Unemployed Women's Impassioned Appeal

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6834, 15 April 1932, Page 8

Unemployed Women's Impassioned Appeal

SAT MEN TALK OF INSURRECTION "NO ONE WILL STARVE, ’’ REPLIES MINISTER Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, April 14. Tho unemployed women of Wellington, who have formed an organisation under tho auspices of the Trades and Labour Council approached the Minister in Charge of Unemployment to-day with a strong request to receive at least the same consideration as single men who pay unemploymemt tax. There were about 150 in the deputation, which was introduced by Mr Holland, Leader of the Opposition, and was accompanied by Messrs Fraser, Semple, McKeen and Jordan, Labour M.P.'s. Miss O’Connor, speaking impassioncdly, after assuring the Minister that employers were taking advantage of tho situation to exploit women, said the deputation differed from any one which had previously approached him. It was going to get what it asked for. "This is not a threat,” she said. ‘‘We have discouraged our men who hold thoughts of insurrection, but we arc no longer going to do that. We are going to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. Wo will fight hack to hack with them and when tho women start to fight, all I can say is, ‘God help you’ and all other people on the benches of Parliament.”

Other speakers instanced cases in which girls were being made to suffer hardship. The Minister was asked to appeal to employers to give a chance to single women. Many married women, it was-stated, held jobs whose husbands were in well-paid positions. Mr Holland supported the request that the Unemployment Board should be abolished and the Minister take direct responsibility. Mr Coates, replying, said the Unemployment Board was asking different central organisations to send in their requirements and the Board would do its best to meet them. The central organisations would soon bo called upon to make the necessary provision to meet the cases of -women in distress. The Government would allow no one to starve and the organisation to cope with the position will be as extensive as possible.