Loyalty To Employers

Northern Advocate, 26 April 1948, Page 5

Loyalty To Employers

When Mr Engel asked Clapham his attitude as a Communist to social democracy, and to the Government now in power, both Clapham and Mr Hair raised further protests. Judge Dalglish: It is very difficult, but I must say if I were in the bon 1 would not be too happy to be asked about my political beliefs. < TcT Mr Engel, Judge Dalglish said: “Do you submit that all workers on Public Works should be supporters of the Labour Government?" Mr Engel: No, but I do say they should be loyal to the Government in power, just as public servants must be loyal to the Government of the day. Judge Dalglish: You have political loyalty and you have loyalty to your employer. Are you not confusing the two? Mr Hair said the matter had been well defined in a recent resolution of the national executive of the Public Service Association. Mr Hanson said that the resolution had strongly condemned Communism, but Mr Hair said it had championed political liberty while condemning subversion and illegal acts. * Judge Dalglish said he had noticed what he thought was a tendency to confuse political loyalty and loyalty of a servant towards his employer. It was the latter loyalty into which the tribunal was inquiring.

Mr Engel (to witness): Do you claim loyalty to your employer? Witness: I consider myself loyal to the New Zealand Workers’ Union. Mr Engel: You refuse to answer the question? Witness: That is for the court to decide. There is no question about it in the evidence that has been heard. Judge Dalglish: Mr Engel is asking you about your loyalty to the Government. Witness: I, with a lot of other Communists. have spent a lot of our spare time doing everything possible for the Labour Party. It is well known in the trade union and Labour movement that we have made every effort to put the Labour Party, into power. Mr Engel: That is what is known as united front tactics. I have asked a question of Clapham as to whether he is loyal to his present employer, and I have yet to get an answer. Witness: I will say yes. Mr Engel: In face, of the general tone of the Mangakino Spark in holding up a Minister and the Prime Minister to ridicule? Clapham: That is a separate activity. It has no relation to the job. “You may see it, but I can’t,” commented Mr Engel, who then referred to a statement in the Mangakino Spark that a change to Communism had been made without bloodshed in certain European, countries.