Conscription And German Methods

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 187, 4 May 1940, Page 13

Conscription And German Methods

Sir, —A short time ago the Waterside Workers’ Union passed a resolution condemning conscription. Now, if there is. a body of men in New Zealand who should dread New Zealand falling into the hands of Germany it is the wharf labourers. We can imagine New Zealand in full charge of the Germans. The first thing they would do would be to take over alUthe exportable produce, and . they would naturally want quick dis-, patch for their ships. A meeting of , the wharf labourers would be ordered and the boss German would tell them . what their position was to be for the future. He would begin by telling them that half their number would have to go because they reckoned that half their number when organized and .. speeded up by German taskmasters could do all the work required. There-, fore all the fat men and those over’ 55 years of age would go off immediately. Next, he would say, now we understand that the speed of the men using barrows has been three-quarters of a mile per hour, but for the future it will be three miles per hour. Thon the German taskmaster would explain the mode of punishment as follows:—“Our men in charge of the work will be armed with rifles and fixed bayonets. These bayonets are fitted with a movable guard near the. point; this guard can be fixed to allow the point to penetrate three-quarters of . an inch. This is known as a prick. .< Tlie guard cam be moved and fixed in a second position to allow penetration of an inch and a half. This is known as a -prod. We are informed that it takes two men to up-end a bale of wool. This practice must stop and any man unnecessarily helping a mate to do job will receive a prick. We are also informed tliat strained backs are veryprevalent among you. lint I am pleased to be able to inform you that wo have a certain cure for this complaint. Any . man suffering from this unpleasant ill; ' will have the privilege of bringing his own doctor to indicate the centre point . of the injury arnd the cure will be a prod on the siwt pointed out and three pricks at intervals on tbe outer edge, to act as counter-irritants. 1 may mention that wc found this treatment very . efficacious when applied to Hie Poles and Czechoslovakians. Another mat- . ter I wish to mention is in connexion with what are known as ‘stop-work meetings’. These are abolished, and anyone even using Hie words ‘stop work’ will be severely dealt with. Now. as to loads on barrows, it seems that. according to your own rules three bags of sugar constitutes a load. For tlie future, 12 bags will lie the quota ; two bales of wool will be a load and all other goods in tlie same proportion. That fixes a barrow load at between 200 and 9001 b. From now on, your wages will bel/- an hour and the hours worked a day will be 10 without any smokos. The rate of loading wool a gang is fixed at 130. bales an hour, and all other cargo to be arranged on the same basis. We notice that you all walk badly, some with a slouch and . . others roll, so you will all attend drill ■ every Sunday morning at 10 o’clock till; *■ noon, and we will teach you to walk, like soldiers, also how to click your ?’ heels and salute in proper style when- ' ever you meet anyone wearing a German uniform.”

Those are the sort of instructions likely to be given if German control of the waterfront labour should ever prevail here. It should be worth while watersiders giving this a thought when they and others oppose conscription, which is tlie only way of defeating tlie German Nazi menace.—l am. etc.. ADOfF SCHWEINHUND. Wellington, Alay 3.