PROTESTANTS AND POLITICS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 208, 28 May 1919, Page 8

PROTESTANTS AND POLITICS

REASONS FOR ORGANISING MEETING IN THE TOWH HALL A meeting under the auspices of (ho Protestant Political Association was held in the Concert Chamber last night. Tho Rev. G. Knowles Smith presided. The chairman said it was n?t at all the purpose of the association to destroy the liberties of the Catholic Church. But, he said, the association had been compelled to organise by the activities of the Catholic Federation. He insisted upon the right of Protestants to organise and to take such measures as might be necessary to bring their views as forcibly as possible under the notice of the Legislature. The association had been accused of personalities. The association had perhaps made one or two mistakes, but the Catholic Press had reported to mora personalities. Above all, ho exhorted Protestants to see that they were represented in Parliament by Protestant members..

"Wobbly" Protestants. >,' Mr. G. Harford, Mayor of Feildingl.was the first speaker of the evening. He said that for the past thirty years ho had been actively interested in the spiritual side of Protestantism, but until recently he : had taken but little interest in the political side, His interest, in the P.P.A. dated from the holding ,of tho famous meeting in Feilding, at which the H«v. Howard Elliott, spoke. He said that his remarks would be addressed ' mostly to l business. men. Much was said about "wobbly" Protestants iu Parliament, but to find a really "wobbly" Protestant one must search among tlie business, men,. It. was very hard to get a Protestant business man to take an active.part in the work of the P.P.A. There was never any such weakness among Catholic business people.. From his own experience and from hif/ knowledge of the experience of other , men, he knew that nothing was lost by men openly avowing their religion. He spoke very strongly in denunciation of tho "No Temere" Decree. The Protestants must imitate the Catholics in at least ono thing—they must stick together. If the Protestants did this they would make pwttj-neariy a clean sweep of the politicians at present in Parliament. (Applause.)

Power of the P.P.A. The Rev. Howard Elliott, national leo , tuier and organiser for the P.P.A,, said that the association had teen called into being by an urgent need—the need for awakening the slumbering forces of Protestantism in this land—and that need was still as pressing as it was two years / ago. The National Government continued to treat the Protestants an dirt, paying no heed to many resolutions of protest against the actions of the Government offensive to Protestants. The P.P.A. had been of rapid growth,.and now it could with certainty claim to havo the support of 200,000 votors in this Dominion. In the recent loeal elections there was no place in which the P.P.A. was organised in which its influenco was not. felt, and he knew of no place in which a. P.P.A. ticket had been put up where that ticket had not been elected. Mr. Elliott accused Sir .Tames Allen of having made a bargain with Archbishop Redwood to exempt Catholic priest?, Mnnst Brothers', and Catholic divinity students, end he declared that this bargain would always staid as a dissraee to the Government of this dav. This would never be forgotten by the Protestants of New Zealand. He ventured to say that, not a member of the P.P.A. had a relative whose name appeared on the defaulters list.' Ho had searched the list for the name of a Marist Brother who had fmlul to ro into camp when so ordered. "Was Ire being deprived flf civil rights for ten years? ', If not, why were other men .'being .deprived of civil rights? Up accused Sir .Tames Allen and Jin MncDoimld of having truckled to the coalminers on the question of eonscrip.tion. , The Military Service Act -should have gone farther, and caught the men ' who took : refugo in the - coal- mine?. "Why are not' you getting enough /caal to-day?" he asked. "If is because the fellows who filled up the coal mines while the war was on are now out lbutchering again. There were men who left their businesses' ns tailors and butchers, left' 1 their farms, and went digging coal, but who. directly the armistice was signed, went back to their farms, back to their tailoring and butchering again.' He accused the Government of tyranny in regard to-the suppression of Protestant literature. And, ho said, tyranny hurt just-as much when if was perpetrated by an "aristocratic Peformcr" as when it was done by "a*low-down Bolshevik." He made very strong attacks upon the Hon. A. M. Myers and Sir Vrancis Bell, and most especially ho attacked Sir James Allen. Last of „all, Mr. Elliott talked about politics—the menace of the forces of I.W.W-isin, Bolshevism. Sinn i'cinisni, and of Rome. The P.l'.A. was preparing a political platform on which all Protestants could unite to oppose these forces. T1- association did not propose to form a special party, but would support men it could trust. The aim of the association would . bo to get a new set of men into Parliament, and : to sco that the old parties did, not capture Parliament again as a : playground, and a hunting ground for •money, and place, and power. He appealed to Protestants to support the fighting fund being established by. the P.P.A. During the evening a clarinet solo was played by Colonel Mackintosh. ■ At the .conclusion of the meeting a vote of thanks was accorded to the speakers, the poli.:e. the Press, and to Colonel Mackintosh and his accompanist.