A CONTRADICTION

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8612, 24 December 1913, Page 6

A CONTRADICTION

FOUR WOMEN AND THE STRIKERS. At a, meeting of the executive of the Central Strike Committee held yesterday, two ladies appeared to. ask the committee to issue a contradiction of a statement made by Air Richards at Newtown Park on Sunday. Mr Richards was reported in a contemporary to have asked who it was sent four women up to a meeting in the Skating Rink on Friday afternoon, who called "Afr Young and blackleg, and who tried to obtain entrance to the Skating Rink while the meeting was in progress. Tho ladies stated that they were working up the Christmas tree scheme under the rule of tho executive, and that they wore present at tho end of the meeting on tho invitation of Mr Young himself, to find out the names and the number of tho children concerned. They emphatically denied having mado uso of tho expressions published. Mr D. Donovan, president of the Seamen’s Union, asked what authority Mr Richards had for making such a statement. Mr Richards was only on the strike and was not member of the executive, and held no official position on tho executive. Any statement ho mado was quite unofficial. Tho ladies had not been sent along, and entered the hall at the conclusion of tho meeting, in fact after ho himself had left it. Mr A. A. Agnew, (chairman), on behalf of the Central Strike Committee, said that right through tho strike they had had every confidence in the executive of the Federation of Labour, and had been in close touch with the federation executive since the inception of tho central committee. At all times tho information that tho central committee had asked for had been given if available.