FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Taranaki Daily News, 4 August 1934, Page 9

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

PROTEST MEETING HELD. UNIVERSITY LECTURER SPEAKS. Protests against the imprisonment of men who took part in the “Free Speech” demonstration at the corner of Pitt and Beresford Streets on July 20 were voiced at a meeting in the Empress Theatre at Auckland on Sunday night, when a member of the staff of Auckland University College, Mr. H. D. Dickinson, lecturer in economics, allied himself with Communist speakers. The meeting was organised by the Labour Defence League, and Mr. J. Sergeant presided over a large attendance. Several detectives and constables were present. Mr. Dickinson was the first of three speakers. He said he wished to forestall any criticism that might be advanced on the grounds that, as he was not a New Zealander, he was not entitled to speak on a peculiarly New Zealand issue. Against this he would say that the matter of freedom of speech was something not of national but of worldwide importance. “1 am coming forward to-night on the side of law and order,” Mr. Dickinson said. “Those who seek to deny or to restrict unreasonably the right of free speech are on the side of disorder; they are fomenting rebellion. By trying to stop agitation which is carried on openly and lawfully, they are driving it underground.” The right to hold open-air meetings for propaganda purposes, continued Mr. Dickinson, was an essential part of the right of free speech as conceded in British communities. A group with wealthy backers could distribute its propaganda in a variety of forms, but the working class organisations, owing to lack of funds, could not carry out their propaganda without open-air meetings, ffhe relegation of public meetings to hole-and-corner places was in effect a denial of the right of free speech. “The only weapon the workers have got is that of their own voluntary activities,” Mr. Dickinson said. “The forces of law and order—so called —who try to deprive them of their rights are guilty of a cowardly as well as of a tyrannical act.

“To-night, at the comer of Queen Street and Victoria Street, I saw. an open-air meeting in progress. A policeman was standing by, so I assumed that those holding the meeting had a permit. A man was preaching Christ Crucified, but if I had got up at the next, comer and preached the Working Class Crucified, I would soon have been hauled off by the officer of the law in attendance.” Under recent legislation, Mr. Dickinson continued, any form of criticism of the New Zealand Government by a civil servant and any advocacy of a fundamental change in the constitution might be held to be seditious. That law had put men all over the Dominion, who held views opposed to those of the party in power, in terror for their positions. The proposed amendment to the Police Officers Act, If passed, would render impossible any discussion of political developments.

“Freedom of speech is the only guarantee for the peaceful solution of the social problems which confront. the people of this country,” Mr. Dickinson said. “Conditions are not improved by passing Bills to prevent people from speaking or agitating against conditions which need improvement. Only ceaseless vigilance and action will preserve the rights of the people unimpaired.” The speakers who followed Mr. Dickinson were Mr. G. Green and Mr. J. H. Edwards, the Communist. Both dealt more in detail with the sentences passed by Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., on the four men who were convicted on Friday as a result of participation in the previous week’s street meeting.