MINISTER’S ATTACK

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22245, 14 January 1944, Page 4

MINISTER’S ATTACK

THREAT TO STABILISATION (By Telegraph.—rress Assocreilon) WELLINGTON, Friday “The Government is not going to be intimidated by threats of this kind, with demands for an increase in wages in the one hand and a pistol in the other,” said the Minister of Railways, the Hon. R. Semple, when asked if he had any comment to make on the decision of the Petone drivers. “There is too much of it,” he added. Mr Semple said that when the bus drivers threatened some Weeks ago to stop work unless their demands were met he told them the double time they wanted could not be conceded. The whole wage system today was governed by the Stabilisation Order. Bus drivers had to adhere to the terms of that order, just the same as every other wage-earner. “If a group of individuals is able to violate the order and obtain concessions as a result of a threat to strike, then stabilisation will collapse,” said the Minister. “That would be to the disadvantage of every worker in the country. If we don’t hold wages, we can’t hold the prices of commodities, for the two go hand-in-hand. If stabilisation were abandoned and costs and prices allowed to soar, the greatest sufferers would be the wage-earners themselves.” Mr Semple said conceding the demands of the bus drivers was out of the question under the present circumstances. ' The boys who are fighting in Italy up to their waists in mud are not demanding double pay for Sunday,” he said. “Demands of this character from men living in affluence and safety do not. appeal to me. If it is these men's wish to declare industrial war on the fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters of our soldiers overseas and refuse to carry them on the highways of this country, then I propose to allow ♦he.crime they wish to commit to fester in their own conscience, if they possess one.”