“REMOVE CAUSE OF DISCONTENT."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19237, 26 November 1930, Page 5

“REMOVE CAUSE OF DISCONTENT."

MR LAWN TELLS HOW TO ARREST COMMUNISM. “ Owing to the absurd censorship in New Zealand, some literature on the subject is not allowed into the country, but I don’t think the * Pan-Pacific Worker* is barred,” said Mr Lawn, presiding at a meeting last evening of the local group committee of the Institute of Pan-Pacific Relations. The remark was in reply to a member who asked whether certain books and papers quoted from could be procured locally. The meeting was held in the Economics Building of Canterbury College, and was called to consider whether it was advisable to study the question of Communistic influence in the countries bordering the Pacific. Influence of Soviet. Mrs T. E. Taylor quoted from a number of publications regarding the propaganda carried on by the Communists, but explained that it was very difficult, almost impossible, to get data, as the work was necessarily secret. She quoted freely from the “ Pan-Pacific Worker,” published in Sydney. Moscow and Vladivostok, which is the organ of the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat. She showed that the influence of the Soviet was felt in China, Japan, India, Australia and various other countries, and said that apparently wherever there was cause for discontent the Soviet agents got to work with their propaganda. The only reference to New Zealand she had been able to find spoke of the militant traditions of the railway men, and suggested that the best channel to get at the workers would be through the railway workshops. Mr Lawn said he thought that the United Miners were the only body in New Zealand affiliated with the Secretariat. At least, he believed they were at one time, if not now. Mrs Taylor said that apparently the idea was to carry out propaganda secretly wherever there was cause for discontent. She had, however, had it from a certain source that the publications of the Secretariat were to be taken with a grain of salt. After further discussion, the Group Committee agreed that, though the difficulty of getting at the real meaning of Communism and its effects on the nations bordering the Pacific was most difficult, it was well worth study, and a sub-committee was appointed to draft the available information and put it in concrete form, the report to be presented at the next meeting.