THE NEW GUARD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 71, 23 February 1932, Page 7

THE NEW GUARD

RECENT CHARGE AGAINST LEADER. COLONEL CAMPBELL’S POSITION. ACTION BY FULL COURT. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received February 23, 11.15 a.m. SYDNEY, Feb. 23. The Full Court, comprising the Chief justice, Sir Philip Street, and Justices Davidson, Halse and Rogers, granted a rul<s nisi for a prohibition calling on Mr Laidlaw, SAL, and Police Sergeant Lendrum to show cause why they should not be prevented from proceeding further on the conviction of Colonel Eric Campbell, leader of the New; Guard, on a charge of having used insulting words. “READY TO PREVENT CHAOS.” LEADER’S SPEECH. At a meeting of New Guardsmen At the Royal Theatre, Windsor, recently, Colonel Eric Campbell, leader of the organisation, said that there were 10O>— 000 men in the State organised in military fashion. They were not an aggressive body, but were merely ready to prevent the chaos into which New South was likely to fall at an early date says the Sydney Morning Herald. Representatives of the Church were prominent at the meeting, at which 800 prospective members were present. Rev. N. Jenkyn (Mayor of Windsor and rector of St. Matthew’s Church) was chairman, and also on the platform was Rev. R. C. Lawton, Presbyterian minister. They expressed their willingness to do all that was possible to help the State in the present crisis. Colonel Campbell, in an address on the- objects and activities of the body, said the Communism was a' very real danger, and, although the pupulation. of Russia numbered many millions, its Soviet form of government was engineered by 200 Communists. “It could quite easily be done m Australia,” said Mr Campbell, “by the small baud of imported scum now representing Sovietism in Sydney. When asked a question by Mr A. E. Cordner, leader of the Farmers Transport Defence Union, Colonel Campbell said that the Transport Act was the rottenest statute ever enacted. He added that, as control of transport was the. first step in Russia a Soviet plan, New South Wales had made a good start towards following in Russia’s footsteps. A challenge was made to Colonel Campbell by a member of the audience concerning a statement that ho had made recently—“if there be any loyal citirens outside the New Guard. Colonel Campbell said that he did not insinuate that everyone who was not a member of the organisation was disloyal, but such people were not 100 per cent, loyal. “Loyalty to the State cannot be accomplished by passiveness,” he said, “but by activity. Passive loyalty lias got us into the mess we are in today.”