British Workers Proud of Churchill

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 102, 1 May 1941, Page 6

British Workers Proud of Churchill

Will be Masters Of Air This Year TRADE UNION HEADER’S CONFIDENCE Per Pres* Association WELLINGTON, April 30. National unity in Great Britain at present was emphasised by Mr. William Holmes, past president of tho Trades Union Congress and general secretary of the National Union of Agricultural Workers iu the United Kingdom, when replying to-day to a welcome at a luncheon given by the Government. “The working-class movement stands with the Government. We do not ask what Government it is so long as it has been elected by the people in a democratic way,” said Mr. Holmes. “Mr. Churchill may not belong to the party to which we belong, but wo are proud of him. He typifies the English outlook at present and ho will see us through if he gets the proper backing.” Rt. Hon. P. Fraser presided at the luncheon which was attended by Minis ters, members of the House of Representatives and Legislative Council, foreign consuls, trado commissioners and representatives of industrial labour and the trade union movement.

Mr. leaser said the Trado Union Congress members were using every means in their power to help in the present struggle because they knew if they lost the trade union movement would bn the first of the democratic institutions to go by tho board just as it had been overthrown in every country where Nazism had dominated. The people of Great Britain had set an example New Zealanders were endeavouring to emulate. Mr. Holmes would carry back a message that the people of this country were with them to the very last penny, the very last life and the very last of their property. They would live to see fTTose countries now dominated by Nazi tyranny reassert themselves and to see the triumph of democracy.

Air. Holmes said whatever differences there may be among the peoplo of Great Britain there was one thing on which they w'ere always united. That was that the country that gave them their freedom and liberty came first. Thera were many things the trade union movement disagreed with but the attempt to right them were being left to a more propitious occasion. Loss of property did not worry them much. Tho skilful fingers of the working class and the brains of technical experts could raise great towns and cities once more. “New factories are going up and not only will these soon be producing munitions of war, but I believe before this year is out we will bo masters of the air not only in the daytime but also at night.”

At the suggestion of the Prime Minis ter all stood im silence as a tribute to the British, Australian and New Zea land troops fighting in Greece and to the Greeks.