BARNES ON SEMPLE

Chronicle (Levin), 14 June 1947, Page 5

BARNES ON SEMPLE

,-Press Assoeiation

Bv Telegravh

AoCJvLANJIs June 13. The comment Mf. Se'ihple was reported to liaye nlade about the waterside workers when . he addressed the j.nnua! conierence of' the Eabour Partv vv'as replied to this morning by the national president of the Waterside Workers' Union (Mr. H, Barnes). He referred to Mr Bemple^s "abuse" adding' that ' ' he has hud to apo'logise .0 every body froip Joe Stalin to Fresi dent Truman, pot forgettmg the former ueniiaii Consul (Herr Ranim). ' ' Nobody takes Mr. Sempie too seri uusiy, but, at the same time, 1 beiieve tlie M inister of Works made statements at the Labour Party' conicreiice whieh \vere a grave reftection on the union. and cannot go unchallenged. Wnat Price Dfgiuty? Mr. Barnes, in a telepliune interview from his home 111 Auckland, said he had ueeu informed on Tuesday that Mr Sempie had made an attack on his •iiiion. "I was told he had said that the vyate.rsidci's were afraid of Mr. Massey in .1913, aixd crawled back to work, and also that he had not oxiiy said that we nad cracled, but Ixixxed me with the reeent Wanguuella dispute, with wlxich 1 had nothing to do. i was told thal he had referred to '.Mister Barnes and his ratbags'." , - Mr. B'u nes said he had xnnnediately U'legrapiic-d 't.o Mr. Keiupte asking him if iie was prepared to repeat his ro niarks before tlie ranks of the water siders. He had received ap iuvitatioxj, to attextd the conferei\ee pt 1,15 p.in; on Wednesday, but wlien he had applied for a seat 011 the aeroplane to Wellington he was told there was none, avaitable. Ile had tlxei. telegraphed expressiug regret that'he could not attend the conference, and had again invited Mr. Snuiple to repeat his remarks before the oaierside \A orkers ' Uixion. Mr. Barnes sa.id that tj.ie exeeutive o> the Auckland brancli had sent a protesx against ilr." Sempie 's statenxents, and a similar protest was sent from the usual monthly .s.topwoik meeting yester day morning. The stopworXx meeting uad rcserved the right.' to take wlxat aetion it considered desirable if Mr. Semjxle did not withdraw. :>lr. Sempie has made his career ou, of abusing people, b.ut he 's made a bad ,job of it, ".said Mr. Barnes. In replv to a cpxestion Mr. Barnes said it was true that the question of disatiiliarion with the Labour Party hau been raised at th-e Auckland stopworK meeting ^yesterday, but was lxeid iu abeyauce pending a report from the union 's delegates to the Labour Conference. - " *