UNIONISTS ATTACK UNIONISTS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1398, 26 March 1912, Page 2

UNIONISTS ATTACK UNIONISTS.

A SYSTEM OF PERSECUTION. PKItSONAL LIHEKTY THREATENED. How litlle regard would be paid to personal liberty should tho more extreme section of Socialists ever gain control over the destinies of New Zealand is well indicated by what has recently occurred at Nelson, Lancashire, where the Roman Catholic Unionists were recently subjected to cruel persecution, by members of other trades unions. it .seems that on attempt was made by means of mob law and intimidation to compel tho lioumii Catholic weavers to withdraw from their own workers' federal ion. Tho Itoman Catholics, however, had the courage of their convictions, and according to latest information, they seem In have at least gained a pnrfinl victory. At a mass meeting of Kflnian Catholics Father Connor said they were nuit in tho interests of their freedom as British subjects to do and think us they liked inside the law. All of them knew of the awful things that hail boon happening in the town. They had seen mob rule on more than one occasion, and they had seen also all the elements of what in the long run might prove rebellion, unless prevented by tho officers of the Crown. . All honour, lie said, to those young ladies, Miss Frances Thoriihill, Mrs. Henry, Mrs. Hai'dimm, and one or two others who wero bearing the brunt of the battle. They wero there that night to protest against nil the acts of intimidation that had been carried on, nnd organised, ns he could prove, by the Nelson and District Weavers' Association, to deprive other individuals of tho rights and liberties which they themselves oxercisod. For what wero they fighting? They had no nxo to grind. They stood on the grand principles of tho Catholic Church, and refused to have any part or parcel wicn anybody who would promote Secularism or Socialism in any organised body. The limo for compromise had gone past. Tlio following resolution was enthusiastically carried: —

"That this meeting of Catholics of Nelson and Hariwford emphatically condemn the action of the Nelson and District. Weavers' Association for their dastardly nnd illegal persecution of defenceless women and girls—members of tho Nelson and District Catholic Workers' Federation, which is a pure trade union, duly recognised as such by the Board of Trade. We charge them* with deliberately violating the truce arrived' nt between tlio employers and themselves; we lay at their door all the acts of intimidation, boycotting, and injury to health suffered by Catholics, nnd hold them responsible for any other damage lhat may happen to life cr property. Wo call upon all law-abiding citizens of Nelson and district to support us in our lawful claim ns British subjects, and beg them to stir the public conscience to (he alarming fact Unit tho Nelson and District Weavers' Association do iiot scruple to organise mobs to despoil others who do not agree with them of their just rights, granted under the British constitution."

Father Smith, who strongly supported the Roman Catholic Unionists, issued a manifesto, in vhich he states that personal liberty is being absolutely destroyed by "this dragon of Socialism, which will not allow them the right to exirt." "Now or never seems to be the time when the British subject, irrespective of creed or politics, should form one common comtmialion against the dragon of Socialism." The above-mentioned trouble at Nelson, Lancashire, gives additional significance to Archbishop licdwuod's recent pastoral on tho Church and Socinlism.