THE DEFENCE ACT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10736, 7 April 1913, Page 1

THE DEFENCE ACT.

THE RECENT COURT CASES. ADDRESSES BY MESSRS WEBB, SCOTT-BENNETT AND WHITING. The Passive Resistors' Union, which has held meetings at the Clock Tower on Saturday nights for some time, abandoned that site last Saturday night, and held a meeting in Victoria Square, where the recent Court eases and the Defence Act generally were discussed. There was a large attendance, and all the speakers received a good hearing. Mr J. Worrall presided. Mr H. Scott-Bennett said that he wished to congratulate, the Passive Registers' Union on the admirable fight it had put up against a most iniquitous Act. The German scare had died away, and now there was the scare of the Eastern hordes. If the Eastern hordes wanted, to take these lands they could do so if every man, woman and child was armed to the teeth. As a matter of fact, the Eastern hordes had plenty of other questions to occupy their attention. The microbe that brought about the gift of the Dreadnought was the same microbe that bit the Prime Minister when-.he introduced the Defence Act. It was the microbe of Imperialism, which had caused great bloodshed throughout the world's history.

Mr G. P. Whiting said that he had been always opposed to the compulsory clauses of the Defence Act. They were wrong in principle. He thought' that the Act should be amended, either before the next election or after it. The question was in the hands of the workers. He did not oppose the formation of a defence force, but he thought that it ought to be voluntary. The old Volunteer force deserved better treatment than it had received. _ln any case, if there.must be compulsion, let it apply to the —men, not to the boys." Ho wished to denounce the attempt to take scholarships from boys who committed breaches of the Defence Act. The educational system must be preserved more jealously, perhaps, than any other system that affected the people. He asked those present to support in every possible constitutional way the boys who were being prosecuted, Mr P. C. Webb said that the : working classes in nearly all parts of the civilised world were protecting against conscription. It was foolish of the people to expect anything from either the Massey Party or the Ward Party except what they were receiving now. He hoped that the people of Christchurch would "stand for free speech, which the Maasey Party was trying to suppress. The citizens should say that there must ho free sneech, even if every member of the Trades Council went to gaol.. He had no wish to go into "Mr Masaey's Boarding-house" in Lvttelton, but he would go there_ if he thought that it would be in the interests of a great principle. At the coming municipal elections the workers outfit to vote their 'own class into power. They should do the same thing at the next Parliamentary election, and vote the Massey Party out. They should vote as one great industrial party for their own interests. The United Labour Party "rareld remove anomalies in trades unionism and supplant -the present comic opera unionism bv a. better and more effective one. 'Mr F. R. Cooke moved—'[ That this meeting enters an emnhatic protest against the persecution of our boys who are fighting' the Conscription Act at the Clock Tower." Mr F. Burgoyne seconded the- motion. He paid that British communities boasted of freedom of speech, and he objected to any class bein<r selected for persecution in this city. That week had fieori one of the most iniquitous prostitutions of British law on record, in the prosecution of Mr C. L. Beary on a charge of being an idle and disorderly person. The chairman declared the motion carried unanimously. Mr E. J. Howard said that he had been fined, and, like others who were in the same circumstances, he wnild "take it cut" in Lvttol'ion. Wlvl© there he would inquire into the conditions, and would try to organise a strike. Messrs H. Denton and P. Williams also spoke.