CHECKING INTIMIDATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1931, Page 6

CHECKING INTIMIDATION.

The sequel to the recent scuffle at the gates of the Parliamentary buildings in Wellington will meet with general approval. One ringleader has been sent to prison and the other released upon good behaviour. It was not the first attempt at intimidation by the socalled loaders of the unemployed, and in this case, as in others, the police authorities acted with promptitude and decision. It is just as well that advocates of “direct action” should know that this country will not tolerate lawlessness. Sympathy for the unemployed is genuine throughout the Dominion, and there is no country where more strenuous efforts are being made by the Government and local authoilties to handle the difficulties of unemployment on a large scale. Demonstrations such as the one at Parliament blouse leave an uncomfortable feeling that certain of the unemployed are determined to obtain sustenance from the State whether they work for it or not. The introduction of dole payments would be a disaster for New Zealand, but its introduction as the result of intimidation by those demanding it would mean the breakdown of constitutional democratic government. It may seem to those who honestly desire employment that the remedy for their plight is a long time being found. To add lawlessness to their difficulties, however, Will but ipake a bad position worse, with serious consequences to those who are foolish enough to come into conflict willi the law.