WARNING GIVEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23574, 7 February 1940, Page 10

WARNING GIVEN

PACIFIST ELEMENTS AN OUTSPOKEN MAYOR HINDERING WAR EFFORT ,NO MEETING FACILITIES [nr ti: leg it Aim —ph ess association*-! WELLINGTON, Tuesday The activities of a certain group of people in New Zealand who, lie declared, were carrying on subversive propaganda under tlie guise of so-called pacifist meetings, were castigated by the Mayor of Wellington, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, speaking in the Town Hall today at the first of a new series of recruiting rallies. The Mayor said he would do all in his power to prevent these people conducting public meetings in Wellington, and added that during the. depression some of the people who were active to-day in the group he referred to had spread propaganda as the direct emissaries of Soviet Russia. Closing of Town Hall "Efforts are being made to-day in certain quarters to hinder the national effort," Mr. Hislop said. "I have seen them in actual reality, and I know what their real object is. Only a few weeks ago I closed this Town Hall, as I will close it again, if an effort is made to use it on behalf of the body of people who want to advocate that New Zealand should drop out of this war, that she should desert her comrades in arms and blood." (Applause.) Those people pretended they were going to discuss only the principles of peace, the Mayor continued. When it became known that I had refused to permit the hall to be made available, I was telephoned by one of the body I have referred to, who expressed surprise at my action. I told him the best thing for him to do was get into the front line and not shelter behind bodies of people better than himself. Reference to Clergymen "There are in. this group to which I have referred several reverend gentlemen who, I prefer to think, are gravely deluded," stated Mr. Hislop. "I say to them what do they think should be done about the killing and torturing of men, women and children in Poland by the Germans, who these socalled supporters of pacifism in this country are doing their best to help? "I believe they talk of holding a meeting on that piece of corporation land by the" Royal Oak Hotel on Friday night. lam going to do my best to see that the meeting is not held. I do not mind what they do in other parts of New Zealand, but if they want a fight in Wellington they can have it. (Prolonged applause.) . "Here we are in New Zealand five months after the outbreak of war, unable to make up the full strengths of the first few units of troops for service overseas."

The Mayor compared the recruiting for the present war with the experience for the first two years of the Great War, when it was not a case of calling for men, but of making a selection from those young men who were eager to serve their country.