CONSTITUTION UPHELD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17956, 7 December 1932, Page 3

CONSTITUTION UPHELD

RELIEF WORKER’S SPEECH

! KEBUFF FOB EXTREMISTS I Some excellent advice was given oil > Sunday to the audience at , a meeting in I Victoria Park, Auckland, addressed by ! representatives ot the • unemployed, when one speaker propounded views differing j very widely from those expressed from i the platform by other persons. ; i The meeting was for the purpose ot promoting unity among workers, and, as Mr. i F. E. Lark, president of the Aurki land Unemployed Workers’ Association,' stated, to provide >an opportunity for i workers to express their opinions, j The surprise of the meeting did nob »come until several speakers had dealt with politics and the rights of workers to operate industry. When the next speaker took The platform, he advocated need for caution by the unemployed during the present situation, and said' that some of the. young men had advocated sheer violence. This was inadvisable, he said, although there was need for unity. The workers, when ■organised should play their part in the restoration of good conditions in the world, but should not be “led over a precipice” by those with more extreme views. •Several members of the audience ’commenced to interrupt the speaker when he expressed the opinion that ■ existing methods of administration could survive : the economic depression. There were 1 several cries of "What about tho st’arv--1 iff.gl” when the man .went on to say ■ that the lot of the worker in Now Zotii land was satisfactory. Continuing, the speaker declared that Britain’s form of Government was a model of democracy., bis 'remarks ( con- * trusting sharply with praise of Soviet Russia expressed by others at the meeting. He asked what more 'could he wanted for tho expression of political opinion than equality for everyone in voting. ’ Britain had survived many trials and would come successfully through the present period of distress. i’'Old England, is not done, and we I should know that,” he. contended; ! By way of explanation, one of the » organisers ol' the meeting said the man who had just spoken was an accredited member of an unemployed association, lie issued a mild rebuke to those who had seen fit to interrupt ths speech, and • said every man was entitled to express his opinion. This announcement was greeted by applause from most of the , listeners.