RETURNED SOLDIERS MUST JOIN UNIONS.
BITTER SPEECHES FOLLOW GOVERNMENT’S ACTION.
(United Press Assn.—By Electrlo Telegraph—Copyright.) CANBERRA, May 2. There were impassioned speeches in the House of Representatives upon a motion for adjournment, moved by Colonel Cameron, to protest against the abolition of preference in employment to returned soldiers. lie said that at least 85 000 returned men would be affected, and insisted that the Government was bound to stand by the returned men. It was nothing short of a scandal to make them play second fiddle to ordinary unionists who played no part in the war. The Prime Minister (Mr J. H. Scullin) denied that the Government had abolished preference to soldiers. The policy of the Government was preference to unionists, and no returned soldier could be denied preference if he joined a union. Unionism had made arbitration possible. Arbitration was the policy of the country and preference to unionists was the policy of the Government. lie understood £hat 80 per cent of the returned men were unionists. Without unionism it would have been “ God help the returned soldier.” The people who shouted most for them had exploited and robbed them. An uproar followed, after which Mr W. M. Hughes, defending the returned , soldiers, said the Government had done a wrong and very foolish thing. The motion was talked out. In the Senate a motion for adjournment was moved by Senator Sir WilI liam Glasgow, who warned the Government that the returned soldiers had a very powerful organisation, which would deal with it in the same way as they had dealt with the enemy, if justice was not done to the returned men in the matter of preference. Senator Daly, leader of the Government, declared that the Ministry hat:! as much consideration for the returned soldiers as the Opposition. The debate, which was extremely bitter, like that in the House of Representatives, ended with the withdrawal of Senator Sir William Glasgow’s motion.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS19300503.2.20
Bibliographic details
Star (Christchurch), Issue 19060, 3 May 1930, Page 1
Word Count
322RETURNED SOLDIERS MUST JOIN UNIONS. Star (Christchurch), Issue 19060, 3 May 1930, Page 1
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