UNALTERABLE VIEW

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 264, 7 October 1942, Page 2

UNALTERABLE VIEW

MR COATES AND THE STRIKE. (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 7. Mr Coates said .to-day that his unalterable view is that under the present circumstances first principles should be the only consideration. The safety of the people comes first and must be the overriding principle. He said that at the caucus he put the whole position fully and frankly to the members of the National Party. There was general agreement upon the urgent need to get coal out and that further interruption would have immediate and far-reaching consequences upon urgent war requirements. There was also substantial agreement that sending the men to gaol would not have helped the position. He said that there was no positive alternative to giving the men an opportunity to return to the hewing of coal. Mr Coates revealed that he travelled to Auckland at the express wish of the coalmine owners that he should accompany any Minister who went up. He was glad to do so, lie said, because of his very keen appreciation of the critical situation that was developing to the detriment of the country. He regretted that Mr Holland and his supporters had seen fit to make the matter a political issue at a time when, ho believed, the majority of the pr mic had little patience with party differences. Similar methods to those adopted in the Waikato had had to be employed in Great Britain in respect- of workers who engaged in strikes in essential industries, yet there had never been a suggestion that British political unity had thereby been disturbed.