NATIONAL UNITY IN BRITAIN

Southland Times, Issue 24423, 1 May 1941, Page 6

NATIONAL UNITY IN BRITAIN

ALL CLASSES STAND TOGETHER WORKERS PROUD OF MR CHURCHILL (P.A.) WELLINGTON, April 30. The national unity in Great Britain at present was emphasized by Mr William Holmes, past president of the Trades Union Congress and general secretary of the National Union of Agricultural Workers in the United Kingdom, replying today to a welcome at a luncheon given by the Government.

“The working class movement stands with the Government. We do not ask what Government it is so long as it has been elected by the people in a democratic way,” said Mr Holmes. “Mr Churchill may not belong to the party to which we belong, but we are proud of him. He typifies the English outlook at present and he will see us through if he gets the proper backing.” The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, presided at the luncheon, which was attended by Ministers, members of the House of Representatives and Legislative Council, foreign consuls, trade commissioners and representatives of industrial labour and the trade union movement.

Mi- Frasei’ said that Trade Union Congress members were using every means in their power to help in the present struggle because they knew that if they lost the trade union movement would be the first of the democratic institutions to go by the board, just as it had been overthrown in every country where Nazism had dominated. The people of Great Britain had set an example New Zealanders were trying to emulate. Mi’ Holmes would carry back a message that the people of this country were with them to the very last penny, the very last life and the very last of their property. They would live to see those countries now dominated by Nazi tryranny reassert themselves and to see the triumph of democracy. Mr Holmes said that whatever differences there might be among the people of Great Britain there was one thing on which they were always united—that the country that gave them their freedom and liberty came first. There were many things the trade union movement disagreed with, but attempts to right them were being left to a more propitious occasion. Loss of property did not worry them much.: The skilful fingers of the working class and the brains of technical experts could raise great towns and cities once more. “New factories are going up and not only will these soon be producing munitions of war, but I believe before this year’ is out we will be masters of the air, not only in the daytime, but also at night,” he said. At the suggestion of the Prime Minister all stod in silence as a tribute to the British, Australian and New Zealand troops fighting in Greece and to the Greeks.