WELCOME TO MR. WEBB

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 306, 22 September 1919, Page 5

WELCOME TO MR. WEBB

: « HAS NOT CHANGED HIS -VIEWS. , / Mr. P. C. Webb, some time' a member of Parliament, then a conscientious objector to military service, and then an inmate of Kaingaroa prison as an offender under the Military Service Act, and now at liberty, was given a welcome by a crowded audience at the. l'aramounr Theatre last, night. The meeting had been arranged by the Labour Party as a compliment to Mr. Webb. The building wis crowded. Mt. H. Holland, M.P., presided. The following resolution (proposed by Mr. E, C'anham and seconded .'by Mrs. Beck) .was submitted to the. meeting: - "That tiiis meeting of Wellington citizens welcomes Mr. P. C. Webb and his fellow religious and Socialist conscientious objectors back to civil life,'expresses its of and admiration foi the brave and courageous stand they took in following the dictates of their reason and conscience again-st the tyranny of militarism in the face of popular prejudice and ignorance, and all the tortures of political and military spite and persecution to which they were subjected. This meeting condemns the 6avage and brutal treatment to which the New Zealand conscientious objectors were subjected both in this country and Europe; protests against the cowardly and vindictivo action of ait Obsolete, unrepresentative • .Parliament in depriving men who havo already served their sentences of their civil rights for ten yenrs; and pledges itself to work unceasingly tot the festoration ot these. full civil rights to all conscientious objectors, and demands that they be restored immediately." ' - Mr. Semplo spoke immediately before Mr. Webb was called upon, and lie spoke with rather more than his usual firo and energy. Ho bespoke with great vehemence a xvelconife for Mr. Webb, and Mr. Holland called on the audience to rise and give cheers for Mr. Webb. The audience stood and cheered. Mr. Webb, after expressing gratification for his welcome'back to "so-called civilisation," said that if he had his life to live over again he would do exactly as lie had done. He went on to speak about prisons and prison life, and his condemnation of the- "brotalising system was'sweeping. He m<ide one or two serious accusations against the administration of Kaingaroa Prison. He said that men had to work hard there for ten hours a day on insufficient food, and hud to live in the severest climate with old worn-out bedding.no fires, and under harsh restrictions. His picture of the life made it appear that the conscientious objectors must have had an unpleasant sojourn there. His accusation against the administration .was that an attempt was made to deceive the visiting Magistrate. Ho declared thru prisoners were compelled to ,do dishonest thin»s in gaol, and he' instanced the stealing of ch aft' for the prison from another Department as one of these things. He expressed his extreme discrust ltli "Mr. Thomas M. Wilforcl," Minister of Justice at the time that ho was in prison, because that, gentleman had disregarded some of his .aPP™ 1 * I'V" quirios. At the end of it all, Mr. U ebb said ho had met better men at Kaingaroa than he had met in Parliament. (T,oud applause.) Last oi nil lie spoke of his own ca«e. He said i'p ; had been accused of being a Shirker and had been denied the name of patriot." "If being a patriot means to stand vfor what Mr. Missey and >-ir Joseph Ward stand for," ho said, I hope never to be a patriot." He accused the National Government of having introduced conscription without a_ mandate from tho people and sr. claimed the ri»ht to disregard tho laws of that Government. He mado a general appeal to tho returned soldiers to support Labour ait the coming elections. He said that he had always thought that the best, end to tho war would havo been a draw, which would have demonstrated, to the Powers of tho worltl the absurdity of resorting to arras. He had told Sir James Allen that ho would resign hw scat in Parliament, join the Tunnelling Corps as ji private, and work in . that corps to entrench Paris and Franco to make the result a draw. Sir James Allen saul there would be no need to resign, cut soon conscription came, and then there was such a rush for the Tunnelling Corps that lie was not needed. He would not "O whon conscription was the law. Had ho known then what ho knew now about tho war nothing would have got lnui to .offer to go into it, in the Tunnelling Corps or any other corps. He had been told that this war was fought on bolialf of the small nations, but ho know now that this was'a lie. He mentioned the case of Ireland, and said the Irish were a small nation oppressed. He declared in conclusion thus he would like to meet Mr. Massey, Sir Janie.f..Allen, Sir Joseph Ward and the rest on tiie platform in Wellington, not before wateisulo workers and miners, hut before the returned soldiers of Now Zealand. (Applause.) The resolution was put to tlio audience as people -were moving to tho doors. It -was carried unanimously on a dhow of hands, and cheers were given for Mr. Webb.