PITFALL OF "DIRECT ACTION."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17263, 12 September 1919, Page 8

PITFALL OF "DIRECT ACTION."

DEFINITION BY HON. J. T. PAUL.

A definition of " direct action" was given by the Hon. J. T. Paul in the course of the Address-in-Reply debate in the Legislative Council. Mr. Paul referred to

the tendency towards " direct action " as opposed to constitutional methods in the settlement of certain questions. This led Sir Francis Bell to ask exactly what Mr. Paul meant by " direct action." Mr. Paul : Concerted action by a minority of people' for the purpose of setting aside or influencing by any means the decisions of Government. In the Old Country at the present time a minority of the people is threatening to strike against certain decisions of the Government, and I say that if that is successful there seems to me to be no hallway between that and revolution that it must necessarily mean an appeal to arms. Then if Labour gets into power and becomes the Government it is quite as reasonable and justifiable for sojie other sections who hold power to-day to strike against the wishes or decrees of the Labour Government. So that ray opinion is that you can never make real and tangible progress alone those lines if you want solid and immediate progress. I believe that is best gamed by taking the constitutional road.