COMMUNISTS BLAMED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26703, 24 February 1948, Page 6

COMMUNISTS BLAMED

Instigation of Carpenters’ Go-slow Policy STATEMENT BY MR FRASER The Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, replied last night in a statement to the Daily Times, to criticism of the Government in connection with the go-slow policy instituted in the North by the Carpenters and Joiners Union. The Government had been attacked, as reported yesterday, by the Auckland Master Builders’ Association, which stated that it had advised members to submit the carpenters’ demand for an increase in wages as their position had been made untenable “by lack of practical and effective Government action.”

The Prime Minister and the Government were also strongly attacked by Mr F. L. Langley, president of the Carpenters’ Union, for being “ blind to the real situation of the workers.”

“Silent contempt is the only treatment for the perfectly miserable tone of the Auckland Master Builders’ statement which appeared in to-day’s newspapers announcing their capitulation to the Communist-inspired, Com-munist-directed ‘go-slow’ policy.” Mr Fraser said. “ Hoping to excuse if not to cover their retreat—hoping no doubt also to pass on to the public the extra amount delivered up by them—they in true weakling fashion endeavour to blame the Government for their own collapse of morale. “Mr Langley also blames the Government. According to a message I have had from one of the delegates principally concerned in the debate in the council of the Federation of Labour, no such resolution as outlined by Mr Langley was passed. Mr Langley has apparently mixed up remarks uttered with the terms of the resolution which, I am informed, asked for a clarification of the stabilisation regulations. ' “ If, however, the resolution had been passed in the terms mentiqned by Mr Langley it would be simply untrue. I would be pleased if Mr Langley would endeavour to establish his claim of the futility of all remuneration increases for the mass of the people since the present Government came into office by any set of accurate figures, by any price index, or by any stretch of his imagination. “Mr Langley’s conception of democracy and of the importance of democratic law is as unrecognisably twisted as to mean that he and his organisation will obey the law when it suits them and break it when it does not suit them. There is no basis of understanding in such an attitude. “Mr Langley pretends to make light of my statement about the carpenters being used as pawns in a bigger game,” Mr Fraser continued. "Can Mr Langley deny that Messrs Stanley, Martin, Jamieson, Ikin and others I can mention are prominent Communists and pledged to further the principles of Communism, including dictatorship by the Communists—euphemistically called for the purpose of propaganda the proletariat —by all means in their power, including the stirring up of strife inside New Zealand on any sort of pretext and on every propitious occasion? If he will deny this fact, then he will do more than any of these gentlemen themselves would care to do.

“For enlightenment I recommend him to study the Auckland Carpenters’ Union Record and see where the goslow policy is claimed to be a weapon against the “ Imperialism ” of those British statesmen who refuse to be dominated by Russia. “ I would like to thank Mr Grant, secretary of the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council, to whose statement I have no time at present to give more attention, for so completely refuting Mr Langley in regard to his theory of increasing misery,” Mr Fraser said. “In conclusion, I have to reiterate that I do not believe, that the attitude of antagonism to the Government’s enforcement of the law, as apparently adopted by the council of the Federation of Labour, represents the view of the federation as a whole and certainly not that of the vast majority of trade unionists.”