Protest Meeting

Hutt News, Volume 15, Issue 39, 18 March 1942, Page 5

Protest Meeting

SHOUT WOHKINCi HOIHS COXDOJMvit Over "1 no people, some of whom had (ravelled from Wellington specially for the occasion. attended a public protest meeting' which was held in the Horticultural Hall on Monday evening last. The meeting which extended an invitation to express their feelings to the "thousands of citizens who are not satislied with the efforts in general of home defence" was presided over by Air. Wilfred .Jones, who emphasised I that the. meeting was non-poiitical. ''( 'in il such time as we are fully prepared to meet attempi ed Nin vas ion or prolonged air a Hack, there should be no let. .lip," declared Mr. X. I*. Croft, the principal speaker. ".Everybody should be on the same level and, if necessary, should work seven days a. week, and 11! hours a day. Labour strikes should be eliminated, and every able-bodied man should prepare to defend his country and bis women-folk'. Deeds, not words, were required; hitherto New Zealand seemed to have been l carried by talking; the man who could speak' from a public platform

was the man who got. into power. Mr. Crol't advocated the elimination of all non-essential industries, and said as an example that the .steel now being used for refrigerators and ovens should he going into armoured lorries. "I am here to r.ay what 1 think" .said Mr. Crol't, "and 1 do not can i io;:e my commission in th" Home Guard, or anything else, us a result. Too long in the Home Guard and kindred organisations had the few carried the many, lie sa: - I. Captain S. trickle ton, V.C., a member of the audience who spoke' from the platform, declared that there is no TOO per cent, war effort in this country. Those who were working more than 40 hours a week were doing it gladly, because they were being paid for it. New Zealanderg did not know what war was. Captain Frieklelon declared, and th sooner everyone woke up and worked the hours necessary to pre-' pare for the defenc of the country, thy better. There were numerous interjections during all the speeches; and several members of the audience spoke from the platform, and also . from the floor. 1 One speaker exhorted those pre- . sent not to wait or look for a \ leader, but to "be their own leaders." A soldier returned from the Mid- ! die East said he had served under one of the "Four Colonels"—Colonel Macky, who had led his battalion so magnificiently that some men wept when he left it. There * were some returned from overseas who could no longer stand up to hard service but they could tell men (

now iii training some of the home (ruths of war. Colonel Macky was one ot : those who had offered his services in any capacity. He was not accepted and would not be for the present. Mr. Craig McKenzie, who said he was a tcacher at the Hutt Valley High School, described the meeting as ill-advised and stupid. There was much dissent at this. "Your raucous stupidity is not going to put me off," he continued. "•Those who have had most of the say are as misinformed as they possibly could be. They have argued about small things that matter little. Not one person in the hall knows what is being done about the important things. Does anyone here know the first thing about our home defences—our air force and army. s A motion was carried of support to the Government, in a total war c ellort whereby every lit. man and woman was mobilised for war work ( to tlie fullest possible extent. N A motion advocating rational go- j vernment under military control to handle the whole situation was lost. 0 A committee was set up to place 0 the views of the meeting before the 111 ember for the district. . * Toward the close there was some \ disruption when several persons (J were endeavouring to speak at once from the platform and there was a t[ •scene approaching the unpleasant a when a speaker who came from the body ol the hall objected to a state- () ment by a previous speaker that hi Q had admitted lie was a pacifist, j This statement was subsequently withdrawn alter a good deal of argu rj