HOTEL INCIDENTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 67, 16 February 1939, Page 9

HOTEL INCIDENTS.

COMMENT BY PREMIER. INVESTIGATING POSITION. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Feb. 15. “I am endeavouring to ascertain the legal position/' said the Prime Minister (lit. Hon. M. J. Savage), when his attention was called this evening to the statement by Mr F. Goldberg that lie had consulted Mr Savage concerning the reason for developments at certain hotels where he had obtained accommodation. “Mr Goldberg came to see me the other day,” said Mr Savage, “and I told him I did not know the legal position hut that I would find out. I am taking steps to ascertain it now. “Mr Goldberg also told me he did not want any publicity given the matter but a Press Association message of three-quarters of a column from Christchurch he has in to-night’s paper certainly looks to me a little bit like publicity. Mr Goldberg has got more publicity than Ministers of tlie Crown get for important statements.” BOYCOTT CONTINUED. FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 15. In connection with the boycott by members of the Hotel Workers’ Union against Mr Frank Goldberg, a Sydney businessman, in the city, this evening Mr Goldlierg voluntarily left Warners Hotel, where he had booked in on Tuesday after having left tile United Service Hotel because of the boycott. The staff of the hotel had refused to serve Mr Goldberg with food or drink, or to perform any service for him whatever.

AVhen a reporter called at the office of the Canterbury Hotel Workers’ Union to ask Mr R. Williams (assist-ant-secretary) for a comment on the situation in the absence of Mr Brooks (secretary), he was told by a member of the office staff that Mr Williams would not sec and had no statement to make to the newspapers. Others who declined to make any statement on the situation when approached were Mr B. Reginald Collins, manag-ing-hirector of Warners Hotel, Mr Ernest Boulton, manager of the United Service Hotel, and Mr A. Wilson, president of the Canterbury Hotel Workers’ Union, who is the chef at Warners Hotel.

Replying to the comment of the Prime Minister, Mr Goldberg said: I did everything that was possible to avoid publicity, but it was impossible to keep the news of the situation out of the newspapers. In my stay at the hotels it has been impossible to entertain friends and business associates, and I had to explain to them the reason for this. You know how difficult it was last night to get me to make my first statement on the subject. You were with me till 12 o’clock before I would say “yes” to you. When asked about a pamphlet published during the election campaign last year, entitled “Your Future in Your Hands,” which it had been stated he had taken part in preparing, Mr Goldberg said: I had no association with it whatever. I condemned it then, and I condemn it now.

Mr Goldberg has arranged to stay privately in Christchurch until the Newspaper Proprietors’ Conference at Hanmer Springs.