DEFENCE OF LIBERTY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 71, 26 March 1940, Page 6

DEFENCE OF LIBERTY

N.Z. LABOUR’S WAR POLICY UNANIMOUS APPROVAL HOPED FOR (Per Press Association). WELLINGTON, March 25. Hope that unanimous approval would be given by delegates to the joint statement of Labour’s war policy, issued recently by the national executives of the Labour Party and Federation of Labour, was expressed by Mr. James Roberts in his presidential rc’dress to the Labour Party Annual Conference. Emphasising the consistent opposition to war of the Labour movement. Mr. Roberts said that while they subscribed to. the principles of international peace, they could not subscribe to a policy of power politics and aggression. For six months New Zealand had been involved in war. The statement of the New Zealand Federation of Labour on the outbreak of the war, supporting the Governments of New Zealand, Britain and France, had met with the approval of an overwhelming majority of members of the trade union movement and the Labour Party. “I mention these facts because there are some people in New Zealand who are opposed to war in any form, and are apparently willing to submit to dictatorship and aggression and, although the Labour movement is antiwar, I believe that the majority of working men and women in New Zealand, indeed the majority of trade unions, Socialists and Labour parties of the world, will never forego those principles that we have fought for for years,” said Mr. Roberts. “I admit that the war conditions are capable of causing great difficulties and differences within the Labour movement. We are face to face with this position, however, that democracy has been challenged and that our rights and liberties are in jeopardy. Speaking personally, I am of opinion that liberty and freedom are things worth fighting for. and that the right of the people to govern themselves is a privilege that we must maintain at whatever cost. If liberty and freedom are denied to the individual, if the right to organise and maintain our tree trade unions and free institutions is taken away, if our living standards are lowered, as they have been in the countries governed by dictatorships, then all Labour has fought for for years is lost.”