DISLOYAL AGITATORS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16434, 10 January 1917, Page 6

DISLOYAL AGITATORS.

LABOUR MEMBER'S WARNING. INTERESTS OF THE WORKERS. [BT TELEGRAPH.— ASSOdAIKKT.] WASGAXUL Tuesday. Week addressing the district ijxiota of the twenty-fifth reinforcements, Mr. W. A. Vetch, one of the Labour representatives in Parliament, left no unceitarnty as regards his feelings towards disloyal agi- ) tators bent on fomenting industrial trouble at the present time. He was, he said, as thorough a Radical as there was in this Dominion, bat while be was jealous of the interests of boua-fide workers, he realised that their first duty was to present a united front to the common enemy, and that this was no time to talk of a strike. The recent peace overtures made by Germany wens inspired by industrial unrest within the German * Empire. The firm and determined answer which the allies had given to the German ' offer signified the spirit of unity by which their peoples were actuated, and the maiai tenanee of that spirit among all dzssta of the community was essential to the " winning of that victory which in torn 1 was essential to the preservation of our 1 existence as free and democratic people. There were some men, he said, who professed to believe that they would be as well off under German rule a3 they were under the British flag. "If they believed that," he continued, "why don't '. they clear out to Germany, for they certainly have no right to remain here to ?njoy privileges which they profess to ' I scorn." As a representative of Labour ', he felt grave responsibility in this matter, " j and he felt it h ; s duty to raise his voice ' I in warning men against insidious efforts which were being made to fostter industrial trouble. In his opinion, those men who were lending themselves to a wicked and disloyal effort to stir up strife should ' be regarded as traitors and treated as ' such. 1 iasssss —'