job. Similar victimisation is being imposed on the unemployed throughout the Dominion. In every rase the victim is refused any assistance or sustenance from the charitable aid boards or any other organisation, thus reducing to starvation or crime these men together with their wives and children.

It is simply a case of “Submit to ‘.he rotten conditions and exploitation or starve.” The crude barbarities of the past fade into insignificance in comparison with the inhumanities perpetrated by mankind on his fellows in this age of culture and civilisation. All these men are classed as “voluntary unemployed” by the certifying officer and the Unemployment Board, voluntary unemployed because they have the manhood and moral courago to protest against the iniquities of a system and Government whose slogan is “Starvation the road to prosperity.” The time for futile resolutions is long since past. Are we to allow men, women, and children to

starve, or be driven to crime? Ii it any wonder that there is seething discontent among the workers? Is it to be wondered at that the spirit of Communism is spreading with increasing rapidity throughout the world? Is it not time that a determined effort be made to put our house in order, or are we to be reduced to chaos?—l am, etc., E. KELLY, Sec. N.U.W.M. Hastings, April 6, 1934.

[We have published the above letter to reveal the wholly distorted view held bv a small minority concerning unemployment relief. There is no evidence that any man has been deprived of the advantages of relief work providing he is prepared to do the work allotted him and to observe the usual courtesies necessary for the smooth working of anv organisation. With so much of the effort of the community being directed toward mitigating the effect of unemployment it is sheer mouthing nonsense to talk of “rotten conditions.” “exploitation” and “victimisation.” As for “Submit or Starve.” this is equally absurd. Perhaps Mr. Kelly would prefer to have the statement follow the Russian lines of “Submit or be Shot.”—Ed. H.B.T.]